***************************************************************** 02/08/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.32 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: Bush under fire over WMD enquiry 2 Not everyone got it wrong on Iraq's weapons 3 US: Las Vegas SUN: Bush Defends War in Rare TV Interview 4 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Iraq Intelligence Panel Criticized 5 The Guardian: Nuclear sale inquiry urged* 6 MOJO: The Lie Factory 7 US: ITV Blix: case for war was overstated 8 independent.co.uk: The 45-minute case collapses (Part 1) 9 US: washington post: President Revises Rationale For War * 10 Las Vegas SUN: Cheney Maintains Iraq War Was Justified 11 Reuters: Annan, Powell differ on impact of U.S. data on Iraq 12 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Says Saddam Had Capacity for Nukes 13 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Says Saddam Had Capacity for Nukes 14 New York Times: PAKISTAN MIRRORS IRAQ 15 Las Vegas SUN: Australia Doesn't Plan Weapons Inquiry 16 US: Guardian: Bush names panel in Iraq inquiry* 17 Guardian: Rumsfeld Defends U.S. Invasion of Iraq 18 US: wb11: Bush Says Saddam Had Nuke Capacity 19 WAR.WIRE: Iran denies receiving nuclear secrets from Pakistani nucle 20 Daily Star: Iranians don?t want nuclear weapons whatever the officia 21 Daily Times: Iran denies receiving nuclear information from Dr Qadee 22 Gulf News: US claims new proof of Iran's secret atomic bomb project 23 WAR.WIRE: Iran denies receiving nuclear secrets from Pakistani 24 Daily Star Opinion: Iranians don?t want nuclear weapons whatever the 25 Las Vegas SUN: U.S., China Disagree on N. Korea Weapons 26 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL]Inter-Korean generals talks * 27 Yomiuri Shimbun: N. Korea faces call to disclose uranium-based weapo 28 Las Vegas SUN Defector: N. Korea Has Uranium Program 29 Las Vegas SUN Defector: N. Korea Has Uranium Program 30 US: Halliburton: FG to Probe $180m Kick Back* 31 US: Spectator: Presidential abuse of power deserves scrutiny 32 US: Washpost: Rumsfeld Defends Preemption Doctrine * 33 US: Clarion ledger: TVA debt higher than recorded* 34 US: Las Vegas SUN: Bush Defends War in Rare TV Interview 35 NYTimes: OP-ED COLUMNIST* Secret Obsessions at the Top 36 [Fwd: [du-list] general interest: Japan-Lybia nuc link] 37 Hi Pakistan: Opposition to raise N-issue in Senate 38 WAR.WIRE: Pakistan stopped expert leaking nuclear secrets as early a 39 WAR.WIRE: Russia concerned over Pakistan nuclear scandal 40 NYT: Delicate Dance for Musharraf in Nuclear Case 41 news.com.au: Secret weapons info 'on internet' 42 Time: Pardoning A National Hero 43 BBC: Pakistanis react to nuclear scandal 44 Daily Times: Toronto Star sceptical of N-disclosures 45 Las Vegas SUN Pakistan: Nuke Probe 'Internal Matter' 46 washingtonpost: At Least 7 Nations Tied To Pakistani Nuclear Ring * 47 Hi Pakistan: Opposition to raise N-issue in Senate -- Detail Story* 48 Indian Express: Powell to handle Musharraf on N-leak* 49 Daily Tims: IAEA asks Spain to probe Libya?s nuclear sales 50 Reuters: U.S. helps Pakistan safeguard nuclear material 51 Reuter: Europeans involved in Pakistan nuke scandals* 52 Hindu: Nuke leak: Pak. not to permit outside inspection 53 WAR.WIRE: Russia concerned over Pakistan nuclear scandal 54 WAR.WIRE: Musharraf assures US of no future nuclear technology leaks 55 WAR.WIRE: Pakistan stopped expert leaking nuclear secrets as 56 NYTimes: Delicate Dance for Musharraf in Nuclear Case 57 Guardian: Nuke Scandal, Elections Loom in Malaysia 58 scotsman: Nukes and poverty make an explosive combination NUCLEAR REACTORS 59 dw-world.de: Czechs and Slovaks Struggle with Nuclear Legacy 60 dw-world.de: Hungary Mulls Future of Nuclear Energy 61 US: ANB: Entergy Arkansas ratepayers may get $150 million tab, attor 62 US: POAC: The four types of nuclear-plant emergencies 63 Yomiuri Shimbun: N-parts from Japanese firm said brokered to Libya * 64 Yomiuri Shimbun: Monju reactor should be restarted soon 65 US: WSFB: Review process set for nuclear power plant renewal* 66 US: POAC: Evacuation route among factors in nuclear-plant license re 67 US: norwich bulletin: Millstone license renewal subject of Feb. 17 m 68 US: : Entergy rethinking construction 69 US: Toledo Blade: NRC team debriefs utility officials 70 People's Daily: China's first self-built nuclear power plant set saf 71 US: TIMES OF TRENTON: Oyster Creek may seek longer life NUCLEAR SAFETY 72 [Fwd: [du-list] Returning Vilseck troops get depleted uranium questi 73 [DU-WATCH] More UK Parliamentry questions on DU munitions 74 US: [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] SF Bay Guardian on Irradiated Meat 75 [Fwd: [du-list] Warning of uranium contamination risks to NGO staff, 76 [Fwd: [du-list] UK - Inquiry into Gulf illness urged] 77 US: chillicothe gazette: Beryllium find not a surprise, union says 78 haaretz: The nuclear weapons black market 79 US: Beacon Journal: Beryllium-exposed workers want more health tests 80 XINHUA online: British lawyer calls for Gulf War syndrome review 81 US: Dayton Daily News: Piketon workers demand more tests 82 US: Courier-journal: Uranium workers seek additional health tests Pl 83 US: xWXIA-TV ATLANTA: Missing Bomb Found Off Georgia Coast NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 84 US: Richmond Times-Dispatch: Nuclear storage will expand at Surry pl 85 US: WAVY: Dominion To Expand Storage Of Used Nuclear Fuel At Surry 86 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Goshutes against N-plan ask feds to reconside 87 US: SL TRIB: Vote advances waste bill 88 Louisiana News: Judge's ruling could cut Louisiana energy bills * 89 US: stltoday: Dangerous cargo on our roads, rails 90 US: harktheherald: Nuclear waste NUCLEAR WEAPONS 91 TIMES OF INDIA: 'US must get Pak to sign NPT' US DEPT. OF ENERGY 92 [Fwd: [du-list] EEOICPA DOE SCANDAL] 93 oaklandtribune: U.S. puts off lab's fusion ignition to 2014 94 Oakland tribune: UC, lab to pay out millions 95 Tennessean: False alarms for radiation at K-25 investigated * 96 Rocky Mt News: By the numbers OTHER NUCLEAR 97 Google News Alert - nuclear 98 Google News Alert - nuclear 99 [Fwd: [du-list] DU in the news - Feb 8th 04] ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Bush under fire over WMD enquiry Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 12:30:05 -0600 (CST) Bush under fire over WMD inquiry Opposition Democrats in the United States have criticised a commission set up by President Bush to investigate pre-Iraq war intelligence failures. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said it was difficult to have confidence in a panel appointed exclusively by the president. Others want the panel to report before the November presidential election. The commission will also look at what the US knew about weapons programmes in North Korea, Iran and Libya. The panel will be co-chaired by a Republican and a Democrat, and includes outspoken Republican John McCain. Mr Bush said he wanted to know why intelligence reports about Iraq's weapons capability appeared until now to have been misleading. The panel will "look at America's intelligence capabilities, especially our intelligence about weapons of mass destruction", the president said in a brief statement at the White House. 'Immune' The main argument used by Britain and the US for invading Iraq last March was the perceived threat from weapons of mass destruction. But no such weapons have yet been found, despite efforts by the Iraq Survey Group formerly led by David Kay. "We are determined to figure out why," Mr Bush said. The commission is to submit its report by 31 March 2005 - well after the presidential election. The BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington says that by that time, the Republicans hope that Mr Bush will be safely re-elected and largely immune to any criticism the commission might offer. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has also set up an independent inquiry to examine intelligence which led the country to war. 'Streak of independence' The chairmen of the new US commission - which will be expanded to nine members - were named as former Virginia Governor and Senator Charles Robb and retired judge Laurence Silberman. Correspondents say the appointment of Arizona Senator John McCain will lend a streak of independence to the commission. He has already said he believes the panel should look at the role of the politicians. But speaking shortly after the announcement of the commission, Mr McCain told reporters: "The president of the United States, I believe, did not manipulate any kind of information for political gain or otherwise." CIA Director George Tenet has defended the intelligence, saying the agencies had never claimed that Saddam Hussein was an "imminent threat" but warned about the future danger he could pose. The search had to go on in Iraq for the weapons of mass destruction that US intelligence believed existed, he said. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3467901.stm Published: 2004/02/07 07:36:21 GMT ) BBC MMIV ***************************************************************** 2 Not everyone got it wrong on Iraq's weapons Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 19:32:31 -0600 (CST) ``We were all wrong,'' David Kay, the Bush administration's former top weapons sleuth in Iraq, told members of US Congress after acknowledging that there were probably no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Bullshit! From Green Left Weekly, August 14, 2002. IRAQ: US war drive `built on a bed of lies' BY NORM DIXON. ... One key expert who was excluded from the hearings was Scott Ritter, who as senior UNSCOM weapons inspector in Iraq until 1998 personally led the ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/504/504p12.htm From Green Left Weekly, September 18, 2002 COVER STORY: Bush ultimatum brings war closer BY NORM DIXON. ... On September 13, Scott Ritter who was senior UNSCOM weapons inspector in Iraq for seven years until 1998 and personally led the inspections ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/509/509p17.htm From Green Left Weekly, September 25, 2002. RAQ: Washington demands war despite inspectors' return BY NORM DIXON ... Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter and former UNSCOM chief from 1991-97, Rolf Ekeus, have confirmed that US spies infiltrated UNSCOM with ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/510/510p12b.htm From Green Left Weekly, October 2, 2002. COVER STORY: Bush's Iraq war threat based on lies .. Below Green Left Weekly's NORM DIXON sorts the truth from some of the lies and ... According to Scott Ritter, who as head weapons inspector until 1998 led the ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/511/511p12.htm From Green Left Weekly, January 15, 2003. IRAQ: Inspections expose US, British lies BY ROHAN PEARCE. ... of metal rise from the rubble, rainwater lies in craters ... British Prime Minister Tony Blair's infamous dossier, released on September 24 ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/521/521p15.htm From Green Left Weekly, February 19, 2003. BRITAIN: Blair's `deliberate deception' discovered .. BY ROHAN PEARCE. ... [Glen Rangwala's commentary on Blair's latest dossier is available from the ... Breaking the Silence: truth and lies in the war on terror. ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/526/526p15b.htm From Green Left Weekly, June 11, 2003. IRAQ: How Bush, Howard and Blair lied about WMD BY ROHAN PEARCE. ... The British government's dossier on Iraqi WMD, released on September 24, was a masterpiece of lies and distortions. ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/541/541p14.htm From Green Left Weekly, July 2, 2003. Weapons of mass deception: Make the liars pay! BY ROHAN PEARCE. ... Their lies were used to justify a bloody war, and what is ... of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government dossier, released in ... www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/544/544p11.htm And lots more: http://www.google.com/custom?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&cof=AWFID%3A5c80f74cd7e127b0%3BL%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.greenleft.org.au%2Fglw%2Fimages%2Fgreenleft_online.gif%3BLH%3A100%3BLW%3A151%3BGL%3A2%3BBIMG%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.greenleft.org.au%2Fglw%2F%3BBGC%3A%23006666%3BT%3A%23FFFFFF%3BLC%3A%23FFFFFF%3BVLC%3A%23FFFF00%3BALC%3A%23FFFFFF%3BGALT%3A%23FFFFFF%3BGFNT%3A%23FFFFFF%3BGIMP%3A%23FFFFFF%3BAH%3Acenter%3BS%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.greenleft.org.au%2Fglw%2F%3B&domains=www.greenleft.org.au&q=Iraq+lies+WMD&btnG=Google+Search&sitesearch=www.greenleft.org.au ***************************************************************** 3 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Defends War in Rare TV Interview Today: February 08, 2004 at 13:55:12 PST *By DEB RIECHMANN* ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush denied he marched America into war under false pretenses and said the U.S.-led invasion was necessary because Saddam Hussein could have developed a nuclear weapon. "I don't think America can stand by and hope for the best," the president said. Bush suggested Saddam may have destroyed or spirited out of the country the banned weapons the Bush administration cited as a main rationale for the war. "I expected to find the weapons," Bush said in an Oval Office interview broadcast Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Sitting behind this desk, making a very difficult decision of war and peace, I based my decision on the best intelligence possible," the president said. The interview was taped Saturday. Bush also was asked about the fugitive Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks whom the president had pledged to get "dead or alive." He chuckled when told that a Republican lawmaker had predicted Osama would be captured before the presidential election. "I appreciate his optimism," Bush said. "I have no idea whether we will capture or bring him to justice. ... I know we are on the hunt." The interview, his first on a Sunday talk show since taking office, came as the president's approval rating has dipped to 47 percent, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll taken in early February; that compares with 56 percent just a month ago. The appearance followed weeks of criticism from Democrats over the failure so far to find Iraq's cache of weapons. "They could have been destroyed during the war," Bush said, speculating about reasons the reports might have been wrong. "Saddam and his henchmen could have destroyed them as we entered into Iraq. They could be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find out." The president said he retained confidence in CIA Director George Tenet. Bush shook his head from side to side when asked if Tenet's job was in jeopardy. "No, not at all, not at all," Bush said. Bush pledged to cooperate with a commission he set up last week to examine prewar intelligence lapses and defended its March 2005 reporting date, which is four months after the White House election. "There is going to be ample time for the American people to assess ... whether or not I made the right decision in removing Saddam Hussein from power," Bush said. Democrats in Congress and on the campaign trail said Sunday they wanted to see the findings before the election, if possible. "What we've got here is a president who simply doesn't want to be held accountable," presidential hopeful Wesley Clark told CNN's "Late Edition." Bush did not directly respond to election-year allegations that his administration exaggerated intelligence, but made clear that the United States considered the Iraqi president a dictator who brutalized and killed his own people. "I strongly believe that inaction in Iraq would have emboldened Saddam Hussein," Bush said. "He could have developed a nuclear weapon over time - I'm not saying immediately, but over time. ... We would have been in a position of blackmail. In other words, you can't rely upon a madman." Also on the foreign policy front, Bush said "diplomacy is just beginning" with North Korea. The United States and its allies are seeking to persuade the communist nation to abandon its nuclear weapons programs. "We are making good progress," Bush said. On domestic issues, Bush said his tax cuts were responsible for an economic rebound. He dismissed news reports that there is no evidence he reported for National Guard duty in Alabama during the summer and fall of 1972, during the Vietnam War. "There may be no evidence but I did report; otherwise, I wouldn't have been honorably discharged." Bush expressed indifference about polls that showed him trailing the Democratic front-runner, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. "I'm not going to lose," Bush said. "I don't plan on losing." * / All contents copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 4 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Iraq Intelligence Panel Criticized February 07, 2004 *By KEN GUGGENHEIM* ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats say President Bush's appointment of a bipartisan commission to examine intelligence on Iraq's weapons falls short of their demands for an independent probe of why prewar claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs now appear to have been wrong. Although a former Democratic senator and governor, Charles Robb of Virginia, will serve as the panel's co-chairman, Democrats say the panel cannot be truly independent if all nine members were selected by Republican Bush. "We had an opportunity to have a truly independent commission that could have brought fresh eyes to the subject. Instead, we have a commission wholly owned by the executive branch investigating the executive branch," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said. Bush signed an executive order Friday creating the commission to examine why weapons inspectors have found no chemical and biological weapons stockpiles that U.S. intelligence believed Iraq had before last year's war or evidence of an aggressive nuclear weapons program. Their existence was the administration's main argument for war. "Some prewar intelligence assessments by America and other nations about Iraq's weapon stockpiles have not been confirmed," Bush told reporters. "We are determined to figure out why." The commission also will review U.S. intelligence on weapons programs in countries such as North Korea and Iran, he said. In addition, the panel was told to review spy work on Libya before leader Moammar Gadhafi committed that nation to rid itself of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and on Afghanistan before U.S. troops drove its Taliban rulers from power. Co-chairing the panel with Robb will be retired judge federal appeals Laurence Silberman, a Republican. Robb, son-in-law of the late President Lyndon Johnson, has been practicing law since leaving the Senate in 2001. Silberman, who served as deputy attorney general in the Nixon and Ford administrations, was named to the appeals court by President Reagan in 1985. Bush also named to the panel: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Lloyd Cutler, former White House counsel to Presidents Carter and Clinton; former federal judge Patricia M. Wald; Yale University president Richard C. Levin; and retired Adm. William O. Studeman, former deputy director of the CIA. Wald, a former chief judge for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Bush intends to name two more members. The president had initially rejected demands for a commission on prewar intelligence, but pressure built after the former CIA adviser for the weapons search in Iraq, David Kay, said prewar intelligence was wrong. Seeking to defuse what could become a major campaign issue, Bush created the panel and gave it until March 31, 2005, to issue a report - well after the November presidential election. Democratic criticism continued. Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a presidential candidate, said Bush was using the panel to affix blame to the intelligence community instead of the policy-makers, including the president, who used the information to make decisions. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said, "On the one hand, the commission is charged with looking at prewar intelligence assessments on Iraq but apparently not at exaggerations of that intelligence by the Bush administration. "On the other hand, the commission is tasked to look at so many other areas that it will not be able to adequately focus on the paramount issue of the analysis, production and use of prewar intelligence on Iraq. " Another Democratic senator, Evan Bayh of Indiana, said the panel "seems to me to be a very credible group of people, ... and that bodes well for the inquiry" if they have timely access to the information they need. Republican lawmakers backed Bush. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., said it is "totally appropriate" to make the commission's scope more than just Iraq. "Once you get into how well our intelligence community works and how we deal with weapons of mass destruction and analyzing how our collectors collect and our analysts analyze, I think you are going to find there are systemic problems in our intelligence," he said. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, praised the selections of Robb and McCain. "Both have rendered distinguished service in our military, both have shown independence of thought on serious issues and both are experienced in the arena of national security," he said. * / All contents copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 The Guardian: Nuclear sale inquiry urged* *James Astill in Islamabad Saturday February 7, 2004 The Guardian * Pakistan's opposition parties demanded a public investigation yesterday into the sale of nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea on the grounds that senior army officers must have known of the deals. President Pervez Musharraf signalled his intention to draw a line under the two-month proliferation scandal on Thursday, when he pardoned the country's leading nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, for the sales, for which Dr Khan had taken full responsibility. An Islamist party's call for a national strike in support of Dr Khan was largely ignored yesterday. About 50 pro-Khan protesters were arrested in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi. But a handful of other protests around the country were small and peaceful. Dr Khan is revered in Pakistan for delivering the country's nuclear bomb; putting him on trial would have risked public outrage. The Pakistan Muslim League party said: "He [Gen Musharraf] actually tried to play a game to save his skin and the skin of his predecessors in the armed forces and the intelligence agencies." Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 6 MOJO: The Lie Factory Only weeks after 9/11, the Bush administration set up a secret Pentagon unit to create the case for invading Iraq. Here is the inside story of how they pushed disinformation and bogus intelligence and led the nation to war. * By Robert Dreyfuss and Jason Vest* January/February 2004 Issue <../../../../toc/2004/01/index.html> *It's a crisp fall day* in western Virginia, a hundred miles from Washington, D.C., and a breeze is rustling the red and gold leaves of the Shenandoah hills. On the weather-beaten wood porch of a ramshackle 90-year-old farmhouse, at the end of a winding dirt-and-gravel road, Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski is perched on a plastic chair, wearing shorts, a purple sweatshirt, and muddy sneakers. Two scrawny dogs and a lone cat are on the prowl, and the air is filled with swarms of ladybugs. So far, she says, no investigators have come knocking. Not from the Central Intelligence Agency, which conducted an internal inquiry into intelligence on Iraq, not from the congressional intelligence committees, not from the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. All of those bodies are ostensibly looking into the Bush administration's prewar Iraq intelligence, amid charges that the White House and the Pentagon exaggerated, distorted, or just plain lied about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda terrorists and its possession of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. In her hands, Kwiatkowski holds several pieces of the puzzle. Yet she, along with a score of other career officers recently retired or shuffled off to other jobs, has not been approached by anyone. Kwiatkowski, 43, a now-retired Air Force officer who served in the Pentagon's Near East and South Asia (NESA) unit in the year before the invasion of Iraq, observed how the Pentagon's Iraq war-planning unit manufactured scare stories about Iraq's weapons and ties to terrorists. "It wasn't intelligence? -- it was propaganda," she says. "They'd take a little bit of intelligence, cherry-pick it, make it sound much more exciting, usually by taking it out of context, often by juxtaposition of two pieces of information that don't belong together." It was by turning such bogus intelligence into talking points for U.S. officials? -- including ominous lines in speeches by President Bush and Vice President Cheney, along with Secretary of State Colin Powell's testimony at the U.N. Security Council last February? -- that the administration pushed American public opinion into supporting an unnecessary war. Until now, the story of how the Bush administration produced its wildly exaggerated estimates of the threat posed by Iraq has never been revealed in full. But, for the first time, a detailed investigation by Mother Jones, based on dozens of interviews? -- some on the record, some with officials who insisted on anonymity? -- exposes the workings of a secret Pentagon intelligence unit and of the Defense Department's war-planning task force, the Office of Special Plans. It's the story of a close-knit team of ideologues who spent a decade or more hammering out plans for an attack on Iraq and who used the events of September 11, 2001, to set it into motion. *Six months after the end* of major combat in Iraq, the United States had spent $300 million trying to find banned weapons in Iraq, and President Bush was seeking $600 million more to extend the search. Not found were Iraq's Scuds and other long-range missiles, thousands of barrels and tons of anthrax and botulism stock, sarin and VX nerve agents, mustard gas, biological and chemical munitions, mobile labs for producing biological weapons, and any and all evidence of a reconstituted nuclear-arms program, all of which had been repeatedly cited as justification for the war. Also missing was evidence of Iraqi collaboration with Al Qaeda. The reports, virtually all false, of Iraqi weapons and terrorism ties emanated from an apparatus that began to gestate almost as soon as the Bush administration took power. In the very first meeting of the Bush national-security team, one day after President Bush took the oath of office in January 2001, the issue of invading Iraq was raised, according to one of the participants in the meeting? -- and officials all the way down the line started to get the message, long before 9/11. Indeed, the Bush team at the Pentagon hadn't even been formally installed before Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of Defense, and Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary of Defense for policy, began putting together what would become the vanguard for regime change in Iraq. Both Wolfowitz and Feith have deep roots in the neoconservative movement. One of the most influential Washington neo- conservatives in the foreign-policy establishment during the Republicans' wilderness years of the 1990s, Wolfowitz has long held that not taking Baghdad in 1991 was a grievous mistake. He and others now prominent in the administration said so repeatedly over the past decade in a slew of letters and policy papers from neoconservative groups like the Project for the New American Century and the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Feith, a former aide to Richard Perle at the Pentagon in the 1980s and an activist in far-right Zionist circles, held the view that there was no difference between U.S. and Israeli security policy and that the best way to secure both countries' future was to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem not by serving as a broker, but with the United States as a force for "regime change" in the region. Called in to help organize the Iraq war-planning team was a longtime Pentagon official, Harold Rhode, a specialist on Islam who speaks Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, and Farsi. Though Feith would not be officially confirmed until July 2001, career military and civilian officials in NESA began to watch his office with concern after Rhode set up shop in Feith's office in early January. Rhode, seen by many veteran staffers as an ideological gadfly, was officially assigned to the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment, an in-house Pentagon think tank headed by fellow neocon Andrew Marshall. Rhode helped Feith lay down the law about the department's new anti-Iraq, and broadly anti-Arab, orientation. In one telling incident, Rhode accosted and harangued a visiting senior Arab diplomat, telling him that there would be no "bartering in the bazaar anymore. You're going to have to sit up and pay attention when we say so." Rhode refused to be interviewed for this story, saying cryptically, "Those who speak, pay." According to insiders, Rhode worked with Feith to purge career Defense officials who weren't sufficiently enthusiastic about the muscular anti-Iraq crusade that Wolfowitz and Feith wanted. Rhode appeared to be "pulling people out of nooks and crannies of the Defense Intelligence Agency and other places to replace us with," says a former analyst. "They wanted nothing to do with the professional staff. And they wanted us the fuck out of there." The unofficial, off-site recruitment office for Feith and Rhode was the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank whose 12th-floor conference room in Washington is named for the dean of neoconservative defense strategists, the late Albert Wohlstetter, an influential RAND analyst and University of Chicago mathematician. Headquartered at AEI is Richard Perle, Wohlstetter's prize protege, the godfather of the AEI-Defense Department nexus of neoconservatives who was chairman of the Pentagon's influential Defense Policy Board. Rhode, along with Michael Rubin, a former AEI staffer who is also now at the Pentagon, was a ubiquitous presence at AEI conferences on Iraq over the past two years, and the two Pentagon officials seemed almost to be serving as stage managers for the AEI events, often sitting in the front row and speaking in stage whispers to panelists and AEI officials. Just after September 11, 2001, Feith and Rhode recruited David Wurmser, the director of Middle East studies for AEI, to serve as a Pentagon consultant. Wurmser would be the founding participant of the unnamed, secret intelligence unit at the Pentagon, set up in Feith's office, which would be the nucleus of the Defense Department's Iraq disinformation campaign that was established within weeks of the attacks in New York and Washington. While the CIA and other intelligence agencies concentrated on Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda as the culprit in the 9/11 attacks, Wolfowitz and Feith obsessively focused on Iraq. It was a theory that was discredited, even ridiculed, among intelligence professionals. Daniel Benjamin, co-author of The Age of Sacred Terror, was director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council in the late 1990s. "In 1998, we went through every piece of intelligence we could find to see if there was a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq," he says. "We came to the conclusion that our intelligence agencies had it right: There was no noteworthy relationship between Al Qaeda and Iraq. I know that for a fact." Indeed, that was the consensus among virtually all anti-terrorism specialists. In short, Wurmser, backed by Feith and Rhode, set out to prove what didn't exist. ***************************************************************** 7 ITV Blix: case for war was overstated Sun Feb 8 2004 'The intention was to dramatise it just as the vendors of some merchandise are trying to increase and exaggerate the importance of what they have' - Hans Blix 1.54PM, 8 Feb 2004 Prime Minister Tony Blair is coming under renewed pressure to make a fresh statement about what he knew about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Mr Blair has said he did not know that claims Saddam could launch a chemical and biological attack only related to battlefield weapons. And now the former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has claimed Britain and the US overstated their case for war. Dr Blix said the 45-minute claim was deliberately used to "dramatise" the Iraqi arms dossier. He claimed those who drafted the document it acted like salesmen trying to "increase and exaggerate the importance" of their wares. He insisted he was not accusing Mr Blair of acting in "bad faith". But he said: "From politicians, from our leaders in the West, I think we expect more than that. A bit more sincerity." Dr Blix headed the UN team searching for Saddam Hussein's weapons from November 2002 until they were pulled out in March 2003 on the eve of war. He said he would be willing to give evidence to Lord Butler's new inquiry into intelligence on Iraq "if they want me to come and if there is time for it". The inspectors warned the UK and US governments there was no "smoking gun" evidence of weapons caches. London and Washington were also told that Iraqi weapons that were unaccounted for may well no longer exist. "I think we issued the correct warning. Nevertheless, they did not take that seriously," said Dr Blix. "They clearly believed too much of what defectors said. "Unscom, the former UN inspectors, withdrew at the end of 1998. Thereafter, the intelligence communities in the West lost an important source and they were relying upon defectors and much of what they got there was wrong. "However, the other side of it I think is the spin the politicians have given to it. "I have never said that I think Prime Minister Blair or President Bush were in bad faith. "But I do see that how they express themselves has to do with information management." The "famous" 45-minute claims was a key example of this, Dr Blix said. "They say some WMD can be ready to be used within 45 minutes. Well, which ones? "It certainly wasn't nuclear because the report says that they were not developing nuclear so they didn't have them. "And what is meant by being ready? Is it a phial of anthrax that can be tossed at somebody. You can interpret it different ways. "The intention was to dramatise it just as the vendors of some merchandise are trying to increase and exaggerate the importance of what they have." Content ITV Network Limited. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 8 independent.co.uk: The 45-minute case collapses (Part 1) JIC alerted Blair three times over unsafe WMD claim By Andy McSmith Political Editor 08 February 2004 Tony Blair was sent three intelligence reports in the six months during the run up to the Iraq war, including one that warned him that information on whether Saddam Hussein still held any chemical or biological weapons was "inconsistent" and "sparse". The revelation adds to the mystery of how the Prime Minister could tell Parliament last week that, when war began, he still believed that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction capable of being deployed in just 45 minutes. That 45-minute claim, highlighted in a dossier which Mr Blair presented to the Commons in September 2002, inspired reports in the press that British servicemen and tourists in Cyprus could be hit at any moment by long-range Iraqi missiles. In fact, John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), and the Secretary of State for Defence, Geoff Hoon, knew that it was only "battlefield mortar shells or small-calibre weaponry" that could be deployed that quickly - but seemingly nobody told the Prime Minister, who said in the Commons last week that he did not find out until after 18 March, when MPs voted to go to war. Yesterday Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary who resigned as Leader of the House in the run-up to the war, urged the committee of inquiry set up under Lord Butler to investigate why a vital piece of information was apparently withheld from the man who made the decision to send British troops in to fight. Mr Cook, who is due to be interviewed on the ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme today, said: "One of the questions the Butler inquiry must ask is why on earth the JIC sent up three assessments of Saddam's weapons capacity without making it clear that they were talking about battlefield weapons, not strategic systems." The committee, chaired by the former chief whip Ann Taylor, supported Tony Blair's claim that Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction posed a threat to Britain, and that - by implication - the Prime Minister was right to take part in a war without UN sanction. They gave two reasons: that the Iraqi army, with or without weapons of mass destruction, might attack UK forces policing "no-fly zones", or that they might fire Al Hussein missiles at British forces in Cyprus. Last week the Government slipped out a follow-up document, with the clumsy title Government Response to the Intelligence and Security Committee Report on Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction, which was placed with minimal publicity in the Commons Vote Office. The document makes the startling revelation that the intelligence services had already reported, before the war began, that Iraq's ballistic missiles had probably been dismantled, and that the presence of UN weapons inspectors in Iraq was making it difficult for Iraq to threaten anyone with weapons of mass destruction. The document added: "The JIC assessments produced in October and December 2002 and again in March 2003 reflected this point. In December 2002, the JIC specifically pointed out that Iraq's ability to use chemical and biological weapons (CBW) might be constrained by the difficulty of producing more whil. UN inspectors were present. "In March 2003, [the JIC] stated that intelligence on the timing of when Iraq might use CBW was inconsistent and that the intelligence on the deployment was sparse. "Intelligence indicating that chemical weapons remained disassembled and that Saddam had not yet ordered their assembly was highlighted. The JIC also pointed out the intelligence suggested that the 750km-range Al Hussein ballistic missiles remained disassembled and that it would take several days to assemble them once orders to do so had been issued." The Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy, has defended his party's decision to boycott the Butler committee, saying that it "allows the wrong questions to distract attention from the real issues." Writing in today's edition of The Independent on Sunday, he said: "What the Prime Minister has really done this week is to tell us to take it or leave it. Forget inquiries - the people will be his judge." Peter Hain, the Leader of the House, admitted last night that Mr Blair was no longer "unassailable". After seven years in power, he said, Labour had "hit our first very seriously choppy waters." /* Tony Blair has written to the widow of Dr David Kelly offering a private meeting, according to her lawyers. Janice Kelly declines to say whether she intends to accept his invitation./ 7 February 2004 20:59 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd ***************************************************************** 9 washington post: President Revises Rationale For War * Bush, Cheney Stress Iraq's Capabilities /By Dana Milbank/ Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, February 8, 2004; Page A04 President Bush and Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the war in Iraq was justified because Saddam Hussein could have made weapons of mass destruction. The new rationale offered by the president and vice president, significantly more modest than earlier statements about the deposed Iraqi president's capabilities, comes after government experts have said it is unlikely banned weapons will be found in Iraq and after Bush's naming Friday of a commission to examine faulty prewar intelligence. "Saddam Hussein was dangerous, and I'm not just going to leave him in power and trust a madman," Bush said yesterday in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" that will be broadcast today. "He's a dangerous man. He had the ability to make weapons at the very minimum." Cheney delivered a nearly identical message yesterday to a group of Republican donors in suburban Chicago. "We know that Saddam Hussein had the intent to arm his regime with weapons of mass destruction," he said. "And Saddam Hussein had something else -- he had a record of using weapons of mass destruction against his enemies and against his own people." In the NBC interview, excerpts of which were released by the network, Bush also said the CIA is "ably led" by its director, George J. Tenet, and that Tenet's job is "not at all" in jeopardy. Tenet, in a speech last week, defended the agency's Iraq intelligence. While he acknowledged flaws, he said the CIA did not argue that Hussein was a certain or imminent threat. Before the invasion of Iraq 11 months ago, Bush and Cheney both argued that Iraq was an urgent threat to the United States, stating with certainty that Iraq had chemical and biological arms and had rebuilt a nuclear weapons program. "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised," Bush said in March 2003. Bush said he would "visit" with the commission he named last week to investigate the Iraq intelligence but suggested that he would not testify before it. Asked about why the commission will not report until next March -- after the presidential election -- while a similar commission in Britain will operate much more quickly, Bush said: "We didn't want it to be hurried. This is a strategic look, kind of a big-picture look about the intelligence-gathering capacities of the United States of America." While saying that "it's important this investigation take its time," Bush added that "there is going to be ample time for the American people to assess whether or not I made good calls" in ousting Hussein. Bush addressed himself to relatives of the more than 500 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. "For the parents of the soldiers who have fallen who are listening, David Kay, the weapons inspector, came back and said, in many ways Iraq was more dangerous than we thought," he said. "We are in a war against these terrorists who could bring great harm to America, and I've asked these young ones to sacrifice for that." Bush's appearance on the Sunday talk show, the first of his presidency, comes as new polls show declining public support for his leadership. A Newsweek poll released yesterday found that 48 percent of Americans approve of his performance in office, the lowest in three years. By 50 percent to 45 percent, respondents said they did not want to see him reelected. Another poll, by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey, found support for Bush at 64 percent after his State of the Union address Jan. 20, but plunged to 54 percent between Jan. 26 and Jan. 31 -- the time when Kay, the former chief U.S. weapons inspector, said weapons stocks were unlikely to be found in Iraq. Bush's approval rating stands at 56 percent in this poll. Though Bush has been careful about acknowledging fault in the prewar intelligence, or his allegations against Hussein, he said in naming the commission Friday that Kay "stated that some prewar intelligence assessments by America and other nations about Iraq's weapons stockpiles have not been confirmed. We are determined to figure out why." 2004 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 10 Las Vegas SUN: Cheney Maintains Iraq War Was Justified February 07, 2004 *By MAURA KELLY* ASSOCIATED PRESS ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) - The United States was justified in going to war in Iraq because Saddam Hussein was capable of producing weapons of mass destruction, Vice President Dick Cheney told backers of GOP candidates Saturday. Cheney also called on Congress to renew the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism bill that critics say has curbed civil liberties but that Cheney defended as allowing federal law enforcement to share more intelligence information. "We use these tools to catch embezzlers and drug traffickers and we need these tools as well to hunt terrorists," he said of the bill's provisions. Speaking to nearly 200 people at a $1,500-a-plate luncheon benefiting Republican U.S. House candidates, Cheney said that while inspectors have failed to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the regime did have the scientists and the technology needed to produce them. "We know that Saddam Hussein had the intent to arm his regime with weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein had something else - he had a record of using weapons of mass destruction against his enemies and against his own people," he said. Cheney continued to press the message in St. Louis Saturday night at an event that raised more than $500,000 for the Missouri Republican Party. The Missouri crowd gave him a standing ovation when he declared, "There is no question that America did the right thing in Iraq." Outside the fund-raiser about 150 demonstrators - many of them veterans and union members - gathered to protest the Bush administration's overtime proposal, which they say would cost millions of white-collar workers their ability to collect overtime pay. In Illinois, Cheney also praised U.S. intelligence officers for discovering terrorist plots that he said authorities were able to prevent. He did not give any specifics. "Americans can be grateful every day for the skillful and daring service of our nation's intelligence professionals," Cheney said. The fund-raiser in Rosemont, a Chicago suburb, was sponsored by the National Republican Congressional Committee. * / All contents copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 11 Reuters: Annan, Powell differ on impact of U.S. data on Iraq 07 Feb 2004 08:28 By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said "no apologies" were needed for intelligence used to justify the Iraq war but U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that the questionable U.S. weapons data could jeopardize future similar actions. Annan and Powell spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a U.N. conference on Friday that pledged $520 million to finance reconstruction in Liberia, $200 million from Washington. "The bar has been raised," Annan said. "People are going to be very suspicious when one talks to them about intelligence. And they are going to be very suspicious when we try to use intelligence to justify certain actions." A year ago, on Feb. 5, Powell made a dramatic presentation to the U.N. Security Council, arguing that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and was reconstructing its nuclear arms program as well as building advanced missiles. "I don't think any apologies are necessary," he said when asked about the quality of intelligence used during his unsuccessful attempt to persuade council members of the need to invade Iraq. Powell said President George W. Bush's action to go to war, was totally justified by the information that he was provided. "We don't have to worry about now is whether there are any weapons of mass destruction or a Saddam Hussein in Iraq to use them," he said. Bush is scrambling to limit the political fallout after the former chief U.S. weapons hunter David Kay concluded that prewar intelligence about Iraq's having stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction was wrong. Powell said in a Washington Post interview this week he did not know if he would have supported the invasion if he had been told Iraq had no banned weapons. But in New York Powell said "the intelligence base on which our decision rested was a solid intelligence base." What the United States was not sure of was "the nature of the stockpiles and these were still being examined," he said. "We said that this was a regime led by a dictator who had every intention of keeping his weapons-of-mass-destruction programs going, and anyone who thinks he didn't is just dead wrong. And there is no evidence to suggest that that was an incorrect judgment, Powell said. Powell later accused critics of politicizing the U.S. failure to find weapons of mass destruction said it is getting on his nerves. "Yeah, it does get on your nerves when you see people trying to use this for straightforward political purposes Powell told Fox television. Powell on Friday also had lunch with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, his chief antagonist in the Security Council over the invasion. "We had a major disagreement last year, but you know, disagreements come and disagreements go," Powell said. But on specific issues there was open disagreement. Villepin restated his resistance to sending NATO troops to Iraq, saying such a move would have to wait at least until after the United States handed back sovereignty to Baghdad. And Powell refused to commit the United States to supporting a U.N. peacekeeping force for the Ivory Coast despite Villepin's plea that the mission was urgent for the West African nation to recover from its civil war. (Irwin Arieff and Saul Hudson contributed to this report) ***************************************************************** 12 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Says Saddam Had Capacity for Nukes Today: February 08, 2004 at 6:10:12 PST *By DEB RIECHMANN* ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Defending his decision to invade Iraq, President Bush said that although stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons have not been found, Saddam Hussein had the capacity to produce such arms and could have developed a nuclear weapon over time. Bush denied he led the United States into war under false pretenses, but he acknowledged that some prewar intelligence apparently was inaccurate. He did not directly respond to election-year allegations that his administration exaggerated intelligence to bolster a march to oust the Iraqi president. "We will find out about the weapons of mass destruction that we all thought were there," Bush said in the interview taped Saturday in the Oval Office with Tim Russert, host of NBC's "Meet the Press." It was broadcast Sunday. Bush, who pledged after the Sept. 11 attacks to get suspected mastermind Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," said Sunday: "I have no idea whether we will capture or bring him to justice." Bush said former chief weapons inspector David Kay, who has said that U.S. intelligence was "almost all wrong" about Saddam's arms, said Saddam found the "capacity to produce weapons." Bush went on to speculate about what happened to the weapons. "They could have been destroyed during the war. Saddam and his henchmen could have destroyed them as we entered into Iraq," Bush said. "They could be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find out." Bush said he decided to go to war based on the intelligence he had at hand about Saddam, but said CIA Director George Tenet's job is not in jeopardy. "I strongly believe the CIA is ably led by George Tenet," he said. While Bush heavily based the decision to wage war on the rationale that Saddam had forbidden weapons at the ready, the president continued in the interview to emphasize his contention about Saddam's dictatorial rule - that Saddam brutalized Iraqis and had connections to terrorist groups. "I repeat to you what I strongly believe, that inaction in Iraq would have emboldened Saddam Hussein," Bush said. "He could have developed a nuclear weapon over time - I'm not saying immediately, but over time. ... We would have been in a position of blackmail. In other words, you can't rely upon a madman." Among the other issues discussed in the interview, Bush: -pledged to cooperate with the commission he set up last week to examine intelligence lapses. "I will be glad to visit with them," he said. -defended his National Guard service during the Vietnam War. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, has accused Bush of being "AWOL," or absent without leave, for a year in the early 1970s after Bush transferred to an Alabama unit. "I served in the National Guard," Bush said. "I flew F-102 aircraft. I got an honorable discharge." The president dismissed news reports saying there is no evidence he reported for duty in Alabama during the summer and fall of 1972. "They're just wrong," Bush said. -said his policy to cut taxes was responsible for driving the economic rebound and putting the country on the road to recovering the more than 2 million jobs lost since he took office in 2001. -expressed indifference to polls that showed him trailing Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who is leading the race to be the Democratic presidential nominee. "I'm not going to lose," Bush said. "I don't plan on losing." -said he would "perhaps" submit to questions from the commission reviewing the Sept. 11 attacks. The interview came at a time when Bush's approval rating has dipped to 47 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll taken in early February; that compares with 56 percent just a month ago. * / All contents copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 13 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Says Saddam Had Capacity for Nukes Today: February 08, 2004 at 6:10:12 PST *By DEB RIECHMANN* ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Defending his decision to invade Iraq, President Bush said that although stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons have not been found, Saddam Hussein had the capacity to produce such arms and could have developed a nuclear weapon over time. Bush denied he led the United States into war under false pretenses, but he acknowledged that some prewar intelligence apparently was inaccurate. He did not directly respond to election-year allegations that his administration exaggerated intelligence to bolster a march to oust the Iraqi president. "We will find out about the weapons of mass destruction that we all thought were there," Bush said in the interview taped Saturday in the Oval Office with Tim Russert, host of NBC's "Meet the Press." It was broadcast Sunday. Bush, who pledged after the Sept. 11 attacks to get suspected mastermind Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," said Sunday: "I have no idea whether we will capture or bring him to justice." Bush said former chief weapons inspector David Kay, who has said that U.S. intelligence was "almost all wrong" about Saddam's arms, said Saddam found the "capacity to produce weapons." Bush went on to speculate about what happened to the weapons. "They could have been destroyed during the war. Saddam and his henchmen could have destroyed them as we entered into Iraq," Bush said. "They could be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find out." Bush said he decided to go to war based on the intelligence he had at hand about Saddam, but said CIA Director George Tenet's job is not in jeopardy. "I strongly believe the CIA is ably led by George Tenet," he said. While Bush heavily based the decision to wage war on the rationale that Saddam had forbidden weapons at the ready, the president continued in the interview to emphasize his contention about Saddam's dictatorial rule - that Saddam brutalized Iraqis and had connections to terrorist groups. "I repeat to you what I strongly believe, that inaction in Iraq would have emboldened Saddam Hussein," Bush said. "He could have developed a nuclear weapon over time - I'm not saying immediately, but over time. ... We would have been in a position of blackmail. In other words, you can't rely upon a madman." Among the other issues discussed in the interview, Bush: -pledged to cooperate with the commission he set up last week to examine intelligence lapses. "I will be glad to visit with them," he said. -defended his National Guard service during the Vietnam War. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, has accused Bush of being "AWOL," or absent without leave, for a year in the early 1970s after Bush transferred to an Alabama unit. "I served in the National Guard," Bush said. "I flew F-102 aircraft. I got an honorable discharge." The president dismissed news reports saying there is no evidence he reported for duty in Alabama during the summer and fall of 1972. "They're just wrong," Bush said. -said his policy to cut taxes was responsible for driving the economic rebound and putting the country on the road to recovering the more than 2 million jobs lost since he took office in 2001. -expressed indifference to polls that showed him trailing Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who is leading the race to be the Democratic presidential nominee. "I'm not going to lose," Bush said. "I don't plan on losing." -said he would "perhaps" submit to questions from the commission reviewing the Sept. 11 attacks. The interview came at a time when Bush's approval rating has dipped to 47 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll taken in early February; that compares with 56 percent just a month ago. -- copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. / ***************************************************************** 14 New York Times: PAKISTAN MIRRORS IRAQ Associated Press In 1998, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, was honored by the government . Confronting the Nuclear Threat America Didn't Want to Be True *By DAVID E. SANGER* Published: February 8, 2004 WASHINGTON PLACE side by side the two intelligence problems that captivated Washington last week - Iraq and Pakistan - and you can see stunning, polar-opposite images of what happens when murky intelligence collides with political agendas. The story of what happened to the prewar intelligence estimates of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction has already been endlessly picked apart, spun and turned to campaign fodder as members of President Bush's cabinet backpedal from the definitive declarations made a year ago. Now the politically crucial part of the mystery - whether America's intelligence agencies misconnected the dots or whether President Bush and his team cherry-picked the evidence and ignored the caveats to justify a war they felt needed to be fought - is falling into the lap of a commission that will report back well after the presidential election. "Some prewar intelligence assessments by America and other nations about Iraq's weapon stockpiles have not been confirmed," Mr. Bush said Friday. "We are determined to figure out why." But no one at the White House will say if the commission will examine the equally critical question of whether the administration moved fast enough as the Central Intelligence Agency slowly untangled the nuclear empire of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb. As much as Mr. Bush's team wanted to topple Saddam Hussein in Iraq, they wanted to stabilize Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who many experts, from Washington to Islamabad, strongly suspected was turning a blind eye to how Dr. Khan was helping to arm some of the world's most hostile states. The other burning question in Washington is whether the United States, because it needed Mr. Musharraf's help against Al Qaeda, waited too long to stop Dr. Khan's network as it traded in nuclear secrets and equipment. "We didn't ignore the evidence - far from it," one senior proliferation expert inside the administration said. "But a decision was made not to trumpet it, either,'' for fear of destabilizing Mr. Musharraf and ending up with an extreme Islamic government with a nuclear arsenal. To many intelligence experts in Washington, Mr. Khan was a threat far more urgent and imminent than Mr. Hussein. For 15 years he peddled his recipes, and the equipment to do the mixing, to the highest bidders. There were many takers: Iran, North Korea, Libya and probably customers whose names have not surfaced yet. "He's the real-life Dr. No,'' a senior American intelligence official said the other day, referring to the evil antagonist of James Bond lore. "Only more terrifying.'' After years of denials, his own and the Pakistani government's, Dr. Khan finally confessed last week. George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, portrayed the unmasking of the Khan operation as a brilliant act of American spycraft. He said the C.I.A. had been tracking Dr. Khan for years, which is true. But as in Iraq, the story of the intelligence is more complex, a puzzle whose pieces were scattered around the globe. Many were not found until the damage had been done. "We knew he was trading in missiles, and suspected he was getting into the nuclear business as well," Gary Samore, the head of nonproliferation in the Clinton Administration's national security council, recalled not long ago. "But I don't think we knew he was the supplier for Iran's program." Or for Libya's, a fact that emerged over the past year or so, and was not confirmed until inspectors sent bomb designs - for a Pakistani adaptation of a Chinese design - back to Washington two weeks ago. And as with Iraq, a critical question is how intelligence was put to use. In his efforts to stem proliferation, Mr. Bush has threatened sanctions against Iran and Libya. He demanded that North Korea accept inspections. But General Musharraf has been allowed to play by different rules. Few of Mr. Bush's aides believe Pakistan's story that Dr. Khan operated alone. He has the deepest ties to the military, which oversaw the Khan Research Laboratories, and supplied it with a cargo fleet. Pakistan got missiles from North Korea, investigators believe, in return for uranium enrichment technology. Clearly, the Pakistani government must have known something about how its new missile fleet materialized. 2004 The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 15 Las Vegas SUN: Australia Doesn't Plan Weapons Inquiry February 02, 2004 ** ASSOCIATED PRESS SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Australia has no need for a special inquiry into its intelligence on Iraq because it is sure Saddam Hussein had illicit weapons, Defense Minister Robert Hill said Tuesday. Australia received its intelligence from Britain and the United States, whose leaders both plan to name special panels to investigate the intelligence they used for going to war in Iraq. But Hill said he had confidence in the intelligence Australia received and there was no doubt Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. "There were weapons. That is not in dispute," Hill told reporters in Sydney. "The issue is what happened to those weapons." Australia contributed 2,000 troops to the Iraq war tha toppled Saddam and stood by the U.S. administration's assertions the war was justified. President Bush decided on the investigation after David Kay resigned as the head of the U.S. mission to find banned weapons in Iraq, saying he thought Saddam likely had no such arms. British Prime Minister Tony Blair will also appoint a commission to investigate faulty intelligence, Blair's spokesman said Monday. Hill said Australia had already conducted a parliamentary inquiry to which Australian intelligence agencies had given evidence, and it was "difficult to see what benefit would flow from yet another Australian inquiry." The earlier inquiry has not completed its report and will not present its findings until March. In a speech to Parliament before fighting broke out in Iraq, Prime Minister John Howard justified the war by saying intelligence sources showed Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction and could give them to terrorists. Opposition lawmakers then used their control of the parliament's upper house, the Senate, to start an inquiry into Howard's claims. Some opposition lawmakers have raised the possibility of another inquiry depending on the outcome of the U.S. probe. On Monday, Howard said Australia's intelligence on Iraq came largely from the United States and Britain. "It didn't come from our own independent sources, obviously it was independently assessed and so forth, but it was primarily British and American intelligence," Howard said. -- copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. / ***************************************************************** 16 Guardian: Bush names panel in Iraq inquiry* *Saturday February 7, 2004 The Guardian * President George Bush yesterday named seven members of an independent commission to investigate intelligence failures in the run-up to the war in Iraq, choosing the former Democratic senator Charles Robb and retired judge Laurence Silberman, a Republican, to head the panel. But another panel member, Senator John McCain, said yesterday that he did not believe Mr Bush had manipulated information. "The president of the US, I believe, did not manipulate any kind of information for political gain or otherwise," the Republican senator told reporters on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich. The commission will report to the nation by March 2005, well after presidential elections in November. Mr Bush is yet to select the remaining two members of the nine-member panel. Meanwhile, the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, alarmed by a spate of reported sexual assaults involving US troops in Iraq and Kuwait, ordered an investigation yesterday into whether the Pentagon had done enough to prevent such attacks and help victims. "Sexual assault will not be tolerated in the department of defence," Mr Rumsfeld said." ***************************************************************** 17 Guardian: Rumsfeld Defends U.S. Invasion of Iraq From the Associated Press * *Saturday February 7, 2004 3:01 PM* *By ROBERT BURNS* *AP Military Writer* MUNICH, Germany (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld offered a spirited defense Saturday of the U.S. decision to depose Iraq's Saddam Hussein and said Libya's Moammar Gadhafi might have avoided a similar fate by voluntarily giving up its weapons of mass destruction. In a speech to the Munich Conference on Security Policy, where one year ago tensions over Iraq ran high as Rumsfeld warned that time was running out on the Iraqi president's government, the defense secretary insisted that President Bush was right to have invaded. He did not mention the failure to find banned weapons in Iraq, the main reason the Bush administration said the invasion was necessary. The discussion about Iraq at this year's conference was less contentious, although Rumsfeld made a point of defending the invasion and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the war and its chaotic aftermath have proven his government's anti-war position to have been the correct one. ``We were not and are still not convinced of the validity of the reasons for war,'' Fischer said in opening remarks. He suggested, however, that the United States and Europe join in a major push to bring peace and security to the Middle East. ``Neither the United States nor Europe and the Middle East itself can tolerate the status quo in the Middle East any longer,'' Fischer said. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, whose government also opposed the Iraq war, was less explicit in his criticism but referred to the ``admissibility of the unilateral use of force.'' He also said military force should be used only ``within the realm'' of international law. ``It is wrong to fight terrorism with illegal techniques,'' Ivanov said, without mentioning Iraq explicitly. Later in his remarks, he said Iraq had ``turned into a real magnet for terrorists'' in the Middle East. As Russia has in the past, Ivanov took issue again with NATO's eastward expansion toward Russia's borders, demanding that the alliance ``kindly explain'' what terror threat had created a need for new military facilities in Poland the Baltic states. He said Russia wants permanent monitors posted inside the bases ``to verify the fact that the ways of use of those facilities, as we are told, pose no threat to Russia.'' Rumsfeld's allusion to the possibility that Gadhafi's ``rogue regime'' in Libya might have avoided treatment similar to Saddam's was recognition of the Libyan leader's announcement in December that he was ready to abandon his programs to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. In London, the rapid rapprochement between the United States and Libya continued Friday as officials of the two countries discussed assigning representatives to each other's capital and ending the ban on Americans traveling to the North African country. A statement from the U.S. Embassy said the meeting between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns and Libyan officials was very positive and thorough but reached no agreement on either topic. The United States has maintained a 17-year embargo on Libya and lists it as a supporter of international terror. Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 18 wb11: Bush Says Saddam Had Nuke Capacity By Elaine S. Povich Washington Bureau February 9, 2004 Washington -- President George W. Bush said Sunday that the United States was justified going to war in Iraq because Saddam Hussein "had the capacity" to make nuclear or biological weapons that could fall into the hands of terrorists. In his first appearance on a Sunday morning talk show, Bush -- facing a drop in the polls and a barrage of criticism from Democratic rivals -- portrayed the decision to go to war with Iraq as one of necessity, not choice. "He had the capacity to have a weapon, to make a weapon," Bush said on NBC's "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, which was taped Saturday. "The international community thought he had weapons. But he had the capacity to make a weapon and then let that weapon fall into the hands of a shadowy terrorist network." Before the war in Iraq, in which more than 500 Americans have died so far, the reason most often given by Bush and his subordinates to go to war was that Iraq's leader possessed weapons of mass destruction. But an exhaustive search of the country has as yet turned up no such weapons, and former administration analysts have since said that pre-war intelligence information may have been flawed. Sunday, the president acknowledged that Iraq did not, as he said on March 17 last year when he announced the decision to go to war, "possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." A Time/CNN poll released Sunday showed that the failure to find the weapons has had an impact on whether Americans trust Bush as president. The poll said 55 percent of Americans have "doubts and reservations" about Bush and just 44 percent described him as a leader they can trust. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The failure to find the weapons of mass destruction also has given hope to some Democrats that Bush is now far more vulnerable as a candidate. A few polls have shown that if the election were held today, Bush's Democratic rivals could beat him. In the interview, Bush acknowledged that the United States is involved in "nation-building" in Iraq, despite his assertion during his 2000 campaign that creating a nation is something he didn't think American troops should be used to accomplish. "Well, it is," Bush said Sunday discussing nation-building. "That's right, but we're also fighting a war so that they can build a nation." Bush asserted that U.S. soldiers "are welcomed in Iraq" and said he was not surprised by the intensity of the resistance in which more soldiers have been killed than in the initial fighting. The president also addressed the formation of a commission to look into pre-war intelligence failures, saying that given the information he had before the war, he fully expected U.S. troops would find "stockpiles of weapons" when they invaded Iraq. "They could have been destroyed during the war," Bush postulated. "They could be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find out." If Bush thought his interview would quell the criticism, he appeared to be wrong. Democratic front-runner and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, making a campaign appearance in Richmond, Va., said the president is "giving us a new reason for sending people to war, and the problem is not just that he is changing his story now, it is that it appears he was telling the American people stories in 2002." The president also addressed renewed questions about his service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War. Democrats have accused the president of failing to report for duty. But Bush Sunday said he served honorably in the National Guard and was excused from his last eight months of duty because he was going to Harvard business school. He offered to open his service records to scrutiny. Addressing his economic record, Bush said he would not raise taxes to help pay for the war in Iraq despite a ballooning budget deficit. "I believe that the best way to stimulate economic growth is to let people keep more of their own money," he said. Copyright 2004, Newsday, Inc. | ***************************************************************** 19 WAR.WIRE: Iran denies receiving nuclear secrets from Pakistani nuclear scientist TEHRAN (AFP) Feb 08, 2004 Iran on Sunday denied it had received nuclear technology from Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, who admitted to having passed secrets to the Islamic republic. Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Tehran had bought pieces of equipment that could raise suspicions and subsequently turned over the sellers' names to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "Pakistan's worries are Iran's worries, but what is being raised in the media is not true," Asefi said, according to the state news agency IRNA, in the government's first reaction to the confession by the founder of Pakistan's atomic program, Abdul Qadeer Khan. Khan on Wednesday admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea for personal profit following an investigation based on information from the IAEA. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan, a national hero, the next day after he delivered a dramatic television apology. "The Islamic Republic has bought certain parts from the middlemen whose names have been reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency," Asefi said, although he made no mention of having received atomic know-how, such as blueprints which were made available through Khan on the black market. "It is evident that the Islamic Republic is not aware of what is going on behind the scenes and we have just reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency the names of the middlemen from whom we bought the parts," he said. "Pakistan is among the Islamic Republic's friends and we attach enormous importance to ties with Pakistan," he said. Iran has been asked by the IAEA to come clean on its nuclear program, after hiding sensitive aspects, including enriching small amounts of uranium and plutonium, for 18 years. It has defended its "inalienable right" to use nuclear energy for peaceful ends, although the United States suspects it is hiding a weapons program. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse ***************************************************************** 20 Daily Star: Iranians don?t want nuclear weapons whatever the officials say* Opinion DS 07/02/04 Do the people of Iran want the bomb? Iran?s recent decision to allow for tighter inspection of its nuclear facilities which it says are for civilian purposes was hailed by Iranian and European officials as a diplomatic victory, while analysts and officials in Washington and Tel Aviv continue to be wary of Tehran?s intentions. But despite the attention given to Iran?s nuclear aspirations in recent months, an important question has scarcely been touched on: How do the Iranian people feel about having nuclear weapons? Iranian officials have suggested that the country?s nuclear program is an issue that resonates on the Iranian street and is a great source of national pride. But months of interviews I have conducted in Iran reveal a somewhat different picture. Whereas few Iranians are opposed to the development of a nuclear energy facility, most do not see it as a solution to their primary concerns: economic malaise and political and social repression. What?s more, most of the Iranians surveyed said they oppose the pursuit of a nuclear weapons program because it runs counter to their desire for ?peace and tranquility.? Three reasons were commonly cited. First, having experienced a devastating eight-year war with Saddam Hussein?s Iraq that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of their compatriots, Iranians are opposed to reliving war or violence. Many Iranians said the pursuit of nuclear weapons would lead the country down a path no one wanted to travel. Two decades ago revolutionary euphoria was strong, and millions of young men volunteered to defend their country against an Iraqi onslaught. Today few Iranians have illusions about the realities of conflict. The argument that a nuclear weapon could help serve as a deterrent to ensure peace in Iran seemed incongruous to most. ?If we want peace, why would we want a bomb?? asked a middle-aged Iranian woman, seemingly concurring with an influential Iranian diplomat who contends that a nuclear weapon ?would not augment Iran?s security but rather heighten its vulnerabilities.? Second, while a central premise of Iran?s Islamic government from the time of its inception has been its steadfast opposition to the United States and Israel, for most Iranians no such nemeses exist. Iran?s young populace more than two-thirds of the country is younger than 30 is among the most pro-American in the Middle East, and tend not to share the impassioned anti-Israel sentiment of their Arab neighbors. While the excitement generated in India and Pakistan as a result of their nuclear detonations is commonly cited to show the correlation between nuclear weapons and national pride, such a reaction is best understood in the context of the rivalry between the two countries. The majority of Iranians surveyed claimed to have little desire to show off their military or nuclear prowess. ?Whom would we attack?? asked a 31-year-old laborer, echoing a commonly heard sentiment in Tehran. ?We don t want war with anyone.? Finally, many Iranians, youths in particular, are opposed to the Islamic Republic?s becoming a nuclear power because they believe it would further entrench the hard-liners in the government. ?I fear that if these guys get the bomb they will be able to hold on to power for another 25 years,? said an Iranian professional. ?Nobody wants that.? In particular some expressed a concern that a nuclear Iran would be immune to American and European diplomatic pressure and could continue to repress popular demands for reform without fear of repercussions. At the same time, most Iranians including harsh critics of the Islamic regime remain unconvinced by the allegations that their government is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Many dismiss it as another bogeyman manufactured by the United States and Israel to further antagonize and isolate the Islamic regime. ?I don t believe we are after a bomb,? said a 25-year-old Tehran University student. ?The US is always looking for an excuse to harass these mullahs.? A recently retired Iranian diplomat who said he is ?strongly critical? of the Islamic government agreed with this assessment, saying Iran?s nuclear program ?is neither for defensive nor offensive purposes ? It?s only for energy purposes.? Two lessons can be drawn from this. First, the European-brokered compromise on Iran?s nuclear program, which appealed to reformists and pragmatists within the Iranian government, was also a victory of sorts for the Iranian people, who are eager to emerge from the political and economic isolation of the past two decades and are strongly in favor of increasing ties with the West. A blatant lack of cooperation with the international community would not have been well received domestically. Second, a more aggressive reaction by the international community a US or Israeli attempt to strike Iran?s nuclear facilities could well have the unintended consequence of antagonizing a highly nationalistic and largely pro-Western populace and convincing Iranians that a nuclear weapon is indeed in their national interest. Such a reaction would be disastrous for American interests in the region, especially given Iran?s key location between Iraq and Afghanistan. Western and Israeli diplomats and analysts should know that the ability to solve the Iranian nuclear predicament diplomatically has broad implications for the future of democracy and nonproliferation in Iran and the rest of the Middle East. The goal is to bring the Iranian regime on the same page with the Iranian people. A non-diplomatic attempt to destroy Iran?s nuclear facilities could do precisely the opposite. /*Karim Sadjadpour*, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, is a visiting fellow at the American University of Beirut. This commentary, which appeared in the Washington Post, was also written for *THE DAILY STAR */ Copyright <../Lebaabro/info/copyrigh.htm> 1997-2004 The Daily Star (ISSN 1564-0310). All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without written permission of The Daily Star newspaper is prohibited. ***************************************************************** 21 Daily Times: Iran denies receiving nuclear information from Dr Qadeer | *Monday, February 09, 2004* TEHRAN: Iran on Sunday denied it had received nuclear technology from Pakistan?s top nuclear scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan who admitted to having passed secrets to the Islamic republic. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Tehran had bought pieces of equipment that could raise suspicions and subsequently turned over the sellers? names to the UN?s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). ?Pakistan?s worries are Iran?s worries, but what is being raised in the media is not true,? Mr Asefi said, in the Iranian government?s first reaction to the confession by the founder of Pakistan?s atomic programme. Dr Khan on Wednesday admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea for personal profit following an investigation based on information from the IAEA. President Pervez Musharraf pardoned Dr Khan, a national hero, the next day after he delivered a dramatic television apology. ?The Islamic Republic has bought certain parts from the middlemen whose names have been reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency,? Mr Asefi said, although he made no mention of having received atomic information, such as blueprints, which were made available through Khan on the black market. ?It is evident that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not aware of what is going on behind the scenes and we have just reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency the names of the middlemen from whom we bought the parts,? he said. ?Pakistan is among the Islamic Republic?s friends and we attach enormous importance to ties with Pakistan,? he said. Iran has been asked by the IAEA to come clean on its nuclear programme, after hiding sensitive aspects, including enriching small amounts of uranium and plutonium for 18 years. It has defended its ?inalienable right? to use nuclear energy for peaceful ends, although the United States suspects it is hiding a weapons programme. ?AFP Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions ***************************************************************** 22 Gulf News: US claims new proof of Iran's secret atomic bomb project * Dubai:Saturday, February 07, 2004* Vienna |By Anton La Guardia | 07-02-2004 * America has convincing new evidence that iran is hiding an atomic bomb project despite Tehran's promise to open up all of its nuclear facilities to international inspectors, a senior US official has told The Daily Telegraph. He said the Tehran regime was secretly trying to build a second and more advanced uranium enrichment plant in parallel to the large facilities in the town of Natanz revealed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year. "There is no doubt in our mind that the Iranians have a lot that the IAEA does not know about," said the official. "The Iranians have a military programme that the IAEA has never set eyes on." Another western source confirmed that the nuclear technology smuggling network headed by Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's top nuclear weapons scientist, had sold much more equipment to Iran than Tehran has so far admitted to. The latest intelligence on Iran, if corroborated, will ignite an intense international crisis with the Iranian regime. The US seems, for the moment, to be seeking to strangle Iran's nuclear programme through inspections and diplomatic agreements brokered by Europe. But the presence of US troops either side of Iran - in Iraq and Afghanistan - is a reminder to the regime that Washington retains the declared option of "pre-emptive" military action. Clear-cut proof of a secret nuclear weapons programme in Iran would be an acute embarrassment for Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, who has invested heavily in "engagement" with the clerical regime. Last October Britain, France and Germany brokered a deal in which Tehran supposedly came clean about its nuclear programme and in return was spared action by the United Nations Security Council. Iran also agreed "temporarily" to suspend uranium enrichment at the Natanz plant. But Western diplomats said it had continued to buy components, assemble centrifuges and test the equipment. Senior diplomats from the big three European countries this week met Iranian officials in Vienna to demand that Tehran halt these subsidiary enrichment-related activities, but reached no agreement. It was not clear whether they discussed US suspicions that Tehran had a second secret enrichment plant. Iran claims it has only sought to make low-enriched uranium as fuel for a planned civil nuclear reactor to generate electricity. But it admitted to lying to the IAEA for 18 years, saying it had made a small quantity of highly-enriched uranium and also separated a few grams of plutonium - both weapons-grade fissile material. According to US and western sources, it is now clear that Iran has been hiding much more. In particular, they believe Tehran has been trying to build a G2 centrifuge with high-speed rotors made of maraging steel, a light but high-strength form of the metal. This is a more efficient model than the aluminium-based G1 design that is under IAEA inspection in Natanz. Both versions are based on Dutch designs stolen in the 1970s by Khan when he was working as a metallurgist in the Netherlands for Urenco, the British-German-Dutch nuclear fuel consortium. Libya bought both the G1 aluminium and G2 maraging steel versions from Khan's network. Officials will not say precisely how they have established that Iran is still working on an atomic bomb. But a wealth of information is emerging from the unravelling of the "nuclear supermarket" supplied by Khan. The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2003 ***************************************************************** 23 WAR.WIRE: Iran denies receiving nuclear secrets from Pakistani nuclear scientist TEHRAN (AFP) Feb 08, 2004 Iran on Sunday denied it had received nuclear technology from Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, who admitted to having passed secrets to the Islamic republic. Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Tehran had bought pieces of equipment that could raise suspicions and subsequently turned over the sellers' names to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "Pakistan's worries are Iran's worries, but what is being raised in the media is not true," Asefi said, according to the state news agency IRNA, in the government's first reaction to the confession by the founder of Pakistan's atomic program, Abdul Qadeer Khan. Khan on Wednesday admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea for personal profit following an investigation based on information from the IAEA. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan, a national hero, the next day after he delivered a dramatic television apology. "The Islamic Republic has bought certain parts from the middlemen whose names have been reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency," Asefi said, although he made no mention of having received atomic know-how, such as blueprints which were made available through Khan on the black market. "It is evident that the Islamic Republic is not aware of what is going on behind the scenes and we have just reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency the names of the middlemen from whom we bought the parts," he said. "Pakistan is among the Islamic Republic's friends and we attach enormous importance to ties with Pakistan," he said. Iran has been asked by the IAEA to come clean on its nuclear program, after hiding sensitive aspects, including enriching small amounts of uranium and plutonium, for 18 years. It has defended its "inalienable right" to use nuclear energy for peaceful ends, although the United States suspects it is hiding a weapons program. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse . ***************************************************************** 24 Daily Star Opinion: Iranians don?t want nuclear weapons whatever the officials say DS 07/02/04 * * Do the people of Iran want the bomb? Iran?s recent decision to allow for tighter inspection of its nuclear facilities which it says are for civilian purposes was hailed by Iranian and European officials as a diplomatic victory, while analysts and officials in Washington and Tel Aviv continue to be wary of Tehran?s intentions. But despite the attention given to Iran?s nuclear aspirations in recent months, an important question has scarcely been touched on: How do the Iranian people feel about having nuclear weapons? Iranian officials have suggested that the country?s nuclear program is an issue that resonates on the Iranian street and is a great source of national pride. But months of interviews I have conducted in Iran reveal a somewhat different picture. Whereas few Iranians are opposed to the development of a nuclear energy facility, most do not see it as a solution to their primary concerns: economic malaise and political and social repression. What?s more, most of the Iranians surveyed said they oppose the pursuit of a nuclear weapons program because it runs counter to their desire for ?peace and tranquility.? Three reasons were commonly cited. First, having experienced a devastating eight-year war with Saddam Hussein?s Iraq that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of their compatriots, Iranians are opposed to reliving war or violence. Many Iranians said the pursuit of nuclear weapons would lead the country down a path no one wanted to travel. Two decades ago revolutionary euphoria was strong, and millions of young men volunteered to defend their country against an Iraqi onslaught. Today few Iranians have illusions about the realities of conflict. The argument that a nuclear weapon could help serve as a deterrent to ensure peace in Iran seemed incongruous to most. ? If we want peace, why would we want a bomb?? asked a middle-aged Iranian woman, seemingly concurring with an influential Iranian diplomat who contends that a nuclear weapon ?would not augment Iran?s security but rather heighten its vulnerabilities.? Second, while a central premise of Iran?s Islamic government from the time of its inception has been its steadfast opposition to the United States and Israel, for most Iranians no such nemeses exist. Iran?s young populace more than two-thirds of the country is younger than 30 is among the most pro-American in the Middle East, and tend not to share the impassioned anti-Israel sentiment of their Arab neighbors. While the excitement generated in India and Pakistan as a result of their nuclear detonations is commonly cited to show the correlation between nuclear weapons and national pride, such a reaction is best understood in the context of the rivalry between the two countries. The majority of Iranians surveyed claimed to have little desire to show off their military or nuclear prowess. ?Whom would we attack?? asked a 31-year-old laborer, echoing a commonly heard sentiment in Tehran. ?We don t want war with anyone.? Finally, many Iranians, youths in particular, are opposed to the Islamic Republic?s becoming a nuclear power because they believe it would further entrench the hard-liners in the government. ?I fear that if these guys get the bomb they will be able to hold on to power for another 25 years,? said an Iranian professional. ?Nobody wants that.? In particular some expressed a concern that a nuclear Iran would be immune to American and European diplomatic pressure and could continue to repress popular demands for reform without fear of repercussions. At the same time, most Iranians including harsh critics of the Islamic regime remain unconvinced by the allegations that their government is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Many dismiss it as another bogeyman manufactured by the United States and Israel to further antagonize and isolate the Islamic regime. ?I don t believe we are after a bomb,? said a 25-year-old Tehran University student. ?The US is always looking for an excuse to harass these mullahs.? A recently retired Iranian diplomat who said he is ?strongly critical? of the Islamic government agreed with this assessment, saying Iran?s nuclear program ?is neither for defensive nor offensive purposes ? It?s only for energy purposes.? Two lessons can be drawn from this. First, the European-brokered compromise on Iran?s nuclear program, which appealed to reformists and pragmatists within the Iranian government, was also a victory of sorts for the Iranian people, who are eager to emerge from the political and economic isolation of the past two decades and are strongly in favor of increasing ties with the West. A blatant lack of cooperation with the international community would not have been well received domestically. Second, a more aggressive reaction by the international community a US or Israeli attempt to strike Iran?s nuclear facilities could well have the unintended consequence of antagonizing a highly nationalistic and largely pro-Western populace and convincing Iranians that a nuclear weapon is indeed in their national interest. Such a reaction would be disastrous for American interests in the region, especially given Iran?s key location between Iraq and Afghanistan. Western and Israeli diplomats and analysts should know that the ability to solve the Iranian nuclear predicament diplomatically has broad implications for the future of democracy and nonproliferation in Iran and the rest of the Middle East. The goal is to bring the Iranian regime on the same page with the Iranian people. A non-diplomatic attempt to destroy Iran?s nuclear facilities could do precisely the opposite. /*Karim Sadjadpour*, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, is a visiting fellow at the American University of Beirut. This commentary, which appeared in the Washington Post, was also written for * THE DAILY STAR */ market | Galleries Copyright 1997-2004 The Daily Star (ISSN 1564-0310). All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in ***************************************************************** 25 Las Vegas SUN: U.S., China Disagree on N. Korea Weapons February 07, 2004 *By GEORGE GEDDA* ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Bush administration officials are concerned that China's rejection of U.S. contentions about the scope of North Korea's nuclear weapons program could give Pyongyang a boost at a key six-nation meeting this month. Since 2002, the United States has contended that North Korea has been developing uranium-based nuclear weapons as a supplement to its long-standing plutonium-based nuclear capability. While there is no dispute about the plutonium program, North Korea has persistently denied the U.S. allegations about the uranium-based project. Its stand is supported by China. An administration official said Friday the United States has informed China that its backing for North Korea on this point is not helpful, particularly as multilateral discussions over the North Korea nuclear question are about to resume. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. The talks in Beijing, set to start on Feb. 25, will involve the United States, North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. The United States is seeking the verifiable dismantling of all of the North's nuclear weapons facilities. Officials have said that no comprehensive agreement is possible so long as North Korea does not acknowledge all aspects of its nuclear program. The North has said it is willing to dismantle its plutonium-based program, the only one that it acknowledges. The Bush administration would be willing to offer economic benefits to the North as Pyongyang moves ahead with a disarmament program. Officials do not expect a breakthrough at the Beijing meetings. The administration says intelligence information disclosed the existence of the North Korean uranium program in 2002 and that Pyongyang officials acknowledged the program during talks in October of that year. North Korea has denied the existence of any such program and said the meeting 16 months ago produced no such admission. The Bush administration has frequently praised China for its leadership role in attempts to resolve the North Korea nuclear impasse. Beyond that, China has said it supports the U.S. goal of keeping the Korean peninsula without a nuclear program. China and the United States have other differences over North Korea, but they do not appear to be as serious. China, for example, has suggested the United States make concessions in its approach to the North. It also has been more enthusiastic than the United States over North Korea's willingness to freeze its plutonium-based program. In December, Secretary of State Colin Powell called that proposal "positive," but the administration has since played down its significance. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said last week, "We're not seeking or asking for a freeze. We're looking for elimination of the programs." * / All contents copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 26 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL]Inter-Korean generals talks * Saturday, February 7, 104 Delegates to the South-North ministerial talks held in Seoul last week agreed to hold the first conference of "general-level" officers from both sides to discuss security matters. Considering the reduced cross-border exchanges, not to speak of the long absence of any substantial dialogue on military issues between the two Koreas, we welcome the agreement as another sign that the North Koreans are seeking an early breakthrough in the nuclear deadlock. The latest 13th session of the inter-Korean ministerial conference opened amid heightened expectations because, shortly before its delegation arrived, Pyongyang announced it had agreed to convene the next six-nation talks on Feb. 25 in Beijing. The four-day Seoul talks, however, were far from proceeding smoothly as the two sides failed to narrow their differences concerning the North's nuclear armament, among other prominent issues on the agenda. The northern delegates protested that the South was growing uncooperative in inter-Korean economic projects under pressure from the United States. It was no doubt an absurd complaint from the viewpoint of the southerners who have been striving to bring the two adversaries closer to a compromise. Under such an atmosphere, the last-minute accord on the first-ever meeting of generals seems a notable achievement. It also kindles some hope for the upcoming multilateral nuclear talks. Few would be naive enough to harbor any hasty optimism about the talks given the North's proven unreliability as a dialogue partner, as well as the complex geopolitical environment surrounding Korean issues. However, there now seem to be more reasons than ever to hope that the two Koreas can sit down face-to-face to have a genuine dialogue on security issues they both encounter and build mutual confidence in order to remove the dangers of armed conflict. It is to be regretted that delegates from both sides failed to agree on the date and place of the proposed talks. And again they racked their brains over the wording of a joint statement in the time-old tradition of delicate inter-Korean negotiations in the past. As a result, the statement said in the South that the military talks will be convened "as soon as possible," while the North announced that "the delegations agreed to recommend their respective authorities hold such talks at an early date." Tactical modification of a statement cannot matter when the authorities of both the North and South truly agree that they must work together to ease the tension surrounding the peninsula. North Koreans must first show through their deeds, not words, that they value "coordination among the same nation." In order to do so, they will have to take convincing steps to assure people that they will not threaten South Korean security, either with their conventional weapons or nuclear bombs. It seems appropriate that the two sides shared the view that their generals would need to meet before the crab fishing season in the West Sea, which begins in May, to prevent armed skirmishes between patrol boats. Trust has to be built step by step between two sides still at a technical state of war half a century after an armistice was signed. Most of all, the North must understand that economic cooperation and assistance is impossible as long as the border dividing the two Koreas remains a dangerous flash point. Talks between high-level officers from the two Koreas are deemed even more useful when the United States is planning a major redeployment of its forces here, including a possible troop cut. We hope the generals' talks will reopen the inter-Korean defense ministers' conference, which folded after a single session in September 2000. The military authorities of both sides are urged to meet regularly to discuss arms reduction and relocation in order to pave the road to a lasting peace on the peninsula. 2004.02.09 ***************************************************************** 27 Yomiuri Shimbun: N. Korea faces call to disclose uranium-based weapon plans * Japan, the United States and South Korea have decided to demand during six-nation talks in Beijing on Feb. 25 that North Korea disclose information on its uranium-based nuclear development program, government sources said Saturday. They also will demand that North Korea freeze the program, the sources said. North Korea denies having a highly enriched uranium-based nuclear development program, although it has admitted to a plutonium-based one. The three countries consider it necessary to clarify the actual state of Pyongyang's nuclear programs, both uranium- and plutonium based, before they can realize their goal of forcing North Korea to abandon its nuclear development program in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner. The United States is considering presenting North Korea with part of the proof it claims to have of that country's enriched-uranium nuclear development program. According to the sources, the three countries confirmed the policy at a high-level official meeting in Washington in late January. The three countries are stressing the disclosure and freezing of the uranium-based program out of worry that North Korea might freeze its plutonium-based nuclear development in order to receive economic support from the other countries, while leaving its uranium-based program active. Since December, North Korea has sought concessions in return for freezing its nuclear development programs. The concessions include North Korea's deletion from a U.S. list of terrorist-supporting countries, the revocation of political, economic and military sanctions, and energy support, including shipments of heavy oil. However, after Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, admitted involvement in sales of nuclear technology, including centrifuges, to North Korea and other countries in the 1990s, it is highly likely that North Korea has had a uranium-based nuclear development program. === N. Korea ready to negotiate? North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan will likely attend the second round of six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear program as the country's representative, sources said Saturday. Kim, who specializes in matters related to the United States, participated in negotiations on the 1994 Agreed Framework with the United States and in other meetings concerning the subsequent nuclear crisis and missile problem. As Kim is an experienced diplomat and is well-versed in the nuclear development problem, government sources said North Korea might be ready to participate in meaningful negotiations during the upcoming talks. Copyright 2004 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 28 Las Vegas SUN Defector: N. Korea Has Uranium Program ------- Today: February 08, 2004 at 16:20:10 PST ** ASSOCIATED PRESS TOKYO (AP) - A top-ranking North Korean defector said the North launched a uranium-based nuclear weapons program in 1996 with the help of Pakistan, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday. Hwang Jang Yop, a former mentor to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, told the Tokyo Shimbun in an interview that a top military official told him eight years ago about an agreement with Pakistan to develop an enriched uranium weapons program. Since 2002, the United States has contended that North Korea has been developing uranium-based nuclear weapons as a supplement to its long-standing plutonium-based nuclear capability. While there is no dispute about the plutonium program, North Korea has persistently denied U.S. allegations about the uranium-based project. "Jon Pyong Ho came to me, as the person responsible for international affairs, asking 'Can we buy some more plutonium from Russia or somewhere? I want to make a few more nuclear bombs,'" the newspaper quoted Hwang as saying. "But then, before the fall of 1996, he said 'We've solved a big problem. We don't need plutonium this time. Due to an agreement with Pakistan, we will use uranium.'" Jon is a member of North Korea's National Defense Committee and a secretary of the country's ruling Workers' Party. Hwang, who defected to South Korea in 1997, was a former chief of North Korea's Parliament. According to Pakistani government and intelligence sources, equipment including centrifuges for enriching uranium were trafficked from Pakistan from 1989 until the late 1990s. Pakistani officials last week said Abdul Qadeer Khan, founder of the country's nuclear program, had confessed to sending sensitive nuclear technology to North Korea. The United States and its allies Japan and South Korea are demanding that North Korea eliminate its nuclear weapons program. The countries, together with China and Russia, are to hold a second round of six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program from Feb. 25 in Beijing. A Bush administration official said Friday, however, that China refuses to accept the U.S. contention that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons based on highly enriched uranium. The administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. diplomats have told Beijing its position is not helpful. -- copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. / ***************************************************************** 29 Las Vegas SUN Defector: N. Korea Has Uranium Program Today: February 08, 2004 at 16:20:10 PST ASSOCIATED PRESS TOKYO (AP) - A top-ranking North Korean defector said the North launched a uranium-based nuclear weapons program in 1996 with the help of Pakistan, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday. Hwang Jang Yop, a former mentor to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, told the Tokyo Shimbun in an interview that a top military official told him eight years ago about an agreement with Pakistan to develop an enriched uranium weapons program. Since 2002, the United States has contended that North Korea has been developing uranium-based nuclear weapons as a supplement to its long-standing plutonium-based nuclear capability. While there is no dispute about the plutonium program, North Korea has persistently denied U.S. allegations about the uranium-based project. "Jon Pyong Ho came to me, as the person responsible for international affairs, asking 'Can we buy some more plutonium from Russia or somewhere? I want to make a few more nuclear bombs,'" the newspaper quoted Hwang as saying. "But then, before the fall of 1996, he said 'We've solved a big problem. We don't need plutonium this time. Due to an agreement with Pakistan, we will use uranium.'" Jon is a member of North Korea's National Defense Committee and a secretary of the country's ruling Workers' Party. Hwang, who defected to South Korea in 1997, was a former chief of North Korea's Parliament. According to Pakistani government and intelligence sources, equipment including centrifuges for enriching uranium were trafficked from Pakistan from 1989 until the late 1990s. Pakistani officials last week said Abdul Qadeer Khan, founder of the country's nuclear program, had confessed to sending sensitive nuclear technology to North Korea. The United States and its allies Japan and South Korea are demanding that North Korea eliminate its nuclear weapons program. The countries, together with China and Russia, are to hold a second round of six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program from Feb. 25 in Beijing. A Bush administration official said Friday, however, that China refuses to accept the U.S. contention that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons based on highly enriched uranium. The administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. diplomats have told Beijing its position is not helpful. * / All contents copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 30 Halliburton: FG to Probe $180m Kick Back* Dateline: undefined/Sat, 07 Feb 2004 05:55:52 GMT/undefined /From Josephine Lohor in Abuja/ President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, ordered investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commi-ssion (EFCC) into allegations that Halliburton paid $180 million as kick-back to secure a natural gas project in Nigeria in the 1990s. Already, the United States-based company, is answering questions regarding the issue with the United States Justice Department. Only last year, there were allegations that Halliburton paid $2.4m over tax evasion in Nigeria, out of which the EFCC has so far recovered about N80m which has been paid into the Federation Account. Obasanjo, on Thursday, had set up a six-man committee headed by the Minister of Justice, Mr Akin Olujimi, to investigate the theft of radioactive materials from the Halliburton Energy Services in Nigeria which were traced to a recycling plant in Germany. However, before the Nigerian government could ask for retrieval of the radio active materials, they were taken to the Halliburton Group in the United States. Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mrs Oluremi Oyo, who made the disclosure on investigations into the kickback on natural gas projects in the 1990s in Nigeria to State House Correspondents yesterday, said President Obasanjo is very serious about his anti-corruption crusade. She said as with other cases that border on corruption, the President has ordered that this issue be investigated properly and persons found guilty be prosecuted. Oyo stated that::"President Obasanjo has ordered another investigation into allegations that Halliburton paid kick back to secure a natural gas project in the 1990s in Nigeria. "Investigations have already begun and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is the arrowhead of that probe. It will look into all the parameters, whether in the country or outside and the President has said that no stone would be left unturned to get to the bottom of this." The presidential spokesperson further revealed that, "the alleged kick-back payment is worth $180m and the company that made the allegation is already answering questions from the United States Justice Department." Oyo added that "in line with the anti-corruption stance of the Federal Government, things must be done transparently. Corruption must be eradicated from the body polity." She said, "when the President hears of any scam, he immediately steps into it. Not only to retrieve our money but see that those responsible are brought to book." Oyo, while recalling Nigeria's relationship with Halliburton, stated that "last year, there was the allegation that the same Halliburton allegedly paid $2.4m over tax evasion. Already, the EFCC has been able to recover a substantial part of the money. "You will recall that only yesterday, President Obasanjo directed that a committee headed by the Minister of Justice be formed to look into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of radioactive material from Halliburton," she said.. | THISDAY People | Contact Us Copyright 2000 Leaders & Company Limited ***************************************************************** 31 Spectator: Presidential abuse of power deserves scrutiny Sunday Feb. 08, 2004 OPINION by Charles Wesley February 07, 2004 President Bush has called for a bipartisan inquiry into the intelligence failures in the rush to war in Iraq. The staggering divide between what Congress and the nation was told and what the inspectors and David Kay found points to a massive failure in the system governing the war-making process of the United States. While Kay, a Bush appointee, speculates that the intelligence community is to blame, the results of his report demand that the issue be investigated. But the issue at hand is larger than whether the intelligence was to blame, or whether, as I believe, that the Bush administration willfully and illegally misled the world with selective intelligence, whether it was true or not. The larger question we should be asking is, ?How can one branch of the government strong-arm the nation into a war of choice with little to no evidence proving its necessity?? The Iraq War is but one instance in a trend that can be traced back to at least World War II. The internment of Japanese-Americans, a direct result of Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1941, is one example of presidential power abused during a time of crisis. The order effectively gave the Secretary of War the authority to create ?military areas? where ?any or all persons [could] be excluded? at will. The result was 110,000 people?many of them American citizens?imprisoned in concentration camps throughout the western states. A commission in 1980 condemned the action, and in 1988, under President Reagan, the Civil Liberties Act of that year allowed reparations to be paid to the former detainees?$20,000 each, totaling some $1.2 billion. ?The truth is, that constitutions and laws are not sufficient of themselves,? wrote Tom C. Clark, a former Supreme Court Justice. ?Despite the unequivocal language of the Constitution of the United States?these constitutional safeguards were denied by military action under Executive Order 9066.? Similarly, despite the fact that Congress is the /only/ governmental body legally empowered to declare war, the Vietnam conflict, never officially a war, is another example of presidential power abused for political ends. The Gulf of Tonkin incident, the rationale behind a rush towards armed conflict without Congressional declaration of war, is the greatest fraud of the 20th century. On Aug. 4, 1964, North Vietnamese PT boats allegedly attacked the /USS Maddox/. The resulting push for war by President Lyndon Johnson, and subsequently President Richard Nixon, was responsible for the deaths of 58,156 Americans. James Stockdale, a pilot who witnessed the Gulf of Tonkin incident, later said, ?I had the best seat in the house to watch that event, and our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets?there were no PT boats there.? Which brings us to the greatest fraud of the 21st century: the second Iraq War. In the cases of both Vietnam and Iraq, the Executive branch strong-armed the Congress into giving up its power to wage war. In exchange for loosely worded resolutions with little limits on presidential power, the Congress and the American people were given conflicts that bore little resemblence to the rationale offered. There was no attack against the /Maddox/, and as it turns out, there are no weapons of mass destruction. There are, however, many serious questions. And an inquiry into the CIA?s failures will not lead us to answers. America needs to seriously reevaluate how power is exercised by the government. Specifically, the growing power of the Executive branch should be revisited and, I believe, curtailed. The Bush administrations has given us many examples of the ways the office can be used to abuse power. From the influence of special interests (Energy Task Force) to corporate ties (Halliburton/KBR no-bid multibillion dollar contracts with evidence of extensive overcharging from fuel to food) to intelligence manipulation (Niger uranium claim, etc.), the Executive office, with ineffective checks, can in the least act immorally. At the most, the Office of the President of the United States can be used to violate the very principles of democracy and freedom. ?To take a single step beyond the boundaries drawn around the powers of Congress,? Thomas Jefferson wrote, ?is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to any definition.? I propose that the investigation into the rush to war look at how the intelligence was gathered, but more importantly, how intelligence was selected and how and who determined what was ?good, solid? intelligence and what was not. Secondly, the investigation ought to thoroughly compare every claim made by the Executive branch against the intelligence that was known at the time?particularly that information that did not fit into the neo-conservative agenda. If claims were found to be expressly false, and were known to be false by members of the intelligence community, then those guilty of the claims ought to be charged with the appropriate crime. If an official gave false statements to Congress, including the State of the Union address, and should have known?whether they claim to have known or not?they should be held accountable by the legal system. Lastly, the investigation ought to look into the Congressional capitulation to the Executive?s push for war. The emphasis ought to be on whether the Congress was given a full account of /all/ of the intelligence, and if not, the investigation ought to list how and where the system failed to keep the nation from going into a war of choice without all the facts. There ought to be a moratorium placed on future military action until this has been completed, with the exception of the proper declaration of war already properly given to Congress. If, during the time of investigation, the nation should come under attack the Congress must function as it is intended to?as a deliberative body that can act as the only governmental body authorized to permit military action. Real change will not come about by whitewashes that blame people like George Tenent when many more serious, systemic troubles still exist. There is absolutely no reason the American people and the world should be /forced/ to take a president?s word. A president should never be given the power to choose to act alone, and any president who fights to keep that right is fighting to undermine the sanctity of American government. It is high time that we eliminate the errors that allow for great misdeeds to be done by sitting presidents. Simply denouncing them after they are done is not an option. We must act to pre-empt future wrongs before they are forced upon us. spectator-online.com ***************************************************************** 32 Washpost: Rumsfeld Defends Preemption Doctrine * /By Bradley Graham/ Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, February 8, 2004; Page A21 MUNICH, Feb. 7 -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reaffirmed the administration's doctrine of preemptive military action Saturday and offered an impassioned defense of the decision to invade Iraq, saying former president Saddam Hussein's defiance had forced the United States to act. While acknowledging that the decision to attack an enemy before being attacked depends on having "elegant intelligence" about the opponent's intentions and arsenals, Rumsfeld argued forcefully for striking first, particularly in cases involving the potential use of a biological agent or other weapons that could cause thousands of deaths. "The greater the risk and the danger, the lower the threshold for action," he said, speaking at a conference on U.S. and European security issues here. The invasion of Iraq marked the first application of the Bush administration's preemptive approach. The disclosure recently of errors and gaps in the U.S. intelligence assessment of Iraq's weapons programs before the war has raised fresh concerns about the U.S. doctrine, both in the United States and abroad. "I agree you can't wait to absorb the first blow," Josef Joffee, editor of the German publication Die Zeit, told Rumsfeld during a question-and-answer session. "But what are we going to do about intelligence in a situation where intelligence is absolutely vital so we don't shoot the wrong guy?" Rumsfeld responded that gathering intelligence in a world of secretive governments, fiber-optic cabling and underground tunneling is "a very difficult thing to do," but he said he hoped the new U.S. presidential commission announced Friday to investigate intelligence shortcomings would lead to improvements. Rumsfeld's unyielding remarks surprised many of the conference participants. In recent weeks, the Bush administration has made a point of trying to move relations with European allies beyond last year's divisions over the Iraq war and toward a focus on new cooperative initiatives against terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In the process, the administration also has been seeking more European troops for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. At last year's conference -- an annual event that draws several hundred senior government officials and national security experts, mostly from European countries -- Rumsfeld clashed openly with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer over Washington's reasons for preparing to invade Iraq. This year, many had expected Rumsfeld to strike a measured tone. Most other speeches and remarks during the day were notably free of contention. Fischer, delivering the opening address, did start with a jab about Iraq, saying the German government "feels that events have proven the position it took at the time to be right," adding, "we were not and are still not convinced of the validity of the reasons for war." He also expressed "deep skepticism" about an enlarged role for NATO in Iraq, though he made clear his government would not block a possible alliance move to take command of a multinational division in south-central Iraq now under Polish and Spanish leadership. But Fischer quickly sounded a conciliatory note, outlining a proposal for the United States and Europe to join in developing a broad new strategy for fostering "modernization and stabilization" in the Middle East. U.S. officials traveling with Rumsfeld welcomed the initiative, noting similarities with President Bush's call last autumn for efforts to promote democracy in the region. Rumsfeld, in his prepared remarks, launched into a spirited defense of the invasion, arguing Hussein brought it on himself. He noted decisions by Kazakhstan, Ukraine, South Africa and, most recently, Libya to open their arsenals of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction to inspection, and contrasted this openness with Hussein's "path of deception and defiance" before the war. "It was his choice," Rumsfeld said of Hussein. "If the Iraqi regime had taken the steps Libya is now taking, there would have been no war." Facing some critical audience questions afterward, Rumsfeld became animated and loud at times. Asked what the United States could do to improve its much-deteriorated image in the world, Rumsfeld blamed news coverage by Arab television networks for contributing to the decline by promoting "highly negative" stories. "I know in my heart and brain that America ain't what's wrong with the world," he said. Cutting through the air with his hands for emphasis, he recalled the situation in Iraq before the war, "with people being tortured, rape rooms, mass graves, gross corruption, a country that had used chemical weapons on its own people." "There were prominent people from represented countries in this room that opined that they really didn't think it made a hell of a lot of difference who won," he said, looking out at the packed hotel conference room. "Shocking. Absolutely shocking." 2004 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 33 Clarion ledger: TVA debt higher than recorded* February 7, 2004 # White House claims public utility's liabilities $1.3B greater than listed The Associated Press KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ? White House budget managers say the Tennessee Valley Authority's long-term debt is $1.3 billion higher than the nation's largest public utility has been counting. That equals about half of the Knoxville-based agency's debt reduction since 1997, and potentially adds to the ratepayers' burden since TVA receives no federal funding for its power operations. TVA views this mostly as an accounting problem. TVA officials say they declared the $1.3 billion in low-cost alternative financing deals as liabilities elsewhere on the agency's balance sheet. The deals included selling large blocks of electricity in advance and obtaining the use of 24 peak-power turbine generators in lease arrangements. TVA says it is under no legal obligation to add the $1.3 billion to its declared $24.9 billion long-term debt. TVA's debt is underwritten with TVA bonds and limited to a $30 billion ceiling set by Congress. Most of the debt resulted from an overly ambitious nuclear power program three decades ago. Efforts to reduce it are hampered by millions of dollars TVA is spending on pollution controls for its fossil power plants, and to restart a nuclear reactor. "Currently our books disclose all of these liabilities, we just have them in separate buckets," said TVA Director Bill Baxter, adding that it doesn't lessen TVA's commitment to trimming its debt by $3 billion to $5 billion over the next 10 to 12 years. But the White House's Office of Management and Budget says all of these liabilities should be added together, and recommended in President Bush's fiscal 2005 budget on Monday that TVA be required by law to do so. While "largely a technical issue," the change is needed "in order to have an accurate picture of what their debt held is," OMB spokesman Chad Kolton said. U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, who chairs the TVA congressional caucus, was not pleased. "I'm disappointed that TVA and OMB can't resolve how much statutory debt TVA truly has. We need to get to the bottom of this ? for our ratepayers' sake," the Tennessee Republican said. Copyright 2004, The Clarion-Ledger. ***************************************************************** 34 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Defends War in Rare TV Interview February 08, 2004 at 13:55:12 PST *By DEB RIECHMANN* ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush denied he marched America into war under false pretenses and said the U.S.-led invasion was necessary because Saddam Hussein could have developed a nuclear weapon. "I don't think America can stand by and hope for the best," the president said. Bush suggested Saddam may have destroyed or spirited out of the country the banned weapons the Bush administration cited as a main rationale for the war. "I expected to find the weapons," Bush said in an Oval Office interview broadcast Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Sitting behind this desk, making a very difficult decision of war and peace, I based my decision on the best intelligence possible," the president said. The interview was taped Saturday. Bush also was asked about the fugitive Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks whom the president had pledged to get "dead or alive." He chuckled when told that a Republican lawmaker had predicted Osama would be captured before the presidential election. "I appreciate his optimism," Bush said. "I have no idea whether we will capture or bring him to justice. ... I know we are on the hunt." The interview, his first on a Sunday talk show since taking office, came as the president's approval rating has dipped to 47 percent, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll taken in early February; that compares with 56 percent just a month ago. The appearance followed weeks of criticism from Democrats over the failure so far to find Iraq's cache of weapons. "They could have been destroyed during the war," Bush said, speculating about reasons the reports might have been wrong. "Saddam and his henchmen could have destroyed them as we entered into Iraq. They could be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find out." The president said he retained confidence in CIA Director George Tenet. Bush shook his head from side to side when asked if Tenet's job was in jeopardy. "No, not at all, not at all," Bush said. Bush pledged to cooperate with a commission he set up last week to examine prewar intelligence lapses and defended its March 2005 reporting date, which is four months after the White House election. "There is going to be ample time for the American people to assess ... whether or not I made the right decision in removing Saddam Hussein from power," Bush said. Democrats in Congress and on the campaign trail said Sunday they wanted to see the findings before the election, if possible. "What we've got here is a president who simply doesn't want to be held accountable," presidential hopeful Wesley Clark told CNN's "Late Edition." Bush did not directly respond to election-year allegations that his administration exaggerated intelligence, but made clear that the United States considered the Iraqi president a dictator who brutalized and killed his own people. "I strongly believe that inaction in Iraq would have emboldened Saddam Hussein," Bush said. "He could have developed a nuclear weapon over time - I'm not saying immediately, but over time. ... We would have been in a position of blackmail. In other words, you can't rely upon a madman." Also on the foreign policy front, Bush said "diplomacy is just beginning" with North Korea. The United States and its allies are seeking to persuade the communist nation to abandon its nuclear weapons programs. "We are making good progress," Bush said. On domestic issues, Bush said his tax cuts were responsible for an economic rebound. He dismissed news reports that there is no evidence he reported for National Guard duty in Alabama during the summer and fall of 1972, during the Vietnam War. "There may be no evidence but I did report; otherwise, I wouldn't have been honorably discharged." Bush expressed indifference about polls that showed him trailing the Democratic front-runner, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. "I'm not going to lose," Bush said. "I don't plan on losing." -- copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. / ***************************************************************** 35 NYTimes: OP-ED COLUMNIST* Secret Obsessions at the Top *By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF* Published: February 7, 2004 Atomic Weapons o unravel our intelligence failures in Iraq, it helps to look back at what was once one of the most secret and scary chapters in U.S.-Soviet relations. An intelligence failure risked nuclear war in the 1980's ? but this was a mistake by the K.G.B. In 1981, we now know, the K.G.B. chairman said at a secret conference that President Ronald Reagan was planning to launch a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. The Soviets became consumed with the U.S. threat, just as the Bush administration became obsessed with the Iraq threat. The K.G.B. ordered all its offices in NATO countries to seek evidence of Mr. Reagan's plans for a pre-emptive nuclear strike, and they code-named the effort RYAN. Once K.G.B. officers knew what Moscow wanted, they found "evidence" everywhere of Mr. Reagan's secret plans for a nuclear strike ? confirming Moscow's worst fears. Then NATO held a nuclear launching exercise in November 1983, playing into the Soviet alarm. The K.G.B. mistakenly reported to Moscow that NATO was on an actual alert. The Soviets put their own forces on alert and braced for a nuclear attack. It was "one of the worst nuclear scares since the Cuban missile crisis ? and Washington didn't even know it until after it was over," James Risen and Milt Bearden write in their terrific book about the spy wars, "The Main Enemy." The parallels between our Iraq intelligence mess and RYAN are telling. When a country's capital is in the grip of hard-line ideologues who demand a certain kind of intelligence, they'll get it. The result is an intelligence failure. And, more fundamentally, it's a political failure by the top leaders themselves. So to me, the administration's recent effort to blame the intelligence community for the Iraq mess is as misleading as the drive to war itself. Nothing the C.I.A. did was as harmful as the way administration officials systematically misled Americans about the incomplete and often contradictory mountain of intelligence. For example, in September 2002 the Defense Intelligence Agency issued a still-classified report saying "there is no reliable information" on whether Iraq had chemical weapons. Yet in the same month Donald Rumsfeld was telling a House committee the opposite: "We do know that the Iraqi regime currently has chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, and we do know they are currently pursuing nuclear weapons." I've been canvassing people in the intelligence community, and one person at D.I.A. tells me: "I never saw anything that justified the idea that Saddam was an immediate threat, or that we knew with certainty what he had. Everything I saw was laced with `possibles' and `probables'; in fact, what I saw about those aluminum tubes, for instance, seemed to me to leave the impression that they probably were not nuclear-related." Lt. Col. Dale Davis, a former Marine counterintelligence officer now at the Virginia Military Institute, says he hears from his former intelligence colleagues that top officials "cherry-picked the intel for the most damning, and often least reliable, tidbits and produced alarming conclusions ? the 45-minute chemical attack scenario, the African uranium and the Al Qaeda connection. The C.I.A. never supported these assertions." Another person with long experience in military intelligence put it this way: "Everyone knew from the start that there was no smoking gun and the assessment was based on speculation, anecdote and outdated information, not current evidence. We didn't have the `humint' [human intelligence] capability to confirm anything one way or the other." The administration could have been truthful, saying that the intelligence about W.M.D. was incomplete but alarming ? and that in any case Saddam was a monster. Instead, officials from the president down warned us that unless we went to war, we risked a mushroom cloud at home. That was worse than an intelligence failure. That was dishonesty. Here's an update on Srey Mom, one of the teenage girls whose freedom I purchased in Cambodia. After fleeing her village and returning to the brothel, Srey Mom met this week with my interpreter and aid workers. She agreed to try again to start over, and she has moved to Phnom Penh. She is living with a family and will learn to be either a hairdresser or a model (details can be found at nytimes.com/kristofresponds or in the updated multimedia feature ). So maybe fairy-tale endings are possible. The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 36 [Fwd: [du-list] general interest: Japan-Lybia nuc link] Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 20:25:34 -0800 Return-path: Envelope-to: rogerh@energy-net.org Delivery-date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 06:51:35 -0800 Received: from root by darwin.ctyme.com with ctyme-spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1ApqHT-0006HG-IN for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sun, 08 Feb 2004 06:51:35 -0800 Received: from n36.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.104]) by darwin.ctyme.com with smtp (Exim 4.30) id 1ApqHS-0006H4-Ss for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sun, 08 Feb 2004 06:51:31 -0800 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1009892-5341-1076251889-rogerh=energy-net.org@returns.groups.yahoo.com Received: from [66.218.67.192] by n36.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 08 Feb 2004 14:51:29 -0000 Received: (qmail 16125 invoked from network); 8 Feb 2004 14:51:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.166) by m10.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 8 Feb 2004 14:51:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO n12.grp.scd.yahoo.com) (66.218.66.67) by mta5.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 8 Feb 2004 14:51:28 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: mskn23@yahoo.com Received: from [66.218.67.178] by n12.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 08 Feb 2004 14:51:18 -0000 X-Sender: mskn23@yahoo.com X-Apparently-To: du-list@yahoogroups.com Received: (qmail 92776 invoked from network); 8 Feb 2004 05:14:07 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.172) by m16.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 8 Feb 2004 05:14:07 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO n22.grp.scd.yahoo.com) (66.218.66.78) by mta4.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 8 Feb 2004 05:14:06 -0000 Received: from [66.218.67.164] by n22.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 08 Feb 2004 05:13:53 -0000 To: du-list@yahoogroups.com Message-ID: User-Agent: eGroups-EW/0.82 X-Mailer: Yahoo Groups Message Poster X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 66.218.66.78 From: "Michael" X-Originating-IP: 210.8.228.69 X-Yahoo-Profile: mskn23 X-eGroups-Approved-By: tthornton04350 via web; 08 Feb 2004 14:51:17 -0000 X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 66.218.66.67 MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list du-list@yahoogroups.com; contact du-list-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list du-list@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 05:13:52 -0000 Subject: [du-list] general interest: Japan-Lybia nuc link Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Sender-Hostname: n36.grp.scd.yahoo.com X-Spam-Report: * -3.0 WHITE_PHRASE Phrases in non-spam * -5.0 SUBJ_WHITELIST Subject Whitelist * -1.0 SUBJ_GROUP Subject Indicates Discussion List [] * -2.0 YAHOO_HOST From Yahoo Host * 7.0 BAD_SPELLING Deliberately Misspelled Words * -5.0 YAHOO_EGROUP From Yahoo eGroup * 0.1 FROM_ENDS_IN_NUMS From: ends in numbers * -5.0 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 0 to 1% * [score: 0.0000] X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-13.9 required=5.0 tests=BAD_SPELLING,BAYES_00, FROM_ENDS_IN_NUMS,SUBJ_GROUP,SUBJ_WHITELIST,WHITE_PHRASE,YAHOO_EGROUP, YAHOO_HOST autolearn=ham version=2.70-cvs X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.70-cvs (1.220-2003-12-04-exp) on darwin.ctyme.com Japan firm linked to sales of nuclear parts to Libyans VIENNA (Kyodo) The International Atomic Energy Agency suspects that a Japanese company may have exported parts to Libya for a centrifuge used to enrich uranium, an IAEA source said Saturday. The IAEA bases the suspicion on an investigation into the case of Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, who is believed to have transferred nuclear technologies to countries including Iran and Libya, the source told Kyodo News. The U.N. nuclear watchdog plans to consult with the Japanese government about the situation, said the source, who asked not to be named and declined to identify the Japanese company or reveal any more details of the deal. The company allegedly exported the centrifuge parts, declared to be for civilian use, to Libya via middlemen, but the exports were not conducted on a large scale, the source said. The IAEA has not yet found Japanese links to transfers of nuclear technology to Iran. The agency announced earlier that middlemen in five countries in Europe and Asia have supplied nuclear technologies to Iran and Libya, and warned of the existence of a global nuclear black market. The alleged involvement of a Japanese company suggests the underground black-market network is benefiting from Japan's advanced atomic energy technology. IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei has said his agency's inspections in countries such as Iran and Libya have uncovered a "very sophisticated and complex underground network of black market operators" that he said are not very different from "organized crime cartels." He emphasized the need "to keep making progress in combined efforts against illicit trafficking and to keep upgrading security to effectively prevent sensitive nuclear material and technology from falling into wrong hands." The Japan Times: Feb. 8, 2004 (C) All rights reserved Source: http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040208a6.htm To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 37 Hi Pakistan: Opposition to raise N-issue in Senate February 09 2004 *ISLAMABAD,* Feb 6: The opposition Democratic Alliance has decided to raise the issue of scientists' questioning over nuclear proliferation in the forthcoming Senate session on Feb 13, sources told Dawn on Friday. They said the Democratic Alliance, comprising members of the ARD and other parties in the Senate, had prepared adjournment motions and notices to raise the issue. The opposition would demand a debate in the Senate as "it is a matter of great concern for people of Pakistan and of national importance". The motion has been signed by PPP's parliamentary leader Mian Raza Rabbani, PML-N's parliamentary leader Ishaq Dar, PPP Senator Safdar Abbasi and Sanaullah Baloch of the Balochistan National Party. The opposition would also seek a debate on the statement of International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei in which he had stated that the IAEA had been working with Pakistan to arrest those involved in proliferation. The motion, signed by Mr Rabbani and Mr Dar, says that the house should adjourn normal proceedings to discuss Mr ElBaradei's statement which had appeared in newspapers on Jan 25. The sources said opposition senators would draw the house's attention to contradictory statements by two ministers. Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed had stated on Jan 28 that no scientist had been placed on the exit control list. On the other hand, giving an interview to Voice of America next day, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat had stated that names of some scientists had been put on the ECL. The opposition would seek to know the actual position, they added. Talking to Dawn, ARD's parliamentary secretary Izhar Amrohvi said the opposition would make suggestions to the government for handling the issue in a more responsible manner. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 38 WAR.WIRE: Pakistan stopped expert leaking nuclear secrets as early as 2000: report BERLIN (AFP) Feb 08, 2004 The Pakistani nuclear expert who passed secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, was prevented from continuing his illicit trade as early as 2000, Pakistan's foreign minister said in an interview to appear Monday. "Pakistan put in place instruments of control in 2000. It is not true to say that something left Pakistani factories since that date," Mian Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Abdul Qadeer Khan on Wednesday confessed to clandestinely selling Pakistan's nuclear expertise via black marketeers to foreign governments. Kasuri told the German daily that the Pakistani government knew about Khan's illegal activities three years ago and had subsequently removed him from his position as head of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL). President Pervez Musharraf, reportedly under US pressure, removed Khan from the chairmanship of KRL in March 2001 and made him special adviser on strategic and KRL affairs. Kasuri was Sunday in Germany at a security conference, where he defended the decision to pardon Khan. "He is a national hero, because in the eyes of all Pakistan he has brought about strategic balance in South Asia," said Kasuri, adding that the problem had occurred when Pakistan's nuclear programme was in its early, covert stages. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse ***************************************************************** 39 WAR.WIRE: Russia concerned over Pakistan nuclear scandal MUNICH, Germany (AFP) Feb 08, 2004 Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov expressed serious concern Sunday over illicit export of nuclear secrets by a Pakistani scientist. "We, Russia, are strongly preoccupied with that," Ivanov told reporters on the sidelines of the 40th annual Munich security conference. "It is now quite obvious ... there is not an efficient control of proliferation of WMDs (weapons of mass destruction). That is something which worries everybody." Ivanov had said Saturday at the start of the conference that Russia backed efforts that would bring Pakistan into international accords on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. The minister said he discussed the affair during a bilateral meeting in Munich with Indian national security advisor Brajesh Mishra. Ivanov said he felt the issue of non-proliferation had been "strongly politicized" by some unnamed countries. "Some states use an accusatory finger at finger at other states for proliferating," he said. Russia has been put under pressure by the United States to stop its cooperation with Iran on a civilian nuclear program. Washington has accused Iran of having secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Pakistan has been embroiled in a scandal involving a top scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, known as the father of the nuclear bomb there. He confessed to passing nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea and publicly begged the nation's forgiveness. Khan has since been pardoned. The two-day Munich security conference brought together some 250 ministers, senior officials and defense experts from 30 countries. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse ***************************************************************** 40 NYT: Delicate Dance for Musharraf in Nuclear Case *By DAVID ROHDE and TALAT HUSSAIN* Published: February 8, 2004 SLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 7 ? Almost from the moment he took power in October 1999, Gen. Pervez Musharraf heard about serious problems with Abdul Qadeer Khan, the prominent Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist who this week issued a tearful, public confession to selling nuclear secrets around the world. Those early reports, aides to General Musharraf said this week, involved financial improprieties ? allegations of skimming from government contracts and awarding contracts to relatives for work at the government laboratory run by Dr. Khan. But over the years, officials from the United States and elsewhere gathered more troubling evidence ? that Dr. Khan was secretly exporting nuclear know-how to Iran, North Korea and Libya. For years, little was done to stop the flow of nuclear secrets. Aides to General Musharraf say he lacked the necessary proof to crack down on Dr. Khan, but some former and current American officials say there was considerable evidence that General Musharraf was turning a blind eye to Dr. Khan's activities, which they say may have involved parts of the Pakistani military. Last week, the long standoff ended with a confrontation, confession and then a presidential pardon. That choreography was emblematic of the balancing act General Musharraf has engaged in with a scientist lauded at home as the father of Pakistan's nuclear program but seen abroad as a dangerous merchant of nuclear secrets. In March 2001, after intense American pressure, General Musharraf removed Dr. Khan as the head of the Khan Research Laboratories. A day after Dr. Khan's forced retirement, General Musharraf called a senior official to vent his frustration about politicians and newspapers that were accusing him of appeasing the West and embarrassing Dr. Khan. " `Do these Nizamis know what bad news this fellow is?' " a senior Pakistani official recalled General Musharraf asking, referring to the Nizami family, which owns a leading national newspaper. "He was furious," the official said. But then, at a dinner for Dr. Khan's retirement, General Musharraf lavished the scientist with praise and gave him the title "special adviser" to the president. The United States, meanwhile, was performing its own balancing act, weighing Pakistan's lack of action against Dr. Khan with its need to support the Musharraf government. In 2002, the United States tipped off Pakistan that the Khan laboratories had traded nuclear technology for missile technology with North Korea. But the United States refused to criticize Pakistan publicly or even hint at imposing penalties. Such penalties had been put in place in 1998, after Pakistan and India conducted nuclear tests, but were lifted after Sept. 11, 2001, when the Bush administration sought Pakistan's cooperation in the campaign against terrorism. Aides to General Musharraf said they could not act further against Dr. Khan because Pakistan did not have enough evidence of his illicit activities. That changed last year. Iran was forced to allow international inspectors into its nuclear operations, and a European expert identified its centrifuge equipment as a Pakistani adaptation of a European design that Dr. Khan had been accused of stealing in the 1970's. Then, in October, a ship was intercepted on its way to Libya, bearing centrifuge parts. They were traced back to a plant in Malaysia that did work for Dr. Khan. As evidence mounted, the Pakistani government slowly began to back away from its years of denials, and the pressure on Dr. Khan grew. The details of the confrontation with Dr. Khan came from accounts provided by aides to General Musharraf as well as a senior military official. They provided an account that portrayed General Musharraf as concerned about proliferation but fearful of a political backlash if he moved against Dr. Khan. Over the last three months, 11 aides to Dr. Khan have been detained for questioning and two of the country's highest ranking generals have begun a series of meetings with Dr. Khan, according to senior Pakistani officials. *Get home delivery of The Times from $2.90/week* *Continued* 1 | 2 The New York Times Company | Home ***************************************************************** 41 news.com.au: Secret weapons info 'on internet' From correspondents in Jerusalem February 9, 2004 SECRET Israeli military documents related to the Jewish state's arsenal of "special arms" have reportedly been published on the internet. Computer expert Roy Livneh told Israel's Channel 10 TV station he had "easily" obtained access to the classified material, which he subsequently turned over to police. In a reference to Israel's nuclear arsenal, the television presenter said the documents published on the internet "deal with special arms, which got Mordechai Vanunu 18 years in prison". Vanunu, who worked as a technician at the Dimona nuclear facility in southern Israel, was handed an 18-year prison sentence in 1986 after giving details about Israel's secret weapons program to Britain's /Sunday Times/. Although Israel has firmly adhered to a policy of "nuclear ambiguity", never confirming or denying it possessed nuclear weapons, foreign experts believe the Jewish state holds at least 200 atomic warheads. The Israeli network refused to give further details on the "special arms" and did not release the name of the website where the documents were published as such issues are subject to military censorship in Israel. Among the other documents published was a report on the latest US F-16 fighter jet ordered by Israel, which said the warplane's radar system operated "below the minimum level required". Another document contained information about a new US missile delivered to an unnamed European country, which had refused to sell the model to Israel "for political reasons". Livneh said the leak had likely stemmed from an Israeli military official who copied the information onto his personal computer and then onto his personal website in order to have easier access. A military spokeswoman said the leak constituted a serious "infraction of data protection" and an inquiry had been opened into the matter. The television network reported that the incident was not the first time that the public had gained access to confidential military information. /Agence France-Presse/ ***************************************************************** 42 Time: Pardoning A National Hero N O T E B O O K The rap on A.Q. Khan By TIM MCGIRK; SYED TALAT HUSSAIN; GHULAM HASNAIN Monday, Feb. 16, 2004 Usually, when scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan appeared on Pakistan's state TV, it was to receive another gold medal for building the country's nuclear bomb. But last week Khan, a hero to Pakistanis and many others in the Islamic world, came on the air, ashen and visibly shaken, to confess that he had sold Pakistan's nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. He begged for President Pervez Musharraf's pardon ? and, to the chagrin of many Western intelligence agencies that regard Khan as the world's most dangerous nuclear proliferator, it was granted the next day. "He has made mistakes, but he is our hero," said Musharraf. The evidence against Khan was undeniable. A U.S. undercover agent had penetrated the hub of Khan's operations in Dubai and begun to map out an intricate smuggling web that stretched into Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia as well as Istanbul, Turkey; Casablanca, Morocco; and several cities in Germany and Central Asia, a Pakistani official familiar with the investigation told TIME. So why was Khan pardoned? Government officials say Khan won clemency in return for full cooperation in the investigation of his network. But diplomats and Khan's friends claim he had threatened to name several top military officers close to Musharraf who also allegedly profited from the clandestine sales of nuclear technology. Khan's relatives leaked word to local newspapers that at least two former army generals were aware that Pakistan's secrets were being passed to other nations. But Musharraf cleared both generals of any culpability for Khan's smuggling ring. And he made it clear the case is closed; there will be no further investigation of links between the military and Khan's nuclear profiteers. From the Feb. 16, 2004 issue of TIME magazine ***************************************************************** 43 BBC: Pakistanis react to nuclear scandal *Pakistanis in the capital, Islamabad, and in the city of Peshawar, close to the Afghan border, give BBC News Online their views on the confession of top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan to leaking nuclear secrets.* "The situation is not completely clear yet. But it seems Dr Qadeer is involved in the illegal sale. President Pervez Musharraf and the government prepared his confessional statement. He cannot do this without the government's consent. "Pakistan's military is obviously involved in the whole affair." *Faisal Javed, Peshawar* "I think whatever he has done was with the involvement of the government because it is a huge step and no individual can do it alone. Everything that has been done was on a government level and at the end they are putting the blame on one person. "He should be pardoned because he has sacrificed a lot for Pakistan. The nuclear set-up that we have is all because of him. He should be pardoned because he hasn't done anything for himself and if he has the government was involved. I think he has been made a sacrificial goat. Yes he still is a hero for me and for a lot of other Pakistanis." *Asad, Islamabad* "Dr Qadeer Khan is not guilty. How can one dig his own grave? He is the maker of the Islamic bomb.... He has not sold anything. The allegations against him are outrageous. "The military is also involved. It is understood and a matter of common sense. No need to ask me or anyone else. Why are you asking this question?" *Iftikhar Khan, Peshawar* "I don't know... but Allah has said that helping other Muslims is not a sin. You can see that all the infidels are united, but Muslims are not. Dr Khan was helping Muslims from other countries. He has not done anything wrong." *Mohammad Kamran, Peshawar* "I think if he has done this, it is a shameful thing for him and for the nation. People on this level should be very careful of indulging in these kind of activities. "He is still a hero, though - he has done something wrong but still he should be pardoned because he has done a great thing for us." *Gul, Islamabad* "He must be guilty, but he might not have done it intentionally. He has got knowledge and there should be no restrictions on transfer of knowledge. The military must be involved as well. The whole wheeling-dealing must have been done with their consent." *Asif Khan, Peshawar* "I believe he hasn't done anything and I don't know what he is apologizing for. Everything he has done was for Pakistan." *Muhammad Ali, Islamabad* "Obviously, he is involved, otherwise why did he confess.... He must have made the confession under duress.... "One thing is clear - the foundations of Pakistan's nuclear programme were built on the basis of stolen know-how. So, as they say, the building must look the same as its foundations. The military is definitely involved. One can't clap with one hand." *Syed Kosar Ahmed, Peshawar* " I think Dr Khan has been set up. The army is behind all this. They have used him to cover up the brigadiers and generals behind all these allegations. I think all this talk about being pardoned is a drama by President Musharraf and his government. *Aleem, Islamabad * "Dr Qadeer has saved Pakistan by becoming a scapegoat. He has given one more sacrifice. Army and politics are one thing. The whole security of the nuclear installations is under the military. "I can't say much beyond that. I am afraid, but one thing is clear - Dr Qadeer has again become a hero." *Mohammad Darwesh* ***************************************************************** 44 Daily Times: Toronto Star sceptical of N-disclosures | *Monday, February 09, 2004* /By Khalid Hasan/ WASHINGTTON: The Toronto Star, Canada?s leading newspaper, said in an editorial on Saturday that it did not believe Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan alone was to blame for illicit nuclear traffic out of Pakistan. The tongue-in-cheek editorial said, ?After Pakistan?s noisy little nuclear wake-up call, Gen Pervez Musharraf wants us all to hit the snooze button, and go back to sleep. The father of Pakistan?s atom bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, may have spent the last 15 years flogging nuclear designs, materials and hardware to Iran, Libya and North Korea in the most spectacular act of nuclear proliferation yet. But now that Khan has confessed to being a rogue agent, begged pardon on national TV and been indulgently granted it, everything?s under control, Musharraf wants us to know. And of course Pakistan?s president-by-putsch, his military and the security services are blameless.? Wryly the newspaper observed what Gen Musharraf had said was ?reassuring? but was it not the same Gen Musharraf who had told Prime Minister Jean Chrtien about five months ago during a trip to Ottawa that Pakistan?s nuclear assets ?are under strict control,? adding, ?I can guarantee they will not fall in the wrong hands.? He also said, ?I am in charge.? The Toronto Star wrote, ?If everything the General says is true, and we have no reason to suggest otherwise, then he must have been in charge, and lying brazenly to Chrtien, knowing that Khan had been peddling nuclear technology that was under presidential control into the ?right? axis of evil hands. If that was meant to reassure us, the General, well, bombed. Worse yet, Musharraf has refused to surrender documents about this case to International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. He refuses to probe the army?s role in the arms bazaar. And he won?t let the IAEA supervise his weapons.? The newspaper said the worst of all things was that President George Bush appears willing to swallow all this, for reasons of his own. Musharraf, the editorial conceded, had been helpful fighting Al Qaeda. He was also talking peace with India, another nuclear rebel. And Bush did not want Musharraf toppled by extremists with A-bombs. Bush also did not want to embarrass China, a trading partner which reportedly gave Pakistan a warhead design, missile technology and a plutonium-producing reactor. ?In Bush?s eyes, these may be sufficient reasons for not peering under Pakistan?s lumpy nuclear rug. But as IAEA director Mohamed El Baradei puts it, the Khan affair proves ?it?s a supermarket? out there, ?the most dangerous phenomena we?ve seen ... for many years.? Middlemen in Germany, Switzerland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates were involved. They need to be put out of business. The ?war on terror? is important. Keeping A-bombs from spreading into terrorist hands is vital. And denial is not an action plan.? Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions ***************************************************************** 45 Las Vegas SUN Pakistan: Nuke Probe 'Internal Matter' February 07, 2004 *By MATTHEW PENNINGTON* ASSOCIATED PRESS ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - After pardoning its top scientist for selling nuclear weapons technology, Pakistan on Saturday rejected a call by rival India for an international debate on its proliferation scandal, saying it was an "internal matter." Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of the Pakistan's nuclear program, was forgiven by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf Thursday for spreading nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea through the international black market. Key allies like the United States have refused to criticize Pakistan for not prosecuting Khan. India, however, on Friday said the proliferation by Pakistani scientists was of concern to the international community and should be debated. "The investigations in Pakistan are an internal matter," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan responded in a statement. "The buck stops here in Pakistan. The matter won't be debated elsewhere." "Pakistan is already cooperating with IAEA," the spokesman said, referring to the U.N. atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose information about Pakistani technology found in Iran and Libya prompted the investigation of Khan and colleagues at a top Pakistani nuclear facility. Khan is suspected to have made millions from selling nuclear hardware and designs. According to Pakistani government and intelligence sources, equipment including centrifuges for enriching uranium were trafficked from Pakistan from 1989 until the late 1990s, often through Dubai. Some of the equipment was reconditioned in Malaysia and elsewhere before being sent to Iran, Libya and North Korea, the sources say. Governments and experts have welcomed Khan's exposure, although IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has warned the Pakistani scientist was just the "tip of the iceberg" in the illicit international trade in nuclear technology. Musharraf has said Pakistan won't submit to any U.N. supervision of its weapons program, or an independent investigation, but was willing to share the findings of its investigation with the IAEA. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday demanded that Pakistan's president - a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism - keep his pledge to end nuclear proliferation but refused to criticize his pardon of Khan, saying it was something that Musharraf "felt was appropriate for him to do." A public trial of Khan, regarded as a national hero in Pakistan for providing a nuclear deterrent against India, could have put Musharraf in a tight political spot. It would have angered many Pakistanis and could have exposed high-level military involvement - although Pakistan denies any official knowledge. Musharraf is eyed with suspicion by Islamists for his alliance with Washington, and his opponents accuse him of caving into the West and putting the country's nuclear capability under threat by investigating Khan. * / All contents copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 46 washingtonpost: At Least 7 Nations Tied To Pakistani Nuclear Ring * /By Peter Slevin, John Lancaster and Kamran Khan/ Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, February 8, 2004; Page A01 VIENNA, Feb. 7 -- The rapidly expanding probe into a Pakistani-led nuclear trafficking network extended to at least seven nations Saturday as investigators said they had traced businesses from Africa, Asia and Europe to the smuggling ring controlled by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. Three days after Khan confessed on television to selling his country's nuclear secrets, Western diplomats and intelligence officials said they were just beginning to understand the scale of the network, a global enterprise that supplied nuclear technology and parts to Libya, Iran, North Korea and possibly others. "Dr. Khan was not working alone. Dr. Khan was part of a process," said Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based U.N. agency that is conducting the probe along with U.S. and other Western intelligence agencies. "There were items that were manufactured in other countries. There were items that were assembled in a different country." Meanwhile, Pakistani officials disclosed that they had launched their own probe of Khan's activities in October after the Bush administration presented what one senior official described as "mind-boggling" evidence that Khan was peddling nuclear technology and expertise to Iran, Libya and North Korea, and had attempted to do the same with Iraq and Syria. The evidence included detailed records of Khan's travels to Libya, Iran, North Korea and other nations, along with intercepted phone conversations, financial documents and accounts of meetings with foreign businessmen involved in illicit nuclear sales, the Pakistani officials said. Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was personally briefed on the evidence on Oct. 6 by a U.S. delegation led by Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage. Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, made a similar presentation to Pakistani political and military leaders, the officials said. "This was the most important development for us since 9/11," one of the Pakistani officials said. "One more time, the ball was in the court of General Pervez Musharraf." Khan, known in Pakistan as the creator of the country's atomic bomb, acknowledged in the televised statement Wednesday that he had passed nuclear secrets to others, saying that he acted without authorization from his government. A day later, Musharraf pardoned Khan. U.S. and U.N. investigators say Khan's nuclear trading network represents one of the most egregious cases of nuclear proliferation ever discovered. Using suppliers and middlemen scattered across three continents, the network delivered a variety of machines and technology for enriching uranium, a key ingredient in nuclear weapons. In the case of Libya, at least, it provided blueprints for the bombs themselves. Khan's network provided "one-stop shopping" for nuclear technology and parts, said a senior U.S. official, who described how supply met demand in what amounted to a centralized ordering system. "If I want to buy an IBM computer, I don't have to go to every single element of IBM," the official said, by way of analogy. "I can go to their salesman, and he fixes me up just fine." Diplomats familiar with the Pakistan operation say Khan and his closest associates were the "salesmen" who filled orders for Libya and other customers. In the case of Libya, representatives of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi contacted the Pakistanis, who relayed the requests to middlemen. The middlemen, in turn, found suppliers to produce the necessary components. Finished parts were then shipped to a firm in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, which arranged for delivery to Libya. The interception of a significant shipment of components in Italy last fall led to Gaddafi's decision to eliminate his nonconventional weapons programs, U.S. officials contend. Companies or individuals in at least seven countries, including Pakistan, were involved, knowledgeable officials said. Among the countries known to be involved are Malaysia, South Africa, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Germany. A company in another European country was also involved, two diplomats said. *CONTINUED* *1 2 2004 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 47 Hi Pakistan: Opposition to raise N-issue in Senate -- Detail Story* *ISLAMABAD,* Feb 6: The opposition Democratic Alliance has decided to raise the issue of scientists' questioning over nuclear proliferation in the forthcoming Senate session on Feb 13, sources told Dawn on Friday. They said the Democratic Alliance, comprising members of the ARD and other parties in the Senate, had prepared adjournment motions and notices to raise the issue. The opposition would demand a debate in the Senate as "it is a matter of great concern for people of Pakistan and of national importance". The motion has been signed by PPP's parliamentary leader Mian Raza Rabbani, PML-N's parliamentary leader Ishaq Dar, PPP Senator Safdar Abbasi and Sanaullah Baloch of the Balochistan National Party. The opposition would also seek a debate on the statement of International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei in which he had stated that the IAEA had been working with Pakistan to arrest those involved in proliferation. The motion, signed by Mr Rabbani and Mr Dar, says that the house should adjourn normal proceedings to discuss Mr ElBaradei's statement which had appeared in newspapers on Jan 25. The sources said opposition senators would draw the house's attention to contradictory statements by two ministers. Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed had stated on Jan 28 that no scientist had been placed on the exit control list. On the other hand, giving an interview to Voice of America next day, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat had stated that names of some scientists had been put on the ECL. The opposition would seek to know the actual position, they added. Talking to Dawn, ARD's parliamentary secretary Izhar Amrohvi said the opposition would make suggestions to the government for handling the issue in a more responsible manner. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. No part ***************************************************************** 48 Indian Express: Powell to handle Musharraf on N-leak* Sunday, February 08, 2004 *Press Trust of India/ Agence France-Presse* *United Nations, February 7: * US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that Washington accepted Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf?s decision to pardon a top nuclear expert who passed secrets on to Iran, Libya and North Korea. But Powell added that he would raise the pardon of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, in talks with Musharraf in the days to come. ?This is a matter between Mr Khan, who is a Pakistani citizen, and his government. But it is a matter also that I'll be talking to President Musharraf about," he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York on Friday. ?The action he took with respect to pardoning Mr Khan is something that he felt it was appropriate for him to do and he has explained his position thoroughly," Powell said. ?I expect to be talking to President Musharraf over the next several days to make sure that there is a full understanding of what the A.Q. Khan network has done over the years so that there are no remnants of it left, and then there's no possibility of further proliferating activities coming out of that network.? Powell said the desire to make sure there was no more proliferation was ?goal number one with respect to his accountability.? Continued ***************************************************************** 49 Daily Tims: IAEA asks Spain to probe Libya?s nuclear sales MADRID: The UN nuclear agency has asked Madrid to investigate several Spanish companies for possibly providing materials for Libya?s nuclear weapons program, El Pais newspaper reported on Sunday. The companies, which were not named in the report, are suspected of producing centrifuges which can be used to enrich uranium, a key ingredient for nuclear weapons. Initially the centrifuges were probably exported to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, but were later dispatched to Libya or Iran, the newspaper quoted sources close to the investigation as saying. The Spanish companies were exposed as participating in the international black market in illicit arms after Libya began cooperating with UN, US and British authorities to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, the sources said. Because the centrifuges are dual-use technology, they can also be used for civilian projects, it is possible that the companies were unaware of the final purpose of their materials, Libyan client, El Pais said. The Spanish government did not comment on the newspaper report. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are currently analysing more than 25 tons of sensitive equipment and documents linked to Libya?s weapons program, which were shipped to the United States last month. ?We have to put together an immense puzzle in order to obtain a complete picture? that would identify the suppliers of illicit arms-making material to Tripoli, IAEA official Gustavo Zlauvinen told El Pais in New York. In December, after nine months of secret talks with Britain and the United States, Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi struck a deal to end Tripoli?s quest for unconventional arms. The Spanish newspaper said the IAEA suspected companies from five countries of dealing in banned weapons material with Tripoli. Besides Spain, three other countries identified by El Pais were Germany, Malaysia and Pakistan. ?AFP Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions ***************************************************************** 50 Reuters: U.S. helps Pakistan safeguard nuclear material 07 Feb 2004 04:07 By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is working with Pakistan to protect its nuclear technology from falling into the hands of extremists, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. "We have had discussions with Pakistan on the need for Pakistan to safeguard its technology and its nuclear material. We are confident they are taking the necessary steps," the official told Reuters. He commented after NBC Television's "Nightly News" program reported that since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, American nuclear experts grouped as the "U.S. Liaison Committee" have spent millions of dollars to safeguard more than 40 weapons in Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. "Meeting every two months, they are helping Pakistan develop state of the art security, including secret authorization codes for the arsenal," the network reported. But the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that U.S. law and the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, a cornerstone of efforts to curb the spread of weapons, "prevent any direct involvement with (Pakistan's) nuclear weapons." "So we've had discussions with them generally about how they safeguard nuclear material," he said. "We don't want their materials to get into the wrong hands but won't go over the edge of our law and the NPT," he said. The reports about the U.S. role in Pakistan came in the midst of revelations that the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, sold nuclear secrets to Libya and two members of President George W. Bush's "axis of evil," North Korea and Iran. After confessing on television to blackmarket nuclear technology dealings and absolving Pakistan's military and government of blame, Khan was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf in an apparent effort to lay the controversy to rest. The United States has strongly defended Musharraf's handling of the scandal, reflecting a balancing act between its usual aggressive stance on punishing proliferation and its firm support for the Pakistani leader, a key ally in the U.S. anti-terror war. Pakistan, like South Asian rival India, tested nuclear weapons in 1998. The United States and the other four members of the world nuclear club -- Russia, France, Britain and China -- in the past have expressed alarm at this development. But most concern has focused on Pakistan because of fears that Islamic fundamentalists may overthrow Musharraf -- the target of two recent assassination attempts -- and gain control of the nuclear bomb. Since the 1998 nuclear tests, U.S. officials and experts have debated the extent to which they can provide India and Pakistan advice about safeguarding their nuclear technology. Neither country is a member of the NPT and hence is not entitled to any assistance that might advance their nuclear weapons capability. The United States recently got around this with India by offering safety assistance to New Delhi's civilian nuclear program, which is aimed at power generation. ***************************************************************** 51 Reuter: Europeans involved in Pakistan nuke scandals* 09 Feb 2004 | 04:46 GMT *Member Services* Sun 8 February, 2004 16:49 By Philip Blenkinsop MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Pakistan's foreign minister says he knows the names of "lots of Europeans" involved in the illicit transfer of secrets to countries seeking to develop nuclear weapons. "Why is there this unhealthy focus on Pakistan? What about others?" Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri told delegates at a security conference in the German city of Munich on Sunday. "I know the names. I don't want to spill them... names given to us by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), by Iran. There are lots of Europeans involved, but there seems to be a focus on Pakistan," he added. In a televised confession, Pakistan's top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said on Wednesday he had acted independently in leaking secrets as head of the country's nuclear programme from the 1970s. The next day, the country's military president, Pervez Musharraf, pardoned the man revered as the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, while rebuffing calls for an independent inquiry into the military's role. Many analysts say Khan could not have acted without the knowledge of the military. Kasuri said it was important to stress that the leaks had not been recent and were mainly during Pakistan's early days of nuclear development when few people were aware of the project. "Yes our programme was covert. Because it was covert there was a danger of this sort of thing," he said. Khan had been removed when initial intelligence reports indicated smoke even if "fire had not been discovered". Moreover, while Pakistan had not joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it was committed to fulfilling the non-proliferation requirements, Kasuri said. It was, he said, not in Pakistan's interests to share its nuclear secrets with others. Many Pakistanis nevertheless believe Musharraf and top military officers were complicit in the illicit nuclear transfers to Iran, Libya and North Korea. "It is not something that is in our interests... There has to be a motive, but there was none whatsoever," Kasuri said. He also said the uranium enrichment technology which Khan appeared to have provided was only part of the know-how required to make nuclear weapons. "Our nuclear experts tell me you need about 24 different technologies or processes to make nuclear weapons and then to deliver them. Only one of them is the uranium-enrichment process," Kasuri said. ***************************************************************** 52 Hindu: Nuke leak: Pak. not to permit outside inspection /* Islamabad, Feb. 7. (PTI): As President Pervez Musharraf put a lid on raging controversy over nuclear proliferation by pardoning top scientist A Q Khan for leaking sensitive data, Pakistan today said it would voluntarily cooperate with the investigations into the matter but opposed demands for outside inspections and sharing documents. "As far as Pakistan is concerned, we are cooperating and we shall cooperate voluntarily to ensure and assure every one about the facts and Pakistan has no reason to hide the facts," the country's Permanent Representative to United Nations, Munir Akram, said in an interview to BBC. He said Pakistan is a sovereign country and not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and would not permit outside inspections. There was no question of allowing anyone to inspect or hand over documents regarding investigations on nuclear proliferation, he said. "We have to safeguard our nuclear and strategic assets which are not open to inspection. We will not be open to inspection." Thiruvananthapuram | Copyright 2004, The Hindu. ***************************************************************** 53 WAR.WIRE: Russia concerned over Pakistan nuclear scandal MUNICH, Germany (AFP) Feb 08, 2004 Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov expressed serious concern Sunday over illicit export of nuclear secrets by a Pakistani scientist. "We, Russia, are strongly preoccupied with that," Ivanov told reporters on the sidelines of the 40th annual Munich security conference. " It is now quite obvious ... there is not an efficient control of proliferation of WMDs (weapons of mass destruction). That is something which worries everybody." Ivanov had said Saturday at the start of the conference that Russia backed efforts that would bring Pakistan into international accords on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. The minister said he discussed the affair during a bilateral meeting in Munich with Indian national security advisor Brajesh Mishra. Ivanov said he felt the issue of non-proliferation had been "strongly politicized" by some unnamed countries. "Some states use an accusatory finger at finger at other states for proliferating," he said. Russia has been put under pressure by the United States to stop its cooperation with Iran on a civilian nuclear program. Washington has accused Iran of having secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Pakistan has been embroiled in a scandal involving a top scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, known as the father of the nuclear bomb there. He confessed to passing nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea and publicly begged the nation's forgiveness. Khan has since been pardoned. The two-day Munich security conference brought together some 250 ministers, senior officials and defense experts from 30 countries. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse . Sections of the ***************************************************************** 54 WAR.WIRE: Musharraf assures US of no future nuclear technology leaks ISLAMABAD (AFP) Feb 08, 2004 Pakistan has told the United States it will stand firm against future leaks of nuclear technology and would share the outcome of its current proliferation probe, officials said Sunday. Speaking by telephone to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, President Pervez Musharraf discussed Pakistan's ongoing probe into how nuclear technology had been passed to third countries, foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan said. He said Powell's telephone call late Saturday lasted for over half an hour, and also touched on bilateral relations and the regional situation, as well as the pardon granted to the top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who admitted to passing nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. "President Musharraf conveyed Pakistan's firm resolve that such activity will never happen in future," the spokesman told AFP. The country's nuclear programme is now "under firm control" of the National Command and Control Authority, which has taken steps to prevent proliferation in future, the Pakistani leader told Powell. "Powell conveyed the US' appreciation of the efforts made by Pakistan and the manner in which it handled the investigation," the spokesman said. "The talks were held in a cordial atmosphere." He said Pakistan and the United States affirmed "they will continue to support international efforts to curb proliferation." The spokesman said "Pakistan is ready to share information and results of our investigation in as much as they assist in achieving this objective." "We have cooperated with the international community and we will continue to cooperate in the efforts to counter proliferation." Powell would visit Pakistan "soon" for further talks on the nuclear investigation but no date had yet been set for the visit, a government official said in a separate statement. Musharraf Thursday pardoned Khan, revered as the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, after he apologised on state television for leaking nuclear secrets. Powell on Friday stressed that the clemency for Khan was a domestic question for Musharraf, who has emerged as a key US ally since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. He told reporters at UN headquarters in New York that "goal number one" was making sure that no more sensitive nuclear details were passed on by any Pakistani scientist, including Khan -- dubbed by Powell the "biggest" of all nuclear proliferators. "I'm pleased that President Musharraf realized that he had to do something about this network." Khan on Wednesday admitted leaking secrets and begged for forgiveness following a lengthy investigation based on information from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the alleged transfer of nuclear technology abroad. Taking "full responsibility", Khan said the government of Pakistan was not involved in the proliferation scandal. Musharraf said Khan had made "mistakes" but he pardoned him because of his service to Pakistan's national security. The foreign ministry spokesman said Khan had been granted a pardon because he has helped in the government's investigation and he would continue to cooperate. However, he said "strict security restrictions have been imposed on A.Q Khan" while seven other Pakistani scientists were formally detained last week. "They will not be allowed to resume their illegal activities. They will not resume their duties." Khan emerged a national hero some six years ago after Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in response to similar detonations by rival India in May 1998. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mian Khurshid Kasuri said Khan was only one of many in the world spreading atomic know-how, mainly to Iran. "Why this unhealthy focus on Pakistan, why not others? We are talking about various actors." Kasuri told the concluding session of a security conference in Munich, Germany, that Iran and the IAEA had supplied Islamabad with a list of names of other people involved in supplying such technology to other countries. "I know the names, I don't wish to spell them out ... there are lots of Europeans involved and there are other countries involved," Kasuri said in a vehement defence of his country's actions. ***************************************************************** 55 WAR.WIRE: Pakistan stopped expert leaking nuclear secrets as early as 2000: report BERLIN (AFP) Feb 08, 2004 The Pakistani nuclear expert who passed secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, was prevented from continuing his illicit trade as early as 2000, Pakistan's foreign minister said in an interview to appear Monday. "Pakistan put in place instruments of control in 2000. It is not true to say that something left Pakistani factories since that date," Mian Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Abdul Qadeer Khan on Wednesday confessed to clandestinely selling Pakistan's nuclear expertise via black marketeers to foreign governments. Kasuri told the German daily that the Pakistani government knew about Khan's illegal activities three years ago and had subsequently removed him from his position as head of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL). President Pervez Musharraf, reportedly under US pressure, removed Khan from the chairmanship of KRL in March 2001 and made him special adviser on strategic and KRL affairs. Kasuri was Sunday in Germany at a security conference, where he defended the decision to pardon Khan. "He is a national hero, because in the eyes of all Pakistan he has brought about strategic balance in South Asia," said Kasuri, adding that the problem had occurred when Pakistan's nuclear programme was in its early, covert stages. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse . ***************************************************************** 56 NYTimes: Delicate Dance for Musharraf in Nuclear Case *By DAVID ROHDE and TALAT HUSSAIN* Published: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 7 ? Almost from the moment he took power in October 1999, Gen. Pervez Musharraf heard about serious problems with Abdul Qadeer Khan, the prominent Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist who this week issued a tearful, public confession to selling nuclear secrets around the world. Those early reports, aides to General Musharraf said this week, involved financial improprieties ? allegations of skimming from government contracts and awarding contracts to relatives for work at the government laboratory run by Dr. Khan. But over the years, officials from the United States and elsewhere gathered more troubling evidence ? that Dr. Khan was secretly exporting nuclear know-how to Iran, North Korea and Libya. For years, little was done to stop the flow of nuclear secrets. Aides to General Musharraf say he lacked the necessary proof to crack down on Dr. Khan, but some former and current American officials say there was considerable evidence that General Musharraf was turning a blind eye to Dr. Khan's activities, which they say may have involved parts of the Pakistani military. Last week, the long standoff ended with a confrontation, confession and then a presidential pardon. That choreography was emblematic of the balancing act General Musharraf has engaged in with a scientist lauded at home as the father of Pakistan's nuclear program but seen abroad as a dangerous merchant of nuclear secrets. In March 2001, after intense American pressure, General Musharraf removed Dr. Khan as the head of the Khan Research Laboratories. A day after Dr. Khan's forced retirement, General Musharraf called a senior official to vent his frustration about politicians and newspapers that were accusing him of appeasing the West and embarrassing Dr. Khan. " `Do these Nizamis know what bad news this fellow is?' " a senior Pakistani official recalled General Musharraf asking, referring to the Nizami family, which owns a leading national newspaper. "He was furious," the official said. But then, at a dinner for Dr. Khan's retirement, General Musharraf lavished the scientist with praise and gave him the title "special adviser" to the president. The United States, meanwhile, was performing its own balancing act, weighing Pakistan's lack of action against Dr. Khan with its need to support the Musharraf government. In 2002, the United States tipped off Pakistan that the Khan laboratories had traded nuclear technology for missile technology with North Korea. But the United States refused to criticize Pakistan publicly or even hint at imposing penalties. Such penalties had been put in place in 1998, after Pakistan and India conducted nuclear tests, but were lifted after Sept. 11, 2001, when the Bush administration sought Pakistan's cooperation in the campaign against terrorism. Aides to General Musharraf said they could not act further against Dr. Khan because Pakistan did not have enough evidence of his illicit activities. That changed last year. Iran was forced to allow international inspectors into its nuclear operations, and a European expert identified its centrifuge equipment as a Pakistani adaptation of a European design that Dr. Khan had been accused of stealing in the 1970's. Then, in October, a ship was intercepted on its way to Libya, bearing centrifuge parts. They were traced back to a plant in Malaysia that did work for Dr. Khan. As evidence mounted, the Pakistani government slowly began to back away from its years of denials, and the pressure on Dr. Khan grew. The details of the confrontation with Dr. Khan came from accounts provided by aides to General Musharraf as well as a senior military official. They provided an account that portrayed General Musharraf as concerned about proliferation but fearful of a political backlash if he moved against Dr. Khan. Over the last three months, 11 aides to Dr. Khan have been detained for questioning and two of the country's highest ranking generals have begun a series of meetings with Dr. Khan, according to senior Pakistani officials. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 57 Guardian: Nuke Scandal, Elections Loom in Malaysia From the Associated Press * * *Saturday February 7, 2004 11:16 AM* *By PATRICK McDOWELL* *Associated Press Writer* KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Exceeding many expectations, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has stamped his authority on Malaysia since becoming prime minister 100 days ago - but a nuclear scandal, personal tragedy and looming elections signal a harder road ahead. Though he'd held high positions for decades, Abdullah remained an enigma to most Malaysians when he was sworn in Oct. 31, succeeding the larger-than-life Mahathir Mohamed, who retired after dominating this Southeast Asian country for a generation. In the previous four years, Abdullah's self-effacing style and nice-guy reputation as Mahathir's deputy contrasted sharply with the combative Mahathir, and many Malaysians wondered what kind of new leader they were getting. They saw a devoted family man when Abdullah flew to his hometown hours after taking office and knelt at his mother's feet, seeking her blessing. Over the next three months, he stepped out from the shadow of his ex-boss and won public support by tackling some of the down-to-earth problems from Mahathir's grandiose era - police corruption, inert bureaucracy and cronyism. ``I'm not aware that I was going through a honeymoon period,'' Abdullah said Saturday on the eve of his 100th day in office. ``But there will be challenges ahead, I'm very sure.'' They included two hammer blows over the past week. His revered 79-year-old mother, Kailan Hassan, died of natural causes Monday. Abdullah wept at her funeral, striking a well of public sympathy. On Thursday, Malaysia was swept up in the nuclear proliferation scandal uncovered when Pakistan admitted that its top atomic scientist had leaked weapons technology and know-how to Libya, Iran and North Korea. Police disclosed that an engineering company controlled by Abdullah's only son, Kamaluddin Abdullah, is being investigated for making centrifuge components destined for Libya's nuclear weapons program. The company, Scomi Precision Engineering, denies that it knew the parts would be used for nuclear purposes. They were ordered by a Dubai-based firm through a Sri Lankan middleman married to a Malaysian. Abdullah vowed Thursday that the probe will be conducted ``without fear or favor.'' His son owns 53 percent of the parent company, Scomi, but has no management role. Police said that the company is cooperating fully with the investigation. The magnitude and impact of the scandal remain to be determined. For now, Malaysians appear content to size up Abdullah and take a break from the confrontations that Mahathir relished. Ideris Maidin, a taxi driver, wasn't impressed with Abdullah's bland style Thursday during a speech in Kuantan, 160 miles east of Kuala Lumpur, but he liked the substance. ``Mahathir liked big projects and big statements,'' Ideris said. Abdullah ``seems to be more interested in pleasing the public by making improvements in the civil sector, the police and government efficiency.'' Mahathir ended 22 years in office in deep controversy, asserting at a summit of Muslim leaders that Jews rule the world. Though Mahathir's trademark attacks on everything from globalization to Western-style democracy won notoriety, he turned this former tin-and-rubber-producing backwater into one of Asia's richest countries. For a time, Malaysia was home to the world's tallest buildings. Abdullah has promised to build on the economic achievements, but his eye is on the grass roots. Abdullah found public favor by shelving a rail project that Mahathir had granted to a favored tycoon, and by launching a royal commission into reforming the police. One commissioner will be the former chief justice who Mahathir sacked during a clash with the courts in 1988. Abdullah faces his biggest test by leading the ruling coalition in general elections expected by mid-year. His goal will be to roll back gains made in 1999 by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, which runs two of Malaysia's 13 states. The party advocates harsh Islamic law, scaring moderate Muslims and the large, non-Muslim ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities. If Abdullah checks the fundamentalists, he should sail through subsequent internal elections in his party. But if the Islamic opposition gains another state, Abdullah could face a party leadership challenge, with his premiership at stake. ``He's shown that in his own very sort of courteous, civil way that he's his own man,'' said Chandra Muzaffar, a think-tank head who worked with Abdullah on economic policy in the 1980s. ``But after the election, people are going to expect results.'' Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 58 scotsman: Nukes and poverty make an explosive combination Sun 8 Feb 2004 /Gerald DeGroot/ SELDOM does a crisis pass so quickly. On Wednesday, Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s A-bomb, confessed that he has been selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea for the past 10 years. The Pakistani government, worried that a trial might expose its own involvement in the trade, quickly pardoned Khan. Meanwhile, the Bush administration, keen to retain Pakistani support in the war on terrorism, swallowed its anger. Since all parties clearly want this issue to disappear, all are sticking to a well-rehearsed script. The International Atomic Energy Agency is not, however, particularly interested in harmony between America and Pakistan. Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the IAEA, argues that the Khan case points out the need for stricter controls on the trade in nuclear secrets. "Khan is the tip of an iceberg," he insists. "This is a number-one international security problem we are facing." He believes that a "supermarket" exists in which nuclear knowledge is sold to anyone with sufficient money. He’s probably right. Recently, the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow revealed that two of its scientists had been approached by Libya and offered jobs at $2,000 a month, about 10 times their existing salary. But does it matter? Nuclear secrets have been traded (legally or illegally) for more than 60 years. Of all the nuclear powers, only the US and France built bombs without borrowed technology. Klaus Fuchs passed American secrets on to the Russians, who in turn gave it to the Chinese, who then gave it to the Pakistanis. The Americans helped the British who helped India. The Israelis benefited from French and American help. In other words, punishing ElBaradei’s actions would seem to be a rather feeble attempt to close a barn door long after the horses have bolted. Proliferation is a problem, but it has no solution. There’s no way to uninvent the atomic bomb, and by now too many people know how to make one. The real threat is not proliferation among established states (which is impossible to control) but rather the acquisition of nuclear capability by rogue groups such as al-Qaeda. The nuclear ambitions of Iran, North Korea and Libya might scare the daylights out of George Bush, but those countries do not want the bomb for aggressive purposes. They’re simply adhering to the well- established principle of deterrence - the only sure way to keep an enemy (namely the US) at bay is to go nuclear. But deterrence doesn’t work with terrorists, since they are not susceptible to atomic retaliation. Al-Qaeda has no return address. Granted, the proliferation of nuclear technology among ‘rogue’ states increases the likelihood that knowledge will be passed on to terrorist groups, but it seems pointless to get too worried about that risk increasing, since it is already dangerously high. Osama bin Laden could easily find someone to build him a bomb. The difficulty lies in getting hold of the materials. Here comes the science, so pay attention. The simplest atomic bomb works when two pieces of supercritical Uranium-235 are brought together at speed. The bomb that destroyed Hiroshima was nothing more than a gun which fired a uranium bullet into a uranium core. The Manhattan Project scientists were so certain that the technique would work that they didn’t even feel the need to test it. But the difficulty of that bomb lay in separating the U-235 isotope from natural uranium. That required an infrastructure nearly the size of the Detroit car industry. A bomb can also be built with plutonium, which is easier to procure, since it is a byproduct of atomic reaction. This explains why most bomb projects begin as innocent atomic energy ventures. But while plutonium is easy to collect, getting it to explode is difficult. The gun method doesn’t work. The preferred method is instead implosion. A ball of plutonium is surrounded with explosives, all of which detonate at precisely the same moment and with exactly the same power. While that kind of precision was difficult in 1945, the advent of mouldable plastic explosives and digital timers has rendered it much easier. All this means that anyone with a good PhD in physics could make a reasonable stab at building a bomb. In order to cause mayhem, such a bomb would not have to be effective as an explosive. A crude device might result in premature detonation, severely reducing the yield, but such a bomb would still produce a massive amount of lethal radiation. In 1946, analysts found that the Hiroshima bomb would have killed just as many people even if it had produced neither fire nor explosion. Radiation alone would have killed as efficiently, but the victims would have taken longer to die. The safety of the world rests on the controls placed on the trade in U-235 and plutonium. Bin Laden cannot build the huge plants necessary to produce fissionable materials; all he can do is buy or steal the stuff. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of it lying around in not very secure places. In 1992 the Russian nuclear technician Yuri Smirnov was arrested for stealing 1,538 grams of enriched uranium from his laboratory. During his trial, he explained that he had been driven to desperation because of poverty. He hoped to sell the stuff for $500. "That was my salary for two years," he explained. "I needed a new refrigerator and a new gas stove. That’s all. I didn’t need to make a big profit." The most frightening aspect of Smirnov’s story is how easy it was for him to steal the uranium. At his lab, procedures allowed for an ‘irretrievable loss’ of around 3%. Through careful handling of the material, he siphoned off small amounts, which no one missed. He simply went home every few days with a small vial containing 60 grams in his pocket. As it turned out, Smirnov was arrested before he could figure out how to sell the material. His arrest was, however, entirely accidental; he was picked up while in the company of some friends who had been stealing car batteries. In September 1998, a US team visiting the Kurchatov Institute was shown a building containing 100 kilos of highly enriched uranium. The facility was unguarded because the Institute could not afford to pay a guard. At other storage sites, guards had left their posts to forage for mushrooms and berries or because they did not have winter uniforms to keep them warm on patrol. Surveillance equipment was shut down because electricity bills had not been paid. Wage payments were three months in arrears, and some officers had received potatoes in lieu of pay. When poverty mixes with nuclear technology, the result can be explosive. If the Russians are having difficulty keeping track of their plutonium, just think how much more serious the problem is in Pakistan, where the desire to make some extra cash might be reinforced by genuine sympathy for the rogue groups keen to buy the plutonium. In other words, it’s not the exploits of Abdul Qadeer Khan that are cause for concern. No, it’s the thousands of nameless technicians and hungry nuclear plant workers who pose the real threat to our safety. The contents of their pockets could easily destroy our world. ©2004 Scotsman.com | contact ***************************************************************** 59 dw-world.de: Czechs and Slovaks Struggle with Nuclear Legacy 06.02.2004 Austrian environmental activists are strongly opposed to the Czech Temelin nuclear power plant. When eight central and eastern European countries join the European Union in May, they will bring a number of problematic nuclear reactors with them. The Czech Republic and Slovakia are receiving particular scrutiny. Although the EU is imposing strict rules on everything from farming to food safety on the acceding countries, Brussels would strangely appear to have a rather casual approach to the topic of nuclear reactors. Despite plenty of concern about old soviet-era reactors, it would appear the West’s political or economic interests are taking priority. Of all the former East Bloc countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are coming in for most of the criticism over safety due to their proximity to old western border of the EU. Wedged next to Germany and Austria, what was once Czechoslovakia was already an industrialized country during communist times. Steel and coal, heavy industry, weapons and mechanical engineering, chemical and auto industries were all important areas of production. Energy consumption was correspondingly high and was met above all by means of nuclear power. Today there are four nuclear power sites on the territory of the former Czechoslovakia: Temelin and Dukovany in the Czech Republic, plus Jaslovske Bohunyitze and Mochovtze in Slovakia. In the Czech Republic three new nuclear reactors are to be built in the next few years, if the government’s plans are implemented. And that has some Czech activists concerned. “It seems to us that the Industry Ministry intends to re-introduce the planned economy,” Marta Heveryova of the European Forum for Effective Energy Use in Prague said. “Both energy consumption and production are being dictated. It’s the same as under communism.” *Communist technology* The technology of the nuclear power plants operated in the Czech Republic and Slovakia today also stems from communist times. Nonetheless, there are big differences: although the southern Bohemian Temelin produces most of the headlines because of its proximity to Austria and Bavaria and a string of mishaps, it is one of the newest and is considered one of the safest nuclear power plants in what was the Eastern Bloc. The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna even considers Temelin to be safer than a number of Germany’s older reactors. But opponents criticize above all the mix of Soviet reactor technology and American safety technology. Much more problematic than Temelin is Dukovany, whose reactors are not protected by a safety shell. A plane crash would have disastrous results here and a military airbase is situated just nearby. In Slovakia, there are two fairly new reactors in Mochovtze, which the German Siemens concern helped to modernize. In Jaslovske Bohunyitze, two Chernobyl-type reactors are in operation. This Slovak nuclear power plant is one of the few examples where the European Union has made its early closing down a condition for membership to the bloc. One reactor is to be switched off by 2006 and the other by 2008. *Increasing opposition* Meanwhile, people in the Czech Republic are also stepping up their resistance to new atomic power plants and to the planned nuclear waste depots. Numerous local authorities have already rejected such depots in their vicinity. In the Czech Republic, running the country’s own nuclear power plants was long seen as a question of national sovereignty and eco-activists were considered nutcases. The sometimes militant actions by Temelin opponents from Austria have intensified this perception. “Blockading borders, for instance, is clearly harmful,” said Vladimir Halama of a Czech anti-Temelin initiative. “It would be more helpful if local authorities in other countries gave us some advice – authorities that have experience with the production of alternative energy.” But there are economic arguments to consider, since the Czech Republic and Slovakia export large quantities of electricity. “Last year, she says, the Czech Reopublic exported a record 19 terawatt hours, corresponding to the annual production of Temelin’s two reactor blocks,” said Halama. State monopoly structures in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia have remained in place nearly 15 years after the fall of communism and there is little or no competition in the energy sector. Unfortunately, that will not change after the forthcoming privatization of the industry. Both the Czechs and Slovaks only want to sell their power plants as a package. Possible bidders are the French company Eléctricité de France and Germany’s E.on. Christoph Scheffer (mry) ***************************************************************** 60 dw-world.de: Hungary Mulls Future of Nuclear Energy 08.02.2004 Once Hungary's pride: the Paks nuclear power plant. Hungary has been a proponent of nuclear energy for decades. But a radioactive leak at the country’s only nuclear power plant last year has provoked discussion about the technology’s safety. Half a dozen Hungarians were present when the world’s first nuclear power plant began its test run in Chicago in 1942. The country looks at its nuclear physicists with huge respect and there had never been a debate about the technology’s pros and cons. Things changed after April 10, 2003, when fuel rods at Hungary’s only nuclear power plant ruptured during a routine cleaning and radioactive material was released into the atmosphere. Hungarians, thousands of whom had visited the plant every year since its opening in 1982, began worrying about their safety. Shortly before Hungary will join the European Union, politicians and the nuclear lobby aren’t happy as the incident might endanger plans to keep the plant working for another 20 years. Situated near the town Paks on the river Danube, about 130 kilometers (81 miles) downstream from Budapest, the plant generated 2,000 megawatts, 40 percent of Hungary’s power supply, making it one of the most high-performing in Europe. That’s no longer the case as one of the reactors was shut off after last year’s incident: As the Franco-German maintenance company Framatome ANP was cleaning 30 fuel rods, the cooling system failed, causing the rods to overheat and rupture. The leak caused levels of radioactivity to rise as far away as Budapest. “Our instruments measured levels 10 percent higher than normal,” said Zoltan Szatmary, a professor at the research reactor at Budapest’s Technical University. “But then we analyzed it and realized that only one or two percent of the rise could be attributed to the incident. No one was hurt, no limits were exceeded.” *Environmentalists criticize official reaction* Some members of the environmental activist group Greenpeace got hurt, however, as they chained themselves to the plant’s gates in protest. The reactor’s management didn’t like that and got rough with the protesters: Contusions, bruises, a broken finger and a dislodged arm were the result. “The police showed up quickly and arrested everyone,” said Roland Csaki, a Hungarian Greenpeace activist. “They were brutal, not at all like they should behave towards demonstrators in a democratic country.” Csaki also criticized the plant management’s refusal to release information about the incident. “The population didn’t find out for seven days,” he said. “It’s like the old method, similar to how Hungarian and Russian authorities handled Chernobyl.” Only later officials raised the incident to level three, a “serious incident” on the seven-level international nuclear event scale (INES). It’s caused some Hungarians to start thinking about their country’s reliance on nuclear energy. *Plant is safe, nuclear energy supporters say* But proponents of the technology said they still trust the system. “You don’t have to worry,” said Istvan Vidovsky, deputy director of the Hungarian center for nuclear research. “Our nuclear plants are as safe as those in Western Europe or North America. Since 1990, we have tried hard to improve safety at nuclear plants.” That’s another reason why last year’s incident dealt such a blow to Hungary’s nuclear industry. Unlike reactors in Lithuania, for example, EU experts had given the Hungarian plant their seal of approval – prior to the rod rupture, that is. Now, opponents of nuclear energy are having a field day. They consider the Paks plant to be a reactor full of risks with serious construction faults, since it neither has a protective coat to prevent radioactive material from escaping nor a reliable cooling system. “The Paks plant is an only Russian power plant,” said Csaki of Greenpeace. “That’s why we’re worried whether it can keep working or not.” *Mixed feelings about EU position* Hungary’s energy club, which promotes the use of alternative energies, asked the EU Commission to comment on the incident. Months later, the group received a reply that didn’t say much: disappointing, but not surprising to group members, since Brussels has been pushing to include the use of nuclear energy in the EU’s proposed constitution. Environmentalist Ada Amon still believes EU membership will improve nuclear safety in her country. “I hope that the EU will prioritize safety much more than the Hungarian government and that it will also pressure our government to place more emphasis on safety,” she said. She added that she’s concerned about the plant’s workers and management as well. “Financial profits top or at least topped the list of priorities,” Amon said. It’s still unclear when the ruptured rods will be retrieved from the reactor, but it definitely will be long after Hungary joins the EU in May – an expensive power outage that costs €200,000 ($253,000) per day. DW staff (win) ***************************************************************** 61 ANB: Entergy Arkansas ratepayers may get $150 million tab, attorney say* * Mon, Feb. 9, 2004 * Saturday, Feb 7, 2004 *By Wesley Brown Arkansas News Bureau* LITTLE ROCK - Entergy Arkansas customers could soon see their electric bills go up as much as 15 percent, according to 63-page federal ruling handed down Friday by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The complex decision, made by FERC administrative law Judge William Brenner, sent Arkansas utility regulators and Entergy Arkansas officials scrambling late Friday afternoon to figure out how it will affect Entergy Arkansas' 640,000 customers. "Our very, very extremely rough estimate is $150 million for 2003," said PSC attorney Mary Cochran. At that rate, current electric bills would increase about 15 percent. New Orleans-based attorney Michael Fontham, who also believes Brenner's decision would probably cost Entergy Arkansas customers between $130 million and $150 million, said the ruling would substantially lower electric bills for Louisiana ratepayers, "This is a great decision for us," said Fontham, who refused to negotiate a settlement with Arkansas regulators last month. "It recognizes the merits of our argument that there is discrimination in the Entergy system and goes a long way in equaling costs." On Wednesday, Arkansas Public Service Commission chairman Sandra Hochstetter warned that the FERC ruling in an ongoing three-year dispute with Louisiana could end up costing "hundreds of millions of dollars" across the state. Hochstetter said Louisiana regulators and "their high-priced lawyers" filed the lawsuit with FERC in 2001 just to shift up to $400 million of Louisiana's power production costs to Arkansas. Brenner's ruling Friday did not force Arkansas electric users to pay Louisiana's full production costs of $255 million, however, the federal judge said the best solution was a "rough cost" alternative proposed by Fontham and Louisiana regulators. He said that it was the federal agency's duty to "remedy the undue discrimination (Louisiana) has suffered since 2000." Fontham, an attorney with the New Orleans law firm of Stone, Pigman, Walther, Wittmann and Hutchinson LLP, said power production costs in Louisiana are more than $200 million above Entergy's systemwide costs. He said Arkansas' costs are $200 million to $250 million less than the New Orlean-based utility giant's average systemwide cost. He said a $150 million settlement would be great for Entergy's Louisiana ratepayers. Meanwhile, PSC Executive Director John Bethel said that a special PSC legal team was pouring over the complicated ruling and trying to figure out what it meant. Cochran added that the document was so voluminous and difficult to figure out that PSC officials would probably not make an official statement about the ruling until early next week. "We are evaluating it as we speak," said Cochran, the PSC's lead attorney. "I have skimmed through most of (the ruling) and it is consistent with what the chair (Hochstetter) said on Wednesday." "We have an economist on the way up here," Cochran said jokingly about the production cost formulas proposed by Brenner. She also added that a $162 million production formula that was included in a spreadsheet summary in the 63-page document was not to be taken as the gospel. "That is only to be use as an example," she said. Dan Daugherty, spokesman for Entergy Arkansas, agreed with Cochran's assessment. He also refused to comment on the possible effects of the ruling. "This document is very long and complicated," Daugherty said. "Our team is studying it now and we will be looking at it over the weekend." A cost-average formula provided by Hochstetter on Wednesday provides some scenarios on how much Entergy Arkansas customers could expect to pay up if Fontham's figures are close to the mark. If Arkansas electric users have to bear between $130 million and $150 million of Entergy's production costs, that would mean that electric rates would go up 15 percent. For example, if Arkansas is assigned $150 million in production costs, then a typical 1,000-kilowatt-hour residential electric bill that was $86.75 would rise 15 percent to $99.76. FERC spokesman Bryan Lee also said that it would take some time before Entergy Arkansas customers to find out how much their bills will increase. He said Brenner's decision will automatically be appealed to the full FERC commission. Hochstetter has said the PSC will "fight on" all the way to the United States Supreme Court. She said on Wednesday that the current case reminds her of a similar disagreement between Arkansas and Louisiana regulators in the early 1980s involving the Grand Gulf nuclear plant in Mississippi. In that controversy, Middle South Utilities, the forerunner of Entergy, sought to distribute costs systemwide in a way that forced Arkansas customers of AP&L to pick up about a third of the cost of the Grand Gulf nuclear plant in Mississippi. That case also went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Louisiana's favor. An eventual settlement ended a decade of public controversy and regulatory conflict. "That has cost Arkansas ratepayers approximately $3 billion since the Grand Gulf plant began operating in 1985," Hochstetter said. "And now, in the current lawsuit, Louisiana and the same team of hired-gun lawyers are once again attempting to use the Entergy system agreement as a weapon to help pay for another overpriced plant." If the request by the Louisiana regulators is eventually approved, it would be the first substantial change in the system's operating agreement since the Grand Gulf controversy, Arkansas PSC officials say. Copyright © Arkansas News Bureau, 2003 ***************************************************************** 62 POAC: The four types of nuclear-plant emergencies February 7, 2004 / By JARRETT RENSHAW Staff Writer, (609) 978-2015/ An emergency at Oyster Creek would fall into one of four classes established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. These definitions are provided by the state Radiological Emergency Response Planning and Technology Unit. # Unusual Event: A minor problem occurred at the plant and no release of the radioactive material is expected. Public officials would be notified. Residents within ten miles would not have to do anything. # Alert: It is not expected to seriously affect the safety of the plant. Any releases of radioactivity are expected to be limited to fractions of exposure limits Officials will be notified. Most likely, residents will not have to respond. Public officials, at their discretion, sound a steady siren tone for three minutes. This means to turn on your radio or television to an emergency broadcast station and listen for official information. # Site Area Emergency: This means a real serious accident occurred. Major plant systems might be affected, but releases of radioactivity would not be expected to exceed any federal limits outside the boundary. Public officials, at their discretion, sound a steady siren tone for three minutes. This means turn on your radio or television to an emergency broadcast station for official information and instructions. # General Emergency: Such an emergency would involve serious damage at the plant and could result in the release of radioactivity from the plant. Public officials may, at their discretion, sound a steady three-minute siren tone which would signal you to turn on your radio or television to an emergency broadcast station for official information and instructions. Copyright 2004 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 64 Yomiuri Shimbun: Monju reactor should be restarted soon At long last, the government has taken the first step toward resuming operations at the Monju fast-breeder reactor, which has been shut down since a leak of sodium coolant in 1995. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry has approved a modification plan for the reactor, creating an environment--at least in technical terms--that favors getting things back on track. To cope with its lack of natural energy resources, Japan has been trying to establish a nuclear fuel cycle that uses uranium efficiently. The Monju reactor is the pivotal experimental facility for the project. A fast-breeder reactor burns plutonium and uranium, producing more plutonium than it consumes. It thus greatly enhances the efficient combustion of fuels, resulting in the emission of less radioactive waste than in conventional nuclear power reactors, The Monju reactor was completed in 1985 by the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation--now the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute--at a cost of about 600 billion yen. In 1994, it reached the point of criticality--where the nuclear fission chain reaction becomes self-sustaining--for the first time. In August 1995, the facility began electricity transmission trials. === Shutdown an overreaction However, in December 1995, there was a coolant leak. Operations at the reactor have been suspended ever since--an overreaction, given that the accident was not a critical one. Over that period, about 200 billion yen has been spent on upkeep. Interested parties abroad also are anticipating the resumption of operations at the Monju reactor. Many countries have scaled back their own fast-breeder reactor research projects because uranium ore is available at relatively low costs. But they remain keen to study fast-breeder reactor technology in preparation for a future scarcity of uranium. France would like to collaborate with Japanese researchers on the Monju project. There are some hurdles to be overcome. One of these is the ruling in a court case involving the Monju reactor. In January last year, the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court nullified the government's 1983 permission for construction of the reactor, citing flaws in its safety examinations. === Court case pivotal The high court ruling pointed out that the government had failed to look into the possibility that the reactor might develop a serious problem. But some experts are strongly critical of the ruling. The central government, which has appealed the high court decision to the Supreme Court, intends to let the institution go ahead with its modification plan. But if the Supreme Court rules against the government, it will have to go back to square one. Furthermore, the consent of the Fukui prefectural government and the municipal government of Tsuruga--where the Monju reactor is located--is necessary before any modifications can be made to the reactor and before it can resume operation. The Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute has held briefing sessions for residents living near the reactor and has gained the understanding of the local community. In November, a panel of experts commissioned by the prefectural government in 2001 compiled a report that said the modifications would ensure the safety of the Monju reactor. In a related issue, the Fukui prefectural government, desperately looking for ways to revitalize the local economy, is seeking an extension of a proposed Shinkansen line as a precondition for agreeing to the modifications and the resumption of operations. The demand is a tough one for the central government to meet. But we would like to remind it that, once the Monju reactor is back in service, it could well become the global center for research on fast-breeder reactors, which would certainly buoy the local economy. The importance of the Monju reactor and its future must be properly understood. (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 8) Copyright 2004 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 65 WSFB: Review process set for nuclear power plant renewal* Waterford (AP) -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a public information meeting February 17th in Waterford to discuss the application to renew the licenses for Millstone Units 2 and 3 in Waterford. The meeting, set for 7 pm in Waterford Town Hall, will include information on how the review process works and how the public can participate. Under federal regulations, the original operating license for a nuclear power plant is issued for up to 40 years. The license may be renewed for up to an additional 20 years if requirements are met. The plant's owner, Dominion in Richmond, Virginia, has submitted an application to renew the operating license of the Millstone Power Station Units 2 and 3, for an additional 20 years. A third reactor at the Waterford complex, Millstone 1, is being decommissioned. (Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) All content Copyright 2001 - 2004 WorldNow and WFSB. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 66 POAC: Evacuation route among factors in nuclear-plant license renewal February 7, 2004 / By JARRETT RENSHAW Staff Writer, (609) 978-2015/ LACEY TOWNSHIP - Exelon Nuclear has until April to seek permission to continue operation of its Oyster Creek nuclear-power plant until 2029, twenty years after its planned expiration date. One of the factors the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, will use when deciding on the renewal will be the plant's emergency evacuation plan. The plan is joint effort of federal, state and local officials. In the past several months, critics have taken their turn at slamming the evacuation plan, calling it ineffective and dangerous - a claim that luckily has never been tested in the plant's 35 years of operation. Based on 1990 population and traffic data, the plan estimates that the evacuation time for the 10-mile radius of the Oyster Creek Generating Station in the summer, under normal conditions, would be 7 hours. The two-mile radius alone could take 3 hours to evacuate, state officials said. The NRC requires every nuclear power plant in the United States to have an Emergency Planning Zone, a 10-mile circle around the plant. The Emergency Planning Zone around Oyster Creek has been divided into 20 numbered response areas. In the case of an emergency, officials would give specific directions to each zone or collection of zones. Emergency officials said it is important for residents to know the zone number of both their home and workplace. The zones are published in the Ocean County phone book. A three-minute siren would inform residents to turn on the television or radio and listen for official instructions. Officials urge residents not to instantly get into a car and go driving, because the plan has different built-in safeguards that change the evacuation plan. For example, if the wind pushes a radiated cloud in one direction, officials would point residents in another direction. "It is much safer in your home, with the air-conditioning off and the windows closed, than in your car driving through a wind carrying radiation," David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. The emergency response team would then attempt to funnel residents to the six reception centers located outside the 10-mile radius. At the centers, residents would be checked for contamination and be decontaminated if necessary. At that time, residents would be given further instructions, such as what shelter to go to, and updates on the situation. New Jersey Public Interest Group and Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, along with dozens of concerned citizens, have been vocal critics of the plan. They argue that the estimated evacuation times would likely be higher, since congestion in the county continues to worsen, as the area experiences rapid growth. According to Lt. Tim Keenan, head of the state Radiological Emergency Response Planning and Technology Unit, the plan has been tested and proven to work. "People are basing their criticisms (on) current conditions, and never take into account that the lanes are going one way," Keenan said. Keenan and his family live within the 10-mile radius of the Oyster Creek plant. Critics argue that the radiation clouds move faster than cars stuck in traffic. Depending on the wind speed, it can take as little as 30 minutes to 2 hours for radiation release to travel five miles. Furthermore, critics contend the 10-mile radius is insufficient and a more comprehensive plan is required for neighboring Monmouth, Burlington and Atlantic counties. The federal government has approved the plan, and would play a significant role in its application. "We have over 2,000 people that would be put into action if something were to happen, and these people are trained annually on how to respond and I have the utmost confidence that they will perform their job," Keenan said. One of the key areas of criticism is Route 72 on Long Beach Island. If a disaster struck, residents would find it hard to get off the island, critics say. "People exodus the island every Sunday in the summer and it doesn't take that long," said Ocean County Undersheriff Wayne Rupert. The Sheriff's Department oversees emergency management in the county. Rupert said his department has tested several busy routes in the county during the summertime. Each time, he said, the actual time was far less than the ones proposed by critics. In defense of the criticism by some that the plan lacks a seasonal component, Keenan said the plan is flexible and has different provisions for day and night, summer and winter and normal or adverse conditions. One of the predicaments no study can predict is the human factor. One of those human factors is the emergency response team and their potential ethical and moral complications What does a police officer who is the father of three do in an emergency situation? Help his wife and children get out of the area or fulfill his duties? Critics of the plan accuse officials of not dealing with the potential that officers would leave their posts. Keenan said the response teams are trained to handle the pressure and he is confident that they would respond professionally. The officers would be provided with protective gear and would work in short shifts. Following their shifts, they would go to treatment centers to be tested for contamination. "We have a lot of respect for the response community, and I think 9/11 showed that personnel can handle the job," Keenan said. Keenan said the issue is not political for him; it is merely a part of his job. "We are here to protect the people of New Jersey, and I think this plan does just that," said Keenan. /To e-mail Jarrett Renshaw at The Press: //JRenshaw@pressofac.com/ ***************************************************************** 67 norwich bulletin: Millstone license renewal subject of Feb. 17 meeting Local News - *Sunday, February 8, 2004* Norwich Bulletin *WATERFORD --* The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a public information meeting Feb. 17 in Waterford to discuss how the agency will review the application submitted by the Dominion Nuclear Connecticut Inc., to renew the operating licenses for Millstone Units 2 and 3. The plants are in Waterford. The meeting will be from 7-8:30 p.m. in Waterford Town Hall, 15 Rope Ferry Road. The NRC's presentation will include information on how the process works and how the public can participate. The public may ask questions on the NRC's license renewal review process. Under NRC regulations, the original operating license for a nuclear power plant is issued for up to 40 years. The license may be renewed for up to an additional 20 years if requirements are met. Dominion has submitted an application to renew the operating license of the Millstone Power Station, Units 2 and 3, for an additional 20 years. The operating licenses for Units 2 and 3 expire July 31, 2015, and Nov. 25, 2025, respectively. The license renewal process requires that both a technical review of safety issues and an environmental review be performed for each application. The NRC staff is reviewing Dominion's application to determine whether it contains enough information to begin the required formal review. If the application has sufficient information, the NRC will formally docket, or file, the application and will announce an opportunity to request a hearing. The Dominion application is posted on the NRC Web page at www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ licensing/renewal/applications /millstone.html. It is also available for review at the Waterford Public Library and at Three Rivers Community College, Thames Valley campus 574 New London Turnpike in Norwich. *Originally published Sunday, February 8, 2004* ***************************************************************** 68 : Entergy rethinking construction * Saturday, February 7, 2004 * February 7, 2004 By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer VERNON - Entergy Nuclear has alerted the Public Service Board that it might not build the controversial temporary buildings needed for its power upgrade, after all. In a letter to the board late last week, Entergy Nuclear lawyer Victoria Brown said the frigid weather during the past several weeks had further complicated cold-weather construction. "While the recent frigid weather has made the construction of the temporary buildings a more complex project than was originally envisioned, the construction is not wholly impossible and proceeding with the temporary buildings continues to be an option," wrote Brown. "However, given the uncertainties related both to weather and to Board approval, the Company has been aggressively pursuing alternatives to the temporary buildings," she added. The board is unhappy with Entergy for starting construction without any notification, let alone a permit, and has said it plans to levy sanctions. Earlier, Entergy officials said they planned to use giant heaters to thaw the ground, thus allowing construction crews to pour a concrete pad for the structures. The company needs the buildings to be ready by the end of March, when it plans to shut down for its regular refueling and maintenance. The company is hoping for overall approval of the power increase by mid-March, so it can do other upgrade work as well. Entergy Nuclear started construction on the temporary buildings without board approval last November. It halted site preparation on its own when company engineers discovered they didn't have the proper permits. The company then applied to construct the temporary buildings at that time. Entergy had also trucked several hundred cubic yards of soil from the Vermont Yankee grounds to another location in Vernon, but after a public hearing about the buildings, the company immediately trucked the soil back to the Vernon plant. The soil was tested by both the company and the Department of Health, and the tests showed no radiological contamination in the soil. Brown said Entergy would let the state know by Tuesday whether it would withdraw its application to build the two buildings, which will allow crews to rebuild a large generator rotor, a key component needed to support the proposed power upgrade at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. And Brown noted that the if the company had made up its mind, it would have let the state regulators know, a not-so-direct reference to the fact that Entergy Nuclear applied for the buildings in November, several months after it had made the decision to rebuild the rotors in Vermont, rather than ship them to a General Electric facility in Schenectady, N.Y. Last year, when Entergy Nuclear applied for state permission to increase power at the reactor by 20 percent, it said no change would occur in the plant's "footprint." But it later amended its application to include the two temporary buildings. Entergy Nuclear spokesman Robert Williams refused to comment beyond what Brown had written. But according to her letter, it was the board that had first raised the issue to the company earlier this month. Entergy officials said it chose to rebuild the rotor itself rather than ship it to Schnectady in order to save money. Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. * Back to Regional News * Contact Us ***************************************************************** 69 Toledo Blade: NRC team debriefs utility officials Article published Saturday, February 7, 2004 By TOM HENRY BLADE STAFF WRITER FirstEnergy Corp. was encouraged yesterday by what it heard during a closed-door debriefing by a special group of federal inspectors charged with assessing whether Davis-Besse is ready to go back online after a two-year layoff, a company official said. But the seven-member group, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission calls its Restart Readiness Assessment Team, also left FirstEnergy officials unsure whether it?s actually supporting the company?s restart application at this time. "They?re ambiguous on that," Richard Wilkins, a FirstEnergy spokesman, said. The assessment team consists of NRC inspectors from across the country. Its leader, Rick Skowkowski, senior resident inspector at the Byron nuclear complex near Rockford, Ill., could not be reached for comment. Jack Rutkowski, one of three resident inspectors permanently assigned to Davis-Besse, is one of the seven inspectors on the assessment team. He said the team "didn?t render an opinion" about a restart at the debriefing. Unlike a public meeting on Dec. 19 when it cited numerous deficiencies and stated flatly that FirstEnergy wasn?t ready, it may remain neutral when the agency?s oversight panel convenes Thursday to discuss results with the public, Mr. Rutkowski said. "The gist of what I got out of it [yesterday] was that they did say there was marked improvement," Mr. Wilkins said. He said the team noted some issues that still need to be addressed, but made it clear to the company that it had observed better performance among operators, maintenance workers, and the company?s corrective action program. Jan Strasma, a NRC spokesman, declined to reveal what was discussed or characterize the context of the debriefing. But he said there are no plans for another follow-up inspection. The findings will be among the highlights of a pair of exit meetings scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Camp Perry clubhouse west of Port Clinton. The NRC?s Management and Human Performance Assessment Team, which has analyzed the plant?s workplace atmosphere, also is to have its exit meeting during that afternoon session. The two meetings will be followed by one at 6 p.m. that is scheduled to last four hours and give the public a final chance to comment about the company?s restart application. Jack Grobe, NRC oversight panel chairman, was not at Davis-Besse for the debriefing. Mr. Grobe, who was at the agency?s headquarters in Rockville, Md., declined to specify what he may have heard or speculate on his panel?s next step. But he conceded the following: "I see no reason why those exit meetings won?t occur on the 12th, and I see no reason why the restart meeting won?t be held on the evening of the 12th." The NRC announced yesterday it has made plans to have a number of telephone lines open for people who would rather monitor the Thursday meetings via conference call. Callers are instructed to dial 1-888-642-8528 and give the password "Davis-Besse" to the operator. /*For earlier stories on Davis-Besse, go to www.toledoblade.com/davisbesse*/ ***************************************************************** 70 People's Daily: China's first self-built nuclear power plant set safe operation record Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, February 08, 2004 From May 10, 2001 to Feb. 4, 2004 a thousand days passed and China's first independently designed, built and operated nuclear power station - Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant operated safely with no unplanned shutdowns. It has set up a new safe operation record for prototype nuclear power plants. According to an official at China National Nuclear Corporation, following international practice the assessment was conducted with regard to three aspects - personnel, equipment and system. It requires no unplanned shutdown accidents, no serious personnel injury and abovementioned accidents and no major breakdown of the system and equipment caused by personnel. Up to now Qinshan NPP has established and perfected ten management outlines regarding quality guarantee, radiation protection and environment monitoring etc. and has drawn up corresponding management systems and procedures. It has formed a management network constituting of management outlines and more than 200 rules and regulations. Qinshan NPP, located in Hangzhou Bay of Zhejiang Province, is a 300 MW pressurized water reactor, which made its first contribution to electricity grid in December 1991. Three years later it was commercially operated. Its existence and production put an end to the history when mainland China had no nuclear power plant of its own and made China the 7th country (after US, UK, France, former USSR, Canada and Sweden ) who could independently design and build nuclear power plant. Since making the first electricity contribution Qinshan NPP has supplied 21 billion KWH of electricity. It has provided a strong support for the economic development of Zhejiang and created good social effects and economic returns. /By People's Daily Online/ Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 71 TIMES OF TRENTON: Oyster Creek may seek longer life Sunday, February 08, 2004 *By TRACEY L. REGAN * *Staff Writer* The future of one of the two oldest nuclear plants in the country is the subject of controversy along a once sparsely populated stretch of the New Jersey Shore that now is among the fastest-growing regions in the state. Switched on in 1969 at the dawn of commercial nuclear power, the Oyster Creek Generating Station in Lacey Township is closing in on what was scheduled decades ago to be its 40th and final birthday. It is widely expected, however, that the plant's owners, the Chicago-based Exelon Corp., will seek federal approval to extend its life by another 20 years, sparking resistance from residents in neighboring towns and Trenton-based environmental advocacy groups who say the plant's age and accumulating radioactive waste pose an unacceptable risk. The plant now supplies just under 10 percent of the electricity supplied to New Jersey households and businesses. How easy it would be to replace these megawatts is one of the central issues in the debate over the plant's future. In the past several months, five of the 33 towns in Ocean County have passed resolutions opposing an extended life for the plant, while at least one town, Brick Township, went a step further in calling for its immediate closure, said that town's mayor, Joseph Scarpelli. Another five towns have noted concerns about the plant's structure and its ability to stand the wear and tear of the next two decades. "I know the effects of age on concrete and steel, and while we might replace the components, it is still an old plant," said Dr. Fred Seeber, a council member in Stafford Township, who described himself as a laser physicist, at a recent meeting on the plant. "It's an old plant now and can you imagine what it will be like 20 years down the line?"-- -- -- Opponents also point to the tons of nuclear waste stored on-site, as plant operators here and around the country await the opening of a federal repository at Yucca Mountain. Oyster Creek ran out of space for its spent fuel rods in its cooling pools last year and is now storing some of the waste in above-ground casks. "We shouldn't be laying the responsibility for all of those spent rods on our kids," said Paula Gotsch, a Brick Township resident who spoke at the recent meeting, organized by one of the plant's chief opponents, the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group. McGreevey administration officials say the plant's age and the federal government's own conclusion some years ago that its design was flawed and should not be replicated present "some safety concerns." They acknowledge, however, that the decision to approve its extended life is in the hands of federal regulators. Exelon must decide by April if it will seek a new permit to give the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) enough time to review its application before the current license expires in 2009, a spokeswoman for the nuclear agency said. "In the end, it's a business decision," said Gina Scala, a spokeswoman for the plant, adding, "We feel Oyster Creek is a commercial contributor and economic anchor for Ocean County and we would like to continue that. "Any decision that we do make will ensure that the plant is safe, clean and reliable," she said. As the debate heats up, the plant has the outspoken support of municipal officials in Lacey Township, where it has been a major employer and revenue generator for 35 years. The plant employs more than 500 people and contributes more than $13 million each year to the township, whose annual budget last year was just over $19 million, said Township Administrator John Adams. Adams said that until the NRC says the plant is unsafe, he sees no reason why it should be closed. "If you buy a Mercedes-Benz and you take care of it, it will last you 20 years," he observed. "If people say they don't want this, then what's the alternative? If they shut the switch off, they're going to want electricity," Adams added.-- -- -- At 650 megawatts, Oyster Creek now produces 8 percent of the state's electricity, or enough for about 600,000 homes, in one of the fastest-growing regions of the state. "Eight percent is a lot of energy, and no one says it would be easy to replace that - or at what cost," said Tom Rosenthal, spokesman for the New Jersey Ratepayer Advocate. "It's a very volatile market." Rosenthal added, however, "The issue is more than rates. It includes security, safety, environmental factors and the storage of spent nuclear fuel. Yucca Mountain isn't ready yet." But some elected officials from the region, such as Sen. Andrew Ciesla, R-Brick Township, say they are confident the plant's 650 megawatts could be replaced by reserves on the regional electrical grid. "This is a situation where economic considerations should not prevail over safety," Ciesla said recently. GPU Inc. had intended to close the plant down at the end of the 1990s, when it was not profitable, said Wayne Romberg, senior project manager for the plant. Exelon bought it from the company in 2000 at the fire sale price of $10 million, dramatically cut staff and has invested about that much annually to maintain it, he said. "It could pretty much have an indefinite life," Romberg asserted, adding, however, that the company will wait until the plant's future is decided before making major investments that would boost its energy production by 10 to 15 percent.-- -- -- Oyster Creek would not be the first decades-old nuclear plant to be granted a new lease on life by the NRC. The agency has approved 20-year extensions for 23 reactors at 12 sites, said Sue Gagner, a spokeswoman for the agency. Ten other plants, with a total of 17 reactors, have submitted applications for similar extensions. "We have not rejected any so far, but that should not be taken as an indication that it's easy," said Gagner. "We look at how the effects of aging would be managed throughout the extended deadline." "I don't see why they shouldn't apply," Thelma Wiggins, spokeswoman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry trade group, said of the New Jersey plant. Oyster Creek officials say they view the 40-year time frame as an arbitrary one, selected for strategic reasons in the early years of commercial nuclear energy when it was unclear how the reactors would hold up. "I know it was an arbitrary number," said Romberg. "It was short enough that it would go at least that long, and long enough that it made some sense to investors." But some of the plant's opponents contend it should never have been built in the first place. At the time it was approved, it was selected over another site on Long Island because there were fewer people at the Jersey Shore, recalled Sen. Leonard Connors, R-Surf City. "I opposed it then," Connors said. "At the time, there were 50,000 people living in Ocean County, and now there are 537,000. "My position is not to oppose it just because it's there, but I don't want to wait 20 years, for another couple of generations, before we have another vulnerability assessment," he said. "Why should we have the risk when we know the plant is old and a potential target for terrorists?" Ciesla said. Contact Tracey L. Regan at (609) 777-4465 or tregan@njtimes.com Copyright 2004 The Times. Used with permission. ***************************************************************** 72 [Fwd: [du-list] Returning Vilseck troops get depleted uranium questions] Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 20:27:34 -0800 Return-path: Envelope-to: rogerh@energy-net.org Delivery-date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 09:26:53 -0800 Received: from root by darwin.ctyme.com with ctyme-spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1ApWEG-00019t-8C for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sat, 07 Feb 2004 09:26:53 -0800 Received: from n39.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.107]) by darwin.ctyme.com with smtp (Exim 4.30) id 1ApWEF-00019o-Vm for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sat, 07 Feb 2004 09:26:52 -0800 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1009892-5336-1076174810-rogerh=energy-net.org@returns.groups.yahoo.com Received: from [66.218.66.95] by n39.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 07 Feb 2004 17:26:51 -0000 X-Sender: et@nucnews.net X-Apparently-To: du-list@yahoogroups.com Received: (qmail 16016 invoked from network); 7 Feb 2004 17:26:49 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.166) by m7.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 7 Feb 2004 17:26:49 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO pink.zilch.net) (209.70.46.10) by mta5.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 7 Feb 2004 17:26:49 -0000 Received: from h-66-167-235-91.mclnva23.dynamic.covad.net ([66.167.235.91] helo=nucnews.net) by pink.zilch.net with asmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1ApWE4-0002Xw-N9; Sat, 07 Feb 2004 12:26:18 -0500 Message-ID: <4025207E.6020909@nucnews.net> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en To: nucnews@yahoogroups.com, DU-List X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [0 0] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - nucnews.net X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 209.70.46.10 From: et@nucnews.net X-Yahoo-Profile: nucnews MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list du-list@yahoogroups.com; contact du-list-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list du-list@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 12:29:34 -0500 Subject: [du-list] Returning Vilseck troops get depleted uranium questions Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Sender-Hostname: n39.grp.scd.yahoo.com X-Spam-Report: * -5.0 SUBJ_WHITELIST Subject Whitelist * -1.0 SUBJ_GROUP Subject Indicates Discussion List [] * -2.0 YAHOO_HOST From Yahoo Host * -5.0 YAHOO_EGROUP From Yahoo eGroup * 0.1 NO_REAL_NAME From: does not include a real name * 2.5 OFFER BODY: Offers you Something * -5.0 WHITE_ACRONYMS BODY: Acronyms rarely used in Spam * -5.0 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 0 to 1% * [score: 0.0000] * 1.0 FORGED_RCVD_HELO Received: contains a forged HELO * 1.0 RCVD_IN_DSBL RBL: Received via a relay in list.dsbl.org * [] * 0.5 RCVD_IN_NJABL_PROXY RBL: NJABL: sender is an open proxy * [66.167.235.91 listed in dnsbl.njabl.org] * 0.1 RCVD_IN_NJABL RBL: Received via a relay in dnsbl.njabl.org * [66.167.235.91 listed in dnsbl.njabl.org] X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-17.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FORGED_RCVD_HELO, NO_REAL_NAME,OFFER,RCVD_IN_DSBL,RCVD_IN_NJABL,RCVD_IN_NJABL_PROXY, SUBJ_GROUP,SUBJ_WHITELIST,WHITE_ACRONYMS,YAHOO_EGROUP,YAHOO_HOST autolearn=ham version=2.70-cvs X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.70-cvs (1.220-2003-12-04-exp) on darwin.ctyme.com Returning Vilseck troops get depleted uranium questions By Rick Scavetta, Stars and Stripes European edition, Friday, February 6, 2004 http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=20287 Editors note: Stars and Stripes reporter Rick Scavetta is embedded with the 94th Engineer Battalion, a Vilseck, Germany-based unit that has returned from Iraq after a yearlong deployment. This is the third in a series of articles on the soldiers return to Germany. VILSECK, Germany A questionnaire on troops exposure to depleted uranium raised a few eyebrows this week as engineers returning from Iraq began their second day of the U.S. Army Europe reintegration program. The survey was one part of the medical session, during which soldiers from the 94th Engineer Battalion also gave blood samples for HIV screenings and received tuberculosis skin tests. The series of questions on depleted uranium read somewhat like this: Were you near an armored vehicle that was struck by depleted uranium? Were you in or near an Abrams tank when it was hit with depleted uranium munitions? Did you routinely enter vehicles with depleted uranium dust to perform maintenance, recovery or intelligence gathering? Most of the soldiers checked blocks stating they hadnt encountered any of that. But the survey brought questions about why the military was asking. Theyre trying to figure out their liability so they dont get sued down the line, said Spc. John Wissinger, 34, of Denver. He said he was around burning vehicles in Iraq but wasnt sure what type of munitions set them afire. After the checklists were signed, the engineers took off their uniform tops and lined up, each holding a glass vial. Medics from the Vilseck Health Clinic, augmented by soldiers from a stateside Reserve unit, worked the needles. Just a few combat veterans winced at the flash of blood entering the small tube. Most were content to do whatever the Army asked so they could go about their personal business. B.B. Bell says do it, so weve got to do it, said Cpl. Stanley Osinski, 24, of Boston. Meanwhile, the engineers discussed taking advantage of some exclusive offers for returning troops. For example, the bowling center on base offered three free games. A local cantina donated a large cappuccino and 24 minutes of free Web surfing. The coffee was a great idea, but the Internet was no dice, said Spc. Donald Bunn, 25, of North Hampton, Ohio. They said it wasnt working. Most troops shrugged at the 20 percent off purchases at the Arts & Crafts Center, but the free hour at the auto shop would come in handy for tuning up cars left in storage for a year. For those without cars, the base outdoor recreation program gave out mountain bikes for the first week back. The travel company on post gave $10 off the entrance fee to Neuschwanstein, one of Bavarias most famous castles. Unfortunately, the offer was good only until Jan. 25. Troops joked about their blood samples many of them have been partying each night since their return. Im hung over and had about three hours of sleep, said Spc. Ethan Coder, who added that the mandatory training was like a wedge that doesnt fit. Soldiers talked about how one soldier already was charged with driving under the influence. A couple of fights broke out in the barracks, but nothing serious. Pfc. Eric Schrobilgen, 19, of Dubuque, Iowa, sported a small shiner near his right eye, but could not figure out how he got it. His first night back, he drank vodka and some beers. Sometime later he fell in the woods on post, possibly the cause of his injury. He slept most of the next day and was feeling fine, he said. Female soldiers joined the partying, but had to fend off advances from fellow troops, said Pfc. Amanda Jackson, 19, of Roanoke, Va., who stayed up all night at her barracks in nearby Grafenwhr. At one point she cried, she said, because her boyfriend in Vilseck had not come to see her. But she joined in and drank some wine. Her friend Stephanie Meade, 22, of Chestertown, N.Y., drank heavily and called her mom, she said. Engaged to a Marine at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Meade also found herself turning away drunken guys, she said. Back in Baghdad, guys would use awful pickup lines such as, Hey, wheres that unit patch from? Or, Lets go take a walk. Back in Vilseck it was more direct, Meade said. They would simply ask, You want to see my room? You feel sorry for them, Meade said. They are so pathetic. While the nights may be for revelry, the days are reserved for business. During the week of half-day sessions, each troop carries three photocopied pages titled USAREUR Individual Reintegration Checklist. The lengthy list of sections is divided up in typical military fashion, with line items labeled by category 2.1.10 and 2.1.11, etc. Each corresponds with mandatory tasks. Soldiers need a sign and stamp from officials after each days sessions to prove that the troops received training. Supervising the checklist collection was Sgt. Alberto Blanco, 27, of the Bronx, N.Y., who returned from Iraq early because of a death in the family. Blanco, who underwent a similar reintegration program, knows his returning comrades have other things on their minds. Im just making sure they do the right thing, Blanco said. This is a USAREUR requirement. If they dont fill out everything, they cant go on leave. -- Posted for educational and research purposes only, ~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~ See NucNews Links and Archives - http://nucnews.net - Nuclear - Military - Police - Energy+ - Activists - (news stories that may have disappeared from the Web) To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 73 [DU-WATCH] More UK Parliamentry questions on DU munitions Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 00:15:00 -0600 (CST) 2 Feb 2004 : Column 747W Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent (Llew Smith) of 12 January 2004, Official Report, column 537W, on Iraq, how many military vehicles hit by depleted uranium munitions have been identified within the southern sector of Iraq under British control; if he will list the options open to coalition forces to deal with these vehicles; when he expects work to begin; what risk assessment of Iraqi (a) adults and (b) children has been carried out; and if he will make a statement. [150356] Mr. Ingram: To date eight military vehicles have been identified as having been hit by depleted uranium (DU) munitions within the southern sector of Iraq under British military control. All these vehicles have been clearly marked. Arrangements are currently being negotiated with the US for a contractor to collect and securely store these military vehicles. Generic assessments of the potential risks from DU munitions have been carried out by organisations such as the Royal Society and the United Nations Environment Programme and are available on the world wide web at: www.postconflict.unep.ch/ and www.royalsociety.ac.uk/du/ The levels of DU contamination found by MOD personnel are much lower than those predicted from these theoretical risk assessments. 28th January 2004 Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what information he has received on the smelting plant near Basra which is melting down tanks and armoured vehicles contaminated by depleted uranium; and what efforts are being made to identify and close down such facilities in the area controlled by British forces. [148056] Mr. Ingram: There is no known legitimate operational smelting plant in the Basra region. A small number of illegal mobile smelting plants used for smuggled copper and aluminium have been found and closed down. There is no evidence they had been used to smelt tanks. Military vehicles known to have been hit by DU munitions within the southern sector of Iraq controlled by the British military have been clearly marked. Arrangements are currently being negotiated with the US for a contractor to collect and store these military vehicles. Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what strategy he is pursuing to (a) recover and (b) dispose of weaponry contaminated by depleted uranium in Iraq; and if he will make a statement. [148054] Mr. Ingram: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 12 January 2004, Official Report, column 537W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Blaenau Gwent (Llew Smith). 19th January Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total volume is of depleted uranium tipped weapons used in Iraq between March and May 2003; and if he will make a statement. [148295] Mr. Ingram: There are no depleted uranium tipped weapons in UK service. However, UK forces in Iraq used a depleted uranium (DU) round in anti-armour operations. The round comprises an outer casing or "sabot" that surrounds a long rod penetrator made of DU, plus charge and igniter components. 1.9 tonnes of DU were expended by British Challenger tanks during the recent conflict in Iraq. ****************************************************************************** *************** The Campaign Against Depleted Uranium, Bridge 5 Mill, 22a Beswick Street, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 7HR Tel./Fax.: +44 (0)161 273 8293 E-Mail info@cadu.org.uk Website: http://www.cadu.org.uk Affiliation costs to CADU are #8 a year unwaged/student and #10 a year waged. For this you will receive campaigning materials and CADU's quarterly newsletter. Our newsletter is also available free of charge by E-Mail (send us a message with 'Subscribe CADU News' as the subject). Please send your cheque draft or postal order in # sterling to the address above. ****************************************************************************** *************** [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 74 [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] SF Bay Guardian on Irradiated Meat Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 00:24:12 -0600 (CST) Two Items: News Item and Action Alert SF Bay Guardian Editorializes on Irradiated Food in San Francisco Schools San Francisco has been battling it out over food irradiation for the past month, but this week's Guardian (our progressive weekly) editorialized in favor of banning irradiated food to kids. Read the article here: http://www.sfbg.com/38/19/news_ed_rejectnuke.html And check out this opinion piece also printed in this week's Guardian: http://www.sfbg.com/38/19/x_oped.html Then, send both articles to your friends in San Francisco and tell them to urge the school board to vote YES for the ban on irradiated foods! School Board contact info at: http://portal.sfusd.edu/template/default.cfm?page=board.overview_more Take Action! Support Petition to End Irradiation of Ground Beef! On November 24, 2003, Public Citizen and the Center for Food Safety filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting that the agency revoke its 1997 approval of irradiation for ground beef. The consumer groups made this request based on a number of findings: ~ The FDA failed to follow its own protocols when it approved irradiation for ground beef; ~ New research has raised safety concerns about some of the chemicals produced in ground beef when it is irradiated; ~ Testing of irradiated ground beef conducted by the groups showed that these chemicals (which do not occur in non-irradiated meat) were present in irradiated ground beef purchased at grocery stores and one fast food restaurant. To view the complete Center for Food Safety/Public Citizen petition, please go to: www.centerforfoodsafety.org/li/petitionrevokebeef.pdf *SEND IN COMMENTS!* Comments must refer to "Citizen Petition No. 4Z4752 on irradiated ground beef." You can submit comments via email to fdadockets@oc.fda.gov or via postal mail to: Division of Dockets Management Food and Drug Administration 5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061 (HFA-305) Rockville, MD 20852 -- Sample Comments -- RE: Citizen Petition No. 4Z4752 on irradiated ground beef Dear Sir or Madam: I am writing in support of Citizen Petition No. 4Z4752 to revoke the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of irradiation to treat ground beef. I urge the agency to rescind its approval of irradiation for ground beef for the following reasons: The 1997 FDA approval for irradiation of ground beef was flawed since the agency based its decision on deficient scientific studies; FDA failed to test for the toxicity of unique chemicals formed when ground beef is irradiated. While FDA knew of the existence of these chemicals as early as 1972, the agency failed to test for their potential to cause harm to humans; Recent research from Germany and France indicates that some of these chemicals are harmful to laboratory animals. In addition, the research indicates that there are questions about how these chemicals are metabolized in the body-an issue that deserves continued research; Consumer groups Public Citizen and Center for Food Safety have demonstrated the existence of these potentially harmful chemicals in irradiated ground beef that is currently being sold in the United States; FDA failed to apply its own protocols when evaluating the safety of the chemicals produced when foods are irradiated. The FDA approval has led to irradiated ground beef being marketed in some 5000 supermarkets across the country. While that meat is required to be labeled so that consumers can make an informed choice, it is disturbing to me that some chain restaurants are offering irradiated ground beef to unwitting customers since information about food prepared with irradiated ingredients does not have to be divulged. The FDA approval has also led the United States Department of Agriculture to remove its prohibition on purchasing irradiated ground beef for the National School Lunch Program-thus setting up the potential for our school children to become the largest group of consumers of irradiated ground beef without having complete scientific assurances of its safety. For all of these reasons, I urge you to rescind your approval of irradiation for ground beef. Sincerely, Your Name and Address ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tracy Lerman Senior Organizer Public Citizen, California Office 1615 Broadway, 9th Floor Oakland, CA 94612 ph: 510-663-0888 x 103 f: 510-663-8569 tlerman@citizen.org www.citizen.org/california Keep irradiated food out of your child's lunch! Visit www.safelunch.org to find out more. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ********** To unsubscribe, please send a email to tlerman@citizen.org with "unsubscribe foodirradiationca" in the subject line. ***************************************************************** 75 [Fwd: [du-list] Warning of uranium contamination risks to NGO staff, Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 20:22:55 -0800 Return-path: Envelope-to: rogerh@energy-net.org Delivery-date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 07:22:07 -0800 Received: from root by darwin.ctyme.com with ctyme-spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1Apql2-00033b-9d for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sun, 08 Feb 2004 07:22:07 -0800 Received: from n17.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.72]) by darwin.ctyme.com with smtp (Exim 4.30) id 1Apql0-00032K-T4 for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sun, 08 Feb 2004 07:22:03 -0800 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1009892-5343-1076253514-rogerh=energy-net.org@returns.groups.yahoo.com Received: from [66.218.67.192] by n17.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 08 Feb 2004 15:18:35 -0000 X-Sender: thunderelf@yahoo.co.uk X-Apparently-To: du-list@yahoogroups.com Received: (qmail 57099 invoked from network); 8 Feb 2004 15:18:34 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.217) by m10.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 8 Feb 2004 15:18:34 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO web86111.mail.ukl.yahoo.com) (217.12.12.56) by mta2.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 8 Feb 2004 15:18:33 -0000 Message-ID: <20040208151828.61328.qmail@web86111.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Received: from [194.80.32.10] by web86111.mail.ukl.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sun, 08 Feb 2004 15:18:28 GMT To: du-list@yahoogroups.com, du-watch@yahoogroups.com, pandora-project@yahoogroups.com, earthfirstalert@yahoogroups.com, gulfwarveterans@groups.msn.com, formotherearth@yahoogroups.com, tracy@tracyworcester.org.uk, abolition-caucus@yahoogroups.com, nucnews@yahoogroups.com X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 217.12.12.56 From: davey garland X-Yahoo-Profile: thunderelf MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list du-list@yahoogroups.com; contact du-list-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list du-list@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 15:18:28 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [du-list] Warning of uranium contamination risks to NGO staff, coalition forces etc Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Sender-Hostname: n17.grp.scd.yahoo.com X-Spam-Report: * -3.0 WHITE_PHRASE Phrases in non-spam * -5.0 SUBJ_WHITELIST Subject Whitelist * -1.0 SUBJ_GROUP Subject Indicates Discussion List [] * -2.0 YAHOO_HOST From Yahoo Host * -5.0 YAHOO_EGROUP From Yahoo eGroup * -5.0 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 0 to 1% * [score: 0.0000] X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-21.0 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,SUBJ_GROUP, SUBJ_WHITELIST,WHITE_PHRASE,YAHOO_EGROUP,YAHOO_HOST autolearn=ham version=2.70-cvs X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.70-cvs (1.220-2003-12-04-exp) on darwin.ctyme.com UMRC Information Bulletin February 6, 2004 Warning of uranium contamination risks to NGO staff, Coalition forces, foreign contract personnel and civilians in Iraq February 6, 2004 Recently completed laboratory analyses show two members of Uranium Medical Research Centres (UMRC) field investigation team are contaminated with Depleted Uranium (DU). The two field staff, one from Canada and the other, Beirut, toured Iraq for thirteen days in October 2003; five months after the cessation of Operation Iraqi Freedoms aerial bombing and ground force campaign. Using mass spectrometry, UMRCs partner laboratory in Germany measured DU in both team members urine samples. The UMRC team surveyed US and British controlled combat areas and bomb-sites in southern Iraq, including Baghdad, An Nasiriyah, As Suweiriah and Al Basra (details can be found at UMRC.net, Abu Khasib to Al Ahqaf: Field Investigation Report). The conditions responsible for the teams DU contamination are considered to be inhalation of resuspended ultra-fine soil and dust particles saturated with uranium and airborne uranium oxides and metallic particulate. Uranium was used in anti-tank penetrators, suppression ordnance and bunker-defeat warheads deployed during the 26 days of Operation Iraqi Freedom by both US and UK forces. The contamination of UMRCs team members occurring over a two-week period, many months after the main conflict, represents a risk to civilians, non-governmental organisations staff, Coalition armed forces and foreign contractors and diplomatic staff. In 1997, UMRC was the first study group to detect DU in the urine of Canadian, British and US troops who served in Gulf War I. The urinary excretion of battlefield uranium was identified six years following exposure. In January 2004, the US Department of Veterans Affairs admitted it had detected DU in the urine of US forces who are not retaining DU shrapnel, in 2000, eight years after Desert Storm. In 2001 and again in 2002, UMRC measured high concentrations of artificial uranium containing the synthetic isotope, 236U, in Afghan civilians exposed to the detonation plumes of bombs deployed during Operation Enduring Freedom. In November 2003, the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) released a formal statement to the Guardian disclaiming UMRCs Operation Telic findings of high levels of radioactivity in British-led battlefields. The MOD stated unequivocally that battlefield uranium residues remain stable inside defeated Iraqi tanks and cannot be made biologically available to humans. Since then, the MOD has found unusually high concentrations of uranium excreted in the urine of its 1st Armoured Division troops who served in Basra (September 2003, UK DU Oversight Board Meeting minutes, Gulf Veterans Illnesses Unit, UK Ministry of Defence). The MODs recent findings in its troops now deployed back to Germany, coupled with the contamination of UMRC s staff demonstrate the need to initiate immediate solutions to protect exposed civilians and foreign personnel in Iraq. Preliminary results of UMRCs laboratory analysis of field samples of civilian urine, soils and water samples indicate uranium contamination in several Iraqi cities and battlefields. Details of UMRCs findings from US and British controlled battlefields and bombsites will be released later this month (February 2004). UMRC has offered its assistance to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to guide UNEPs post-conflict study team to radiologically contaminated bombsites and battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan. UMRC urges UNEP to undertake immediate studies and lead the implementation of a radiation protection program for Iraqi and Afghan civilians as well as a supervised environmental clean-up program, as early as possible. For information: T Weyman Iraq Field Team Lead Info@UMRC.net ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! 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Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 76 [Fwd: [du-list] UK - Inquiry into Gulf illness urged] Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 20:27:04 -0800 Return-path: Envelope-to: rogerh@energy-net.org Delivery-date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 09:31:45 -0800 Received: from root by darwin.ctyme.com with ctyme-spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1ApWIx-0002KY-45 for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sat, 07 Feb 2004 09:31:45 -0800 Received: from n35.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.103]) by darwin.ctyme.com with smtp (Exim 4.30) id 1ApWIw-0002Js-Ex for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sat, 07 Feb 2004 09:31:42 -0800 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1009892-5337-1076175092-rogerh=energy-net.org@returns.groups.yahoo.com Received: from [66.218.66.157] by n35.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 07 Feb 2004 17:31:41 -0000 X-Sender: et@nucnews.net X-Apparently-To: du-list@yahoogroups.com Received: (qmail 54929 invoked from network); 7 Feb 2004 17:31:10 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.216) by m17.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 7 Feb 2004 17:31:10 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO pink.zilch.net) (209.70.46.10) by mta1.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 7 Feb 2004 17:31:07 -0000 Received: from h-66-167-235-91.mclnva23.dynamic.covad.net ([66.167.235.91] helo=nucnews.net) by pink.zilch.net with asmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1ApWI3-0002db-1p; Sat, 07 Feb 2004 12:30:25 -0500 Message-ID: <40252174.8090305@nucnews.net> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en To: nucnews@yahoogroups.com, DU-List X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [0 0] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - nucnews.net X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 209.70.46.10 From: et@nucnews.net X-Yahoo-Profile: nucnews MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list du-list@yahoogroups.com; contact du-list-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list du-list@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 12:33:40 -0500 Subject: [du-list] UK - Inquiry into Gulf illness urged Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Sender-Hostname: n35.grp.scd.yahoo.com X-Spam-Report: * -5.0 SUBJ_WHITELIST Subject Whitelist * -1.0 SUBJ_GROUP Subject Indicates Discussion List [] * -2.0 YAHOO_HOST From Yahoo Host * -5.0 YAHOO_EGROUP From Yahoo eGroup * 0.1 NO_REAL_NAME From: does not include a real name * -5.0 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 0 to 1% * [score: 0.0000] * 5.0 LONG_SUBHOST_NAME URI: Name of subdomain in link is long * 1.0 FORGED_RCVD_HELO Received: contains a forged HELO * 1.0 RCVD_IN_DSBL RBL: Received via a relay in list.dsbl.org * [] * 0.5 RCVD_IN_NJABL_PROXY RBL: NJABL: sender is an open proxy * [66.167.235.91 listed in dnsbl.njabl.org] * 0.1 RCVD_IN_NJABL RBL: Received via a relay in dnsbl.njabl.org * [66.167.235.91 listed in dnsbl.njabl.org] X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-10.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FORGED_RCVD_HELO, LONG_SUBHOST_NAME,NO_REAL_NAME,RCVD_IN_DSBL,RCVD_IN_NJABL, RCVD_IN_NJABL_PROXY,SUBJ_GROUP,SUBJ_WHITELIST,YAHOO_EGROUP,YAHOO_HOST autolearn=ham version=2.70-cvs X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.70-cvs (1.220-2003-12-04-exp) on darwin.ctyme.com 1- Inquiry into Gulf illness urged 2- British lawyer calls for Gulf War syndrome review -- Inquiry into Gulf illness urged Clare Dyer, legal correspondent Friday February 6, 2004 The Guardian http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1142227,00.html Calls for an independent inquiry into the plight of veterans with Gulf war illness intensified yesterday after the collapse of their eight-year compensation battle against the Ministry of Defence. Lord Morris of Manchester, a supporter of the veterans, said he would deliver a letter to the prime minister calling for an inquiry and ex gratia payments to veterans suffering from a range of illnesses after service in the 1991 Gulf war. As revealed in the Guardian yesterday, the Legal Services Commission is expected to withdraw funding for the claim by more than 2,000 ex-service personnel suffering from symptoms including neurological problems, headaches, depression, muscle weakness, joint and muscle pain, sleep disturbance, skin rashes and shortness of breath. Former troops from several allied forces who served in the Gulf have about twice the normal rate of ill health. Several possible causes, including depleted uranium from munitions, a cocktail of vaccinations and anti-nerve agents, have been suggested. But their lawyers have told the LSC, which administers legal aid, that there is not enough scientific evidence to prove that their illnesses were due to their service. Evidence of negligence on the MoD's part is also scant. Paul Tyler, Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall and a member of the Royal British Legion Group, said: "We are now absolutely determined that we need urgently to press the case for an independent inquiry." The collapse of the legal battle means that "the government can no longer pass the buck to the courts", said Mr Tyler. "The fact that the legal case has petered out in no way implies that the illnesses have petered out - far from it." ---- British lawyer calls for Gulf War syndrome review 2004-02-07 21:39:07 (Xinhuanet) http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/07/content_1303355.htm LONDON, Feb. 7 -- A senior British lawyer has demandeda public review of the issues surrounding Gulf War syndrome, the BBC reported Saturday. In a letter to Lord Morris of Manchester, who has campaigned for Gulf War veterans, lawyer Stephen Irwin said: "There is no doubt that many of them are ill. It is accepted by experts worldwide that the veterans suffer ill health which is associated with their active service in the Gulf." Gulf War syndrome is a condition popularized after the war against Iraq in 1991. Many of the 5,500 British troops who served in the Gulf, together with US soldiers, have experienced a range of symptoms including muscle weakness, neurological symptoms, headaches, depression, fatigue, short-term memory loss and difficulty in concentrating, joint and muscle pain, sleep disturbances, skin rashes and shortness of breath. There were also reports in the US of the same syndrome among Gulf War veterans. "Science has not explained the mechanism or mechanisms of theirillness, much less that their suffering has resulted from fault," Irwin said in the letter. "Nevertheless, we firmly believe that for very many veterans, their suffering is genuine and has a significant impact on their daily lives and the lives of their families." "We would ask government to consider instituting a full public review of the position of the veterans, as has been called for by the Royal British Legion, and to instigate a process of conciliation with the veteran groups," Irwin said. "This should be designed to mark the effects of war service on the veterans who are suffering and to make good, by ex-gratia payments, the deficiencies of the War Pension Scheme," Irwin added. Lord Morris was expected to deliver Irwin's letter to Downing Street on Saturday. Last week, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that an eight-year, multi-million pound legal battle by more than 2,000 British veterans for compensation for Gulf War syndrome has collapsed due to insufficient scientific evidence either to prove the case or toshow negligence on behalf of Britain's Ministry of Defense (MoD). To succeed in their claim against the MoD, the veterans would have to produce scientific evidence to prove their illness was caused by service in the 1991 Gulf War and that the MoD had been negligent, the paper said. Gulf War syndrome has been attributed to stress, smoke from burning oil wells, injections, depleted uranium ammunition and other causes, although many believe the condition could be psychosomatic. The US and Britain have refused to accept a direct link betweenthe war and the syndrome, even though they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars researching possible causes. -- Posted for educational and research purposes only, ~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~ See NucNews Links and Archives - http://nucnews.net - Nuclear - Military - Police - Energy+ - Activists - (news stories that may have disappeared from the Web) ------------------------ Yahoo! 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Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 77 chillicothe gazette: Beryllium find not a surprise, union says *Saturday, February 7, 2004* Testing to continue on workers By DANIEL PRAZER Gazette Staff Writer FAQ: Beryllium What is beryllium? A naturally occurring metal that, when mixed with other metals, is used in everything from bicycle frames to dental bridges. In its pure form, it's used in nuclear weapons and reactors, X-ray machines and space vehicles. It is emitted when fossil fuels are burned, and settles in small levels over land and water, and, as it is naturally occurring, is present in rocks and soil. Ambient levels are very low. The federal government restricts exposure to workers to 5.4 parts per billion over an 8-hour shift. How is it dangerous? Beryllium, if breathed as a dust, can be harmful. Anywhere from 1 percent to 15 percent of people become sensitive to beryllium after being exposed to it, and, if long-term exposure continues, it can result in chronic beryllium disease and an increased risk of lung cancer. What is chronic beryllium disease? CBD is an scarring, inflammatory reaction in the respiratory system that can cause weakness, fatigue and breathing difficulties. Other symptoms may include anorexia, weight loss and heart disease and enlargement. Source: www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts4.html PIKETON -- Following the public disclosure Thursday that the toxic metal beryllium was found in a machine shop at the Piketon uranium enrichment plant, the union represents the plant's workers has said the discovery comes as no surprise. "It wasn't anything new to us," said Dan Minter, president of the PACE Local 5-689 union. "From our point of view, we were aware of it." The metal was found in compressor blades used in the mothballed gaseous diffusion enrichment process and in a machine shop that kept the blades working efficiently, said William Murphie, manager of a Lexington, Ky., Department of Energy office that oversees cleanup efforts at the plant. Plant officials, in the meantime, have roped off areas where the metal was found -- the compressor blades and some machine shop equipment -- posting signs about the contamination. Employees aren't being allowed to use the equipment. "We've done air samples," said Angie Duduit, spokesperson for the United States Enrichment Corp., which runs the plant. "We have not detected any air samples to contain beryllium. We're just trying to keep people out of the area." The metal isn't used in any form to enrich uranium, Duduit said, and USEC is continuing to test for traces of beryllium. The testing should be finished within the next month. Minter said over the last 24 months, eight employees have been found to have chronic beryllium disease, and another eight have been deemed sensitive to the metal. The exposure, however, could have taken place decades ago, as the disease has a latency period of up to 20 years. "In all probability, the exposures, we hope, to be a legacy exposure," Minter said. But he also said the union wanted to expand the testing of current and former workers to make sure anybody exposed received proper medical care. "We'd like to see the process expanded that way and we think it has to be an enduring process," Minter said. As testing of both the workers and the site goes on, Minter said it must be determined that ongoing work at the plant isn't exposing more people, and cleanup ought to be the next step. Workers will be outfitted with adequate protective gear, specifically a respirator. Activities such as grinding or welding that could make the metal airborne now require the use of a respirator, but 20 years ago, the practice was rare, Minter said. Duduit said normal precautionary equipment used at the plant provides adequate protection from the beryllium they've found. "If you could eliminate the risk by removing the material, then you wouldn't need that protective equipment," he said. Workers would have probably breathed the dust produced by grinding the metal or alloys containing it. Minter also said the levels of beryllium found would be commonplace in many manufacturing operations, and could have come from other sources, since it once was used in fluorescent light bulbs and grinding wheels. "This is not a nuclear product," he said. "You could probably find it in any machine shop that used any beryllium product." But like asbestos, industries have realized what was formerly considered a safe material could harm the long-term health of employees, Minter said. Knowing what they do now, the concern rests in making sure nobody else is exposed. A spokesperson from the company contracted to do much of the cleanup at the plant agreed. "The welfare of Bechtel-Jacobs Co. and subcontractor employees are of the utmost importance, and if it is determined that they are at risk, measures will be implemented to ensure their safety," said Jack Williams, a Bechtel-Jacobs spokesperson. He added that the machine shop building isn't part of its "cleanup mission." "Bechtel-Jacobs Co. is continuing to monitor the progress at Portsmouth, and we have plans to meet next week with the union and USEC to review the results of sampling," Williams said. Testing of sites at the plant will continue, Murphie said, and this discovery was on the first of up to 14 locations. He said the DOE expects to find similar levels in other locations, given the "extreme sensitivity of the equipment." Right now, the DOE's suspicion is the beryllium was released when the compressor blades were being milled to keep them working efficiently, Murphie said, as beryllium, in small amounts, is commonly found in aluminum. "Beryllium is a natural constituent of the ore that they mine, so it's not uncommon. In fact, it's very common for beryllium to be a regular factor in the (aluminum) ore," Murphie said. But he added that the fact it was used in a nuclear facility now undergoing cleanup brings the issue to the forefront, as there is more reason to look for it. "We're talking about extremely low levels of beryllium in this aluminum, which in the normal conditions, people would say 'so what?'" (Prazer can be reached at 772-9364 or via e-mail at dprazer@nncogannett.com) *Originally published Saturday, February 7, 2004* Once again, the sobering truth has been revealed. The black market for nuclear weapons is flourishing, and international monitoring mechanisms have failed to expose them. For 15 years, the "father of the atom bomb in Pakistan," Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, operated a worldwide network of agents and middlemen who sold Pakistan's nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya. And it was only the decision of these two last countries to subject their nuclear programs to external monitoring that exposed the existence of this secret network. Even though dozens of people in over 10 countries were involved in this illegal network, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which serves as the UN's watchdog with respect to nuclear proliferation, was entirely taken aback by the disclosures. "This is the most dangerous phenomenon which we have witnessed for some time in the area of nuclear proliferation," IAEA Director-General Dr. Mohamed El Baradei said. As it turns out, Khan sold equipment used in producing enriched uranium to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Libya even received blueprints and instructions relevant to the production of nuclear weapons - such assistance would have made it easier for it to develop nuclear weapons. Khan appeared last week on Pakistani state television and asked for forgiveness. In accord with a recommendation formulated by Pakistan's cabinet, the country's president, Pervez Musharraf, decided to pardon the scientist and emphasized that Khan's activities were not conducted with the government's knowledge. However, nobody really believes that in Pakistan, where the army maintains strict control over nuclear activity, the country's leadership did not know about Khan's secret activities. Moreover, it is known that some of the nuclear-related equipment was sent from Pakistan on planes belonging to the country's air force. For his part, Khan, who received millions of dollars from nuclear transactions, maintains a lavish lifestyle; and it's hard to believe that Musharraf didn't grasp that a nuclear scientist needed to be bringing in income from special sources to enjoy such a prodigal way of life. And that's the troubling point of this whole story: here's an example of a country whose regime is unstable and possesses nuclear weapons going off to sell know-how and components for the production of bombs to a state with an extremist regime. Worse, nobody really knows to whom exactly the Pakistani nuclear secrets were sold. Disclosures that have surfaced in past days about Khan's activities are just "the tip of the iceberg," El Baradei warns. It is indeed becoming clear that the network was wider than what had been thought. Middlemen, buyers, sellers and manufacturers operated in Germany, Holland, Belgium, South Africa, Japan, Malaysia, the United States, Russia, China and, of course, Pakistan. Diplomats believe that other states will be added to this list. It can be assumed that authorities in some states turned a blind eye to the activities, or were even actively involved in them. For instance, in Malaysia, the major stockholder of one company involved in the network is the son of the country's prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The most disturbing fear stems from the possibility that technology and equipment reached terror organizations. Many elements in Pakistan's society, including army officers, sympathize with Islamic terror organizations, and many continue to support Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Searches of Al-Qaeda offices in Afghanistan revealed documents indicating that operatives from the terror organization invested tremendous effort to develop a "dirty" radioactive bomb. Investigators now suspect that the "Pakistani connection" with terror played out in the nuclear sphere. In 2001, two Pakistani nuclear scientists, Sultan Bashiru-Din Mehmood and Abdul Majid, were detained on suspicion that they had sold nuclear secrets to the Taliban and to Al-Qaeda. At the time, experts also reasoned that the two could never have made such sales without the Pakistani authorities' knowledge. In the end, the two were acquitted. Centrifuge production equipment cannot really help terror organizations - its use in the production of enriched uranium depends on the availability of huge facilities and hundreds of technicians. But, according to David Albright, an expert on nuclear proliferation, the purchase of blueprints and instructions for nuclear bomb production can be a significant step, making it easier for a terror organization to attain nuclear capability. If a terror organization with details relating to the production of a nuclear bomb manages to get its hands on 50-to-100 kilograms of enriched uranium, it will be able to build a bomb similar to that which was dropped on Hiroshima. The Khan affair illustrates anew the extent to which a black market in nuclear weapons is alive and kicking. El Baradei, whose lenient policies toward "nuclear criminals" has given a real boost to this black market, warned last week that recent disclosures regarding Pakistan point to serious flaws in international anti-proliferation mechanisms. "What is needed is a general review of systems for monitoring the export of nuclear equipment and technology," he said. "To monitor proliferation, what we have today is a small group of states which operate on the basis of a `gentlemen's agreement' - and it isn't working." It can only be hoped that such words will be heard, particularly in Europe, and that they will promote new, more determined forms of monitoring to prevent nuclear proliferation. If this doesn't happen, the world will become a much more dangerous place. Top Articles The last encounter Shulamit Aloni still will not forgive 97-year-old Yitzhak Ben Aharon for not having picked up the gauntlet and become a leader. By Gideon Levy Labors lost Aficionados of Tel Aviv nostalgia will find in this book some of the sweat of others' brows and some of the more earthy history of Israel's capital of technology and commerce. By Michael Dak Copyright 2004 Haaretz. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 79 Beacon Journal: Beryllium-exposed workers want more health tests Sunday, Feb 08, 2004 Posted on Sat, Feb. 07, 2004 *Associated Press* *WASHINGTON - *Workers at a southern Ohio uranium plant said Friday they want more health tests now that the toxic metal beryllium has been found in equipment at their facility. U.S. Energy Department officials said Thursday that aluminum blades used to produce enriched uranium at a plant in Piketon contained beryllium. The discovery was made last month. So far, eight people at the plant have tested positive for chronic beryllium disease, a scarring lung disease that can be fatal. Eight others have tested positive for beryllium exposure, said Dan Minter, president of the workers' union. ``It's our desire to continue testing all areas of the plant and to test the entire work force,'' Minter said. He said the parts of the plant that have beryllium-tainted equipment should be decontaminated. Workers should get appropriate protective equipment and their health monitoring should continue indefinitely since the disease often takes several years to develop. ``Right now, the priority has to be to take the appropriate measures to prevent further exposure and to evaluate what the risk actually is,'' he said. U.S. Rep. Rob Portman said Friday that he's also investigating the discovery. ``I will continue to monitor this situation,'' said Portman, a Republican whose district includes the plant. Beryllium has been used to make triggers for nuclear weapons, nuclear plant rods and computer circuit boards. It is not dangerous in solid form, but its dust can cause serious respiratory ailments if inhaled. The Energy Department had not thought the metal was present at the Ohio plant, believing it was only found in areas of a sister plant in Paducah, Ky., where old weapons work had been performed. USEC Inc., a Bethesda, Md., company that runs both plants, detected the beryllium from tests it conducted in Paducah and Piketon after the workers' union shared results of screenings it had conducted. ***************************************************************** 80 XINHUA online: British lawyer calls for Gulf War syndrome review www.xinhuanet.com Saturday,Feb.7,2004 www.chinaview.cn 2004-02-07 21:39:07 LONDON, Feb. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- A senior British lawyer has demandeda public review of the issues surrounding Gulf War syndrome, the BBC reported Saturday. In a letter to Lord Morris of Manchester, who has campaigned for Gulf War veterans, lawyer Stephen Irwin said: "There is no doubt that many of them are ill. It is accepted by experts worldwide that the veterans suffer ill health which is associated with their active service in the Gulf." Gulf War syndrome is a condition popularized after the war against Iraq in 1991. Many of the 5,500 British troops who served in the Gulf, together with US soldiers, have experienced a range of symptoms including muscle weakness, neurological symptoms, headaches, depression, fatigue, short-term memory loss and difficulty in concentrating, joint and muscle pain, sleep disturbances, skin rashes and shortness of breath. There were also reports in the US of the same syndrome among Gulf War veterans. "Science has not explained the mechanism or mechanisms of theirillness, much less that their suffering has resulted from fault," Irwin said in the letter. "Nevertheless, we firmly believe that for very many veterans, their suffering is genuine and has a significant impact on their daily lives and the lives of their families." "We would ask government to consider instituting a full public review of the position of the veterans, as has been called for by the Royal British Legion, and to instigate a process of conciliation with the veteran groups," Irwin said. "This should be designed to mark the effects of war service on the veterans who are suffering and to make good, by ex-gratia payments, the deficiencies of the War Pension Scheme," Irwin added. Lord Morris was expected to deliver Irwin's letter to Downing Street on Saturday. Last week, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that an eight-year, multi-million pound legal battle by more than 2,000 British veterans for compensation for Gulf War syndrome has collapsed due to insufficient scientific evidence either to prove the case or toshow negligence on behalf of Britain's Ministry of Defense (MoD). To succeed in their claim against the MoD, the veterans would have to produce scientific evidence to prove their illness was caused by service in the 1991 Gulf War and that the MoD had been negligent, the paper said. Gulf War syndrome has been attributed to stress, smoke from burning oil wells, injections, depleted uranium ammunition and other causes, although many believe the condition could be psychosomatic. The US and Britain have refused to accept a direct link betweenthe war and the syndrome, even though they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars researching possible causes. Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 81 Dayton Daily News: Piketon workers demand more tests From Staff and Wire Reports Friday, February 06, 2004 WASHINGTON -- Workers at a southern Ohio uranium plant said Friday they want more health tests now that the toxic metal beryllium has been found in equipment at their facility. U.S. Energy Department officials said Thursday that aluminum blades used to produce enriched uranium at a plant in Piketon contained beryllium. The discovery was made in January. Eight people at the plant have tested positive for chronic beryllium disease, a scarring lung disease that can be fatal. Eight others have tested positive for beryllium exposure, said Dan Minter, president of the workers' union. The Energy Department had not thought the metal was present at the Ohio plant, believing it was only found in areas of a sister plant in Paducah, Ky., where old weapons work had been performed. USEC Inc., a Bethesda, Md.-based company that runs both plant, detected the beryllium from tests it conducted in Paducah and Piketon after the workers' union shared results of screenings it had conducted. Dayton Metro Library Copyright 2004, Cox Ohio Publishing. All rights reserved. By using DaytonDailyNews.com, you accept the terms of our ***************************************************************** 82 Courier-journal: Uranium workers seek additional health tests Plants in Paducah, Ohio are concerned about beryllium Sunday, February 08, 2004 WASHINGTON ? Workers at a Southern Ohio uranium plant want more health tests now that the toxic metallic element beryllium has been found in equipment at their facility. U.S. Energy Department officials said Thursday that aluminum blades used to produce enriched uranium at a plant in Piketon contained beryllium. The discovery was made last month. So far, eight people at the plant have tested positive for chronic beryllium disease, a scarring lung disease that can be fatal. Eight others have tested positive for beryllium exposure, said Dan Minter, president of the workers' union. "It's our desire to continue testing all areas of the plant and to test the entire work force," Minter said Friday. He said the parts of the plant that have beryllium-tainted equipment should be decontaminated, and workers should get appropriate protective equipment and their health monitoring should continue indefinitely because the disease often takes several years to develop. "Right now, the priority has to be to take the appropriate measures to prevent further exposure and to evaluate what the risk actually is," he said. Sen. George Voinovich and Rep. Rob Portman both said Friday that they also are investigating the discovery. "I will continue to monitor this situation," said Portman, a Republican whose district includes the plant. "It is incumbent on the federal government to clean up the site and ensure the safety of the workers and the community." Beryllium has been used to make triggers for nuclear weapons, nuclear plant rods and computer circuit boards. It is not dangerous in solid form, but its dust can cause serious respiratory ailments if inhaled. The Energy Department had not thought that the metal was present at the Ohio plant, believing it was found only in areas of a sister plant in Paducah, Ky., where old weapons work had been performed. USEC Inc., a Bethesda, Md.-based company that runs both plants, detected the beryllium from tests it conducted in Paducah and Piketon after the workers' union shared results of screenings it had conducted. Garry Sexton, a safety expert for the union and a beryllium disease victim, said workers have suspected since the mid-1990s that the metal was at the plant because higher than normal concentrations of the substance had been found in soil and water samples taken nearby. "I'm not as surprised as they are," he said. "It bothers me tremendously that we didn't have adequate controls in place sooner. I'd rather not have chronic beryllium disease." A federal compensation program gives workers who get the disease $150,000 and free medical benefits for the rest of their lives. The area of the Piketon plant where the beryllium was detected has been cordoned off, and similar steps were taken at the Paducah plant. William Murphie, the DOE official who oversees cleanup efforts, said further testing would be done at both plants. Copyright 2003 The Courier-Journal. ***************************************************************** 83 xWXIA-TV ATLANTA: Missing Bomb Found Off Georgia Coast Reported By: The Associated Press Last Modified: 2/8/2004 6:44:02 PM TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (AP) -- Two men believe they have identified the general location of a hydrogen bomb that has been unaccounted for since being dropped in a mid-air collision off the Georgia coast more than 45 years ago. Derek Duke, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, and Harris Parker, a Tybee Island treasure hunter and former boat-racer, say the bomb is somewhere in the shallows of Wassau Sound, about 20 miles from downtown Savannah. They cite radiation readings and data they've collected over the last several years, though they do not know the exact location. An Air Force bomber dropped the weapon in 1958 after a mid-air collision with a fighter. Crews searched for the bomb without success; and in the years since, the military deemed it "irretrievably lost." Duke and Parker believe the bomb could be found one day with more money and sophisticated equipment. However, the military has said repeatedly that the bomb is relatively benign and better left alone. The missing bomb is one of a handful of nuclear weapons the military lost during the Cold War. The military insists that this particular bomb isn't armed with its plutonium trigger, which is necessary to initiate a nuclear reaction. "We do not leave dangerous nuclear bombs in shallow waters off our coast," said Billy Mullins, the Air Force's associate director for nuclear and counter-proliferation. "If it was dangerous, we would search for it until we found it." Despite a good deal of evidence to back up the Air Force's position, Duke and Parker aren't convinced. They are determined to continue their research. "This is not a hobby," Duke said. "I believe this is a threat to the USA." (Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) ***************************************************************** 84 Richmond Times-Dispatch: Nuclear storage will expand at Surry plant Feb 7, 2004 VIRGINIA Energy producer Dominion Resources Inc. plans to significantly increase the amount of nuclear waste stored at Surry Power Station, where spent uranium rods will be stored until a permanent national disposal site opens. Richmond-based Dominion stores all spent fuel that powered Surry's two nuclear reactors in an underground storage facility and aboveground in steel casks. About 965 metric tons of uranium are being stored. But the space is filling up, and it will be years before the Department of Energy is prepared to open a national spent-fuel storage site under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The Surry expansion, approved Thursday by the Surry County Board of Supervisors, will allow Dominion to store an additional 590 metric tons. Construction at the Surry plant will likely begin in June and be completed within nine months, said Brian H. Wakeman, an engineer with Dominion Generation, a division of Dominion Resources. The expansion would allow Surry to store spent fuel through 2019, Wakeman said. 2004, Media General, Inc. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 85 WAVY: Dominion To Expand Storage Of Used Nuclear Fuel At Surry February 8, 2004 (AP) - Energy producer Dominion Resources Inc. plans to significantly increase the amount of nuclear waste stored at Surry Power Station, where spent uranium rods will be stored until a permanent national disposal site opens. Richmond-based Dominion now stores all spent fuel that powered Surry's two nuclear reactors in an underground storage facility and in aboveground steel casks. About 965 metric tons of uranium are being stored in those facilities. But Surry's storage space is filling up, and it will be years before the U.S. Department of Energy is prepared to open a national spent-fuel storage site under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The Surry expansion, approved Thursday by the Surry County Board of Supervisors, will allow Dominion to store another 590 metric tons. Construction at the Surry plant will likely begin this June and be completed within nine months, said Brian H. Wakeman, an engineer with Dominion Generation, a division of Dominion Resources. The expansion would allow Surry to continue to store spent fuel through 2019, Wakeman said. Wakeman and Richard Blount, a Dominion vice president who oversees the Surry station, presented the company's plans to the public and the Surry County Board of Supervisors on Thursday. The supervisors amended a conditional-use permit to allow a new storage technology as well as the expansion. The technology calls for a metal canister to be placed inside a thicker steel container, which is used to move the canister to a concrete storage bunker at Surry. The canister will remain in the bunker until the federal government can move it to a permanent disposal site. At the meeting, one resident asked about how effective the containers were in containing radiation. Wakeman said the metal canisters do a thorough job of containing radiation even before being enclosed in concrete. "If you sat next to one for an hour, it would be about the same radiation exposure as you get with a full-mouth dental X-ray," he said. Other residents asked about the strength of the concrete casks and how the spent fuel would be moved from the Surry site, which sits on Hog Island near the James River. Wakeman said the bunkers are designed to withstand earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes. Computer simulations show they would be safe if a commercial jet crashed into the bunkers, he said. The spent fuel would be moved by trucks, rails or barges. President Bush and Congress approved the Yucca Mountain site in 2002, but extensive design and regulatory work remains. The state of Nevada has asked a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., to overturn the decision. Today, all of the nation's nuclear power plants must store their own spent fuel. They will be able to ship their waste to the Yucca Mountain dump once it opens - as early as 2010. (Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This All content Copyright 2000 - 2004 WorldNow and WAVY. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 86 Salt Lake Tribune: Goshutes against N-plan ask feds to reconsider February 08, 2004* By Judy Fahys Skull Valley Goshutes who opposed a storage facility for used nuclear reactor fuel on their reservation want federal regulators to reconsider the project in light of recent criminal and civil cases against the project's lead proponent, the tribal chairman. The request came just before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reaffirmed a series of rulings by its own legal panel, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, rejecting past arguments made by the dissidents and the state of Utah, the nuclear project's most bitter opponents. Thursday's rulings were irrelevant to the dissidents' request for a review of "environmental justice" concerns raised by the proposed facility, said Paul EchoHawk, an attorney for the dissidents. "We would be shocked if the NRC decided to turn a blind eye to this type of [alleged] criminal activity," said EchoHawk. A federal grand jury indicted Skull Valley Chairman Leon Bear in December on charges of embezzlement and tax fraud after an investigation by the Interior Department inspector general. He faces trial on those charges next month. The driving force behind the nuclear-waste project, Bear also has been ordered to appear in federal court next week to answer a summons by the Internal Revenue Service concerning the Skull Valley band's involvement in a questionable tax shelter. Both court cases are related to allegations originally raised by the dissidents nearly three years ago, according to EchoHawk's Jan. 29 filing to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The dissidents accused Bear of corruption and withholding basic tribal services and benefits from Skull Valley Goshutes who opposed the waste storage project. After the licensing board ordered hearings to address the dissidents' complaints, the commission stepped in, overrode the ruling and shut the door on the matter. Its Thursday order restated that the commission had no plans to revisit the subject. But EchoHawk said regulators have yet to answer the dissidents' request to reconsider in light of Bear's legal troubles. "The relationship between criminal activity and safety is obvious," said EchoHawk. "Regulators have a responsibility to make sure such sensitive facilities are operated by 'people you can trust.' " In Thursday's ruling, the commission largely reaffirmed past rulings of criticisms raised by the state and by the dissidents as part of an effort to streamline completion of the licensing process for the Skull Valley facility. Tribal leaders inked a deal seven years ago with Private Fuel Storage (PFS) to store up to 44,000 tons of high-level waste on the reservation. fahys@sltrib.com * Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. * ***************************************************************** 87 SL TRIB: Vote advances waste bill February 08, 2004* A bill that would give Utah political leaders more control over the state's radioactive waste policy on Friday narrowly won a House committee hearing. Rep. Stephen Urquhart's House Bill 145 cleared the Rules Committee, 6-5, with six Republican committee members agreeing the bill deserved a hearing in the House Public Utilities and Technology Committee. Republican Rep. Chad Bennion of Murray joined four minority-party lawmakers in opposing the effort to release the bill for committee review. Also voting against the public hearing were Democrats Eli Anderson of Tremonton, Judy Ann Buffmire of Millcreek, Neal Hendrickson of West Valley City and Ty McCartney of Salt Lake City. The bill would require the Legislature and the governor to vote on any future proposals for hotter radioactive waste to come to the state. The measure is opposed by Envirocare of Utah, one of three commercial radioactive waste sites in the nation. Eighty-six percent of Utahns said in a Salt Lake Tribune poll earlier this month that they oppose the disposal of waste more radioactive than what already is allowed. Urquhart proposed his bill after the U.S. Energy Department used a regulatory loophole and an act of Congress last fall to push for disposal of highly concentrated cleanup waste from Fernald, Ohio, and Niagara Falls, N.Y., at the privately owned Envirocare facility. -- Judy Fahys * Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. * ***************************************************************** 88 Louisiana News: Judge's ruling could cut Louisiana energy bills * *The Associated Press 2/7/04 3:12 PM* NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A federal regulatory judge may have cut more than $150 million a year from Louisiana utility bills when he ruled that the cost of producing electricity for Entergy Corp.'s utilities should be divided more evenly. State regulators called Friday's ruling a victory for Entergy customers in Louisiana, saying the decision could reduce the average monthly power bill for residential customers by more than $10. But some of those savings for Entergy Louisiana customers could be eroded by a proposal the utility filed Friday with the state Public Service Commission amending a rate proposal filed in early January. Also, Arkansas regulators have said they will fight any significant rate increase. The regulators, Entergy and other parties in the case have 30 days to file responses. The full federal commission can accept, reject or modify the ruling. Under the original filing, the requested rate hikes would have been offset by lower power plant fuel costs, resulting in an overall reduction in monthly utility bills. But a company spokesman said Friday that those potential fuel cost savings were overestimated. Based on new projections, the savings generated from power plant fuel cost reductions will fall $20 million short annually of offsetting the requested rate hikes. That means the proposal will increase monthly power bills rather than decreasing them. Entergy Louisiana is seeking a $94 million annual rate increase. Fuel cost reductions will save customers about $74 million, according to the latest estimates from the company. Entergy Louisiana supplies power to 640,000 customers in suburban New Orleans and other parts of the state. It is unclear whether Friday's ruling will affect Entergy customers in New Orleans. The New Orleans City Council withdrew its complaint in the case with a 2003 settlement with Entergy, company spokeswoman Yolanda Pollard said Saturday. The ruling stems from a complaint filed by the PSC in the fall of 2002 alleging that Entergy Louisiana customers paid 15 percent more for the cost of generating electricity than the average of all Entergy utility customers. At the same time, Entergy Arkansas customers paid 21 percent less than the average for all utilities, and Entergy Mississippi customers paid 10 percent less, the compliant said. According to the complaint, Entergy's customers in Louisiana were subsidizing Arkansas and Mississippi customers by paying a larger share of the costs for generating electricity. Federal regulators in the 1980s ordered Entergy to cluster the power plants and transmission lines together because they were part of a seamless network that moves electricity wherever power is needed. The grouping also allowed the company to spread the high capital cost of building power plants and transmission lines among all of its utility customers through a "system agreement." Federal regulators revamped the agreement in the mid-1980s, when the high cost of nuclear power plant construction was spread among all of the company's utility customers, and again in the 1990s, when Entergy acquired Gulf States Utilities and integrated the new subsidiary into Entergy Services. Meanwhile, numerous courts endorsed the plan's central goal of equalizing power production costs among all of the utilities. The formula remained relatively balanced until the recent retirement of construction debt for Arkansas power plants reduced the cost of producing power in that state and rising natural gas prices increased the cost of producing electricity at Louisiana generators fueled by gas. Entergy Corp. opposed the complaint filed by Louisiana regulators and asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to maintain a status quo in the system agreement. In the ruling issued Friday, Administrative Law Judge Lawrence Brenner largely agreed with the Louisiana regulators' claims that the cost disparity must be adjusted regularly to maintain the balance intended by the original system agreement. 2004 NOLA.com . All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 89 stltoday: Dangerous cargo on our roads, rails By Ken Leiser Post-Dispatch 02/07/2004 A cloud of hydrochloric acid fumes rises from the cars of a train that derailed in Tamaroa, Ill., in February 2003. About 1,000 people were evacuated. (P-D) PALMYRA, Mo. - First came the early morning rap on the door. Then came the coughing, the burning eyes. In the frantic moments that followed a May 17, 2003, hydrochloric acid spill on nearby U.S. Highway 61, Shorti Garner and her husband, Steve, woke their children and piled them into the family camper to flee their home. "My kids - in blankets and all - I scooped them up," Shorti Garner said. There have been no lingering health effects in the Garner household since 2,500 gallons of hydrochloric acid spilled from an overturned tanker about a quarter-mile away that morning, although Garner no longer lets her children play in the creek that runs through the back yard. It's a scene that plays out more than once a day, on average, somewhere in the United States. Last year, there were at least 400 transportation accidents like the one in Palmyra in which releases of hazardous materials shut down major transport arteries, displaced people from their homes or businesses, or even resulted in deaths. Nobody is immune from a possible knock on the door. Major transportation accidents happen in small towns and major cities - almost anywhere there's an active freight line, highway, river or airstrip. Just last month, four people died when a tractor-trailer loaded with gasoline plunged from a highway overpass onto Interstate 95 near Baltimore and burst into flames. The accident shut down the major traffic corridor for hours. One year ago in Tamaroa, Ill., about 1,000 people were evacuated for as long as four days after 21 train cars, some carrying toxic chemicals, derailed. Some burned. "Somewhere in the United States, every day, you have truck wrecks with all kinds of stuff on it," said Palmyra Fire Chief Chuck Hoehne, who was in charge of the emergency response to the hydrochloric acid spill in May. "Train wrecks. You have barges. Airplanes, they are full of that stuff too." Although transport of spent nuclear fuel gets most of the media and law enforcement attention, more than 300 million shipments of hazardous materials crisscross the country each year, moving almost invisibly through communities on interstates, railroads and airplanes. For many shipments - including tankers filled with the gasoline that fuels our cars, the chlorine used at water treatment plants, and anhydrous ammonia used in farming - often the only giveaway is the diamond-shaped placard that tells what class of dangerous material is inside. How safely hazardous materials are shipped looms large in Illinois and Missouri, whose geographic locations and confluence of railroads, rivers and interstate highways pull in a significant share of dangerous cargo, transportation officials say. *Stricter reporting rules* The number of total spills and other reportable incidents involving hazardous material shipments reached 14,661 last year - roughly double the typical year in the late 1980s, according to preliminary counts by the Department of Transportation's Research and Special Programs Administration. That's partly because there's more hazardous cargo being shipped, but also because of stricter reporting requirements, a RSPA spokesman said. Reportable spills can be as small as a stain on a package or a puddle of fuel on a gas station parking lot after a tanker delivery. "It's everywhere," said Alan Roberts, president of the Dangerous Goods Advisory Council. "This is what keeps the country running. The problem is that nobody wants it in their back yard." Roberts is also a former associate administrator for hazardous materials safety in the Research and Special Programs Administration. He said the statistics for shipping dangerous cargo show the industry "has an excellent record overall" for safety. He said mishaps involving ordinary household items like skateboards, step ladders and bathtubs outnumber those involving shipments of dangerous cargo. *"I freaked out"* Few people besides the driver and the shipper probably knew how close the tanker truck filled with hydrochloric acid was to their back yards as it approached Palmyra the morning of May 17. This stretch of U.S. Highway 61 is part of the Avenue of the Saints, a mostly north-south route between St. Louis and St. Paul, Minn., that has seen a steady growth in commercial truck traffic in recent years, including shipments of hazardous materials. On that morning, a red 2003 International hauling a tank of hydrochloric acid was northbound on the four-lane rural highway. The driver told troopers he nodded off and lost control of his truck, which clipped a road sign and separated from the tanker trailer. The damaged tanker came to rest in the scruffy, grass median near the Highway 168 exit. Accident reports show that hundreds of gallons of acid spilled into a drainage ditch that dumps into the North River less than a mile away, leaving a trail of dead fish in its path. When a vapor cloud formed, several families were evacuated. "I freaked out," said Shorti Garner, recalling the sight of a firefighter on the front porch of their three-bedroom home. She wondered if her house was on fire. The firefighter explained that a truck had tipped over on the highway and the family should evacuate to a shelter in town. So she and her husband began to wake up their two children and two foster children - ages 3 to 11. Before long, she noticed everyone was coughing. What alarmed her most was the way her son, Josh, was coughing. She handed him a washcloth to put over his mouth. Not knowing what had spilled, Steve was scared to start the camper at first. But they drove to his brother's house outside town and parked their camper in his driveway until it was safe to return. *Fears of terrorism* The federal government regulates the flow of hazardous cargo across America mostly through rules on packaging, preparation and documentation. Shippers must be certified. Transport workers must be trained. Papers must be in order. Truck driver Greg Pasterski of Wisconsin said he has been driving for 26 years and has never had a ticket or an accident. Pasterski said his company, Air Products, hires only safe drivers. "If you have a bad record, you're not getting a job," he said, while walking around his trailer load of compressed liquid helium last month at a Highway 61 truck stop. Hauling hazardous cargo "is as safe as the operator wants to make it . . . and the company." His trucking company closely examines the trucks before they leave the yard, he said, but government inspectors occasionally have found minor problems out on the road. Mechanics usually "take care of it right away" when they return to the yard. Still, in some corners of post-Sept. 11 America, environmentalists and community officials are pushing for tougher regulations because of the potential for sabotage or terrorism. In 2002, Missouri Gov. Bob Holden signed a sweeping counterterrorism measure that, among other things, makes it a Class B misdemeanor for hazardous-materials trucks to enter a highway tunnel. That will only affect trucks using the future Lindbergh Boulevard tunnel beneath the new runway at Lambert Field. Last month, the District of Columbia city council heard arguments for and against banning shipments of poisonous gases, explosives, and highly flammable gases in the nation's capital, one of the cities considered a "high threat" target for terrorism. Fred Millar, a consultant working for Friends of the Earth on the issue, fears terrorists may attack one of the slow-moving shipments in the future. "All we are trying to do is reroute the most dangerous targets," Millar said. "Only the top most dangerous shipments." Millar said Washington is not the only city at risk. St. Louis and other population centers have shipments of dangerous cargo quietly rumbling through as well, and some would move to regulate them if they knew what they were up against. "It is very clear that there are no regulations of the routing of hazardous materials by rail, and there is no law or regulation of what the cities or states can do to protect themselves from terrorism," he said. Federal regulations bar trucks carrying any amount of materials that are highly explosive, poisonous when inhaled or radioactive in heavily populated areas, tunnels or narrow alleys "whenever practical," said David Longo of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The rules also cover larger quantities of other types of dangerous materials, Longo said. Millar said that regulation is "virtually never enforced." Roberts, however, said states are required to adopt and enforce the federal routing requirements in order to be eligible for certain highway safety funds. Joe Delcambre, spokesman for the Department of Transportation's Research and Special Programs Administration, defended the federal government's regulation of hazardous materials shipments, saying safety is the "biggest concern." Total incidents have grown with the mounting volume of hazardous shipments, including those carried through burgeoning overnight-delivery companies like FedEx and United Parcel Service. "Those guys really started to take off," Delcambre said. "With an increase in business also came an increase in the number of hazardous material packages." But Delcambre added that the number of serious transportation mishaps leading to evacuations, highway closures or major injuries has remained fairly constant over the years. *Nuclear shipments* Nearly two months after the acid spill on U.S. Highway 61, another more closely watched shipment passed through Marion County, about 14 miles south of Palmyra on the Norfolk Southern Railroad line. In that instance, fire and police agencies throughout Marion and surrounding counties were given a near blow-by-blow account of how the shipment of 125 used nuclear fuel rod assemblies from West Valley, N.Y., was progressing as it passed safely. Transportation routes are studied before nuclear shipments are made. The containers are designed to withstand enormous forces without releasing harmful doses of radiation. They're escorted 24 hours a day, including armed guards near major population centers. And they're generally diverted onto beltways like Interstates 270 and 255 in St. Louis to bypass major urban areas. Shipments of used nuclear fuel are far less commonplace than other potentially dangerous commodities, numbering a couple dozen a year lately, but they spark the most intense political firefights. For instance, Holden ordered a three-truck convoy hauling nuclear waste to stop in the Metro East area for several hours in June 2001 before finally allowing it to enter Missouri after rush-hour traffic in St. Louis had dissipated. With President George W. Bush's administration pushing a nuclear waste repository in Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the transportation issue isn't expected to fade away. John S. Hark, chairman of Marion County's local emergency planning committee, said that clearly "somebody needed to be notifying somebody" when the latest highly radioactive load passed through Illinois and Missouri between July 13 and 17. "Was there a little more hype than what was needed? Possibly so," Hark said. "But there again, I'd rather there be a little more hype than nothing." Roberts of the Dangerous Goods Advisory Council said the regulatory safeguards that go into shipping high-level radioactive waste are "very intense." The result? In decades of transporting high-level radioactive waste, he said, there has not been a recorded harmful release of radiation leading to injury or death. Congress' investigative arm, the General Accounting Office, has concluded that there is a low likelihood of widespread public harm in the event of a terrorist attack or a major accident involving spent nuclear fuel. But Bob Halstead, a transportation consultant to the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said it's right for the government to have tougher regulations on used nuclear fuel than any other dangerous chemicals. Spent nuclear fuel is "immediately lethal" to those who come in direct contact with it, and small amounts of radiation even penetrate its shipment containers, he said. Cleaning up after a worst-case transportation accident could cost up to $10 billion. "If someone says they have something more dangerous," he said, "let them put it on the table." Does Halstead believe the rules for transporting other dangerous materials are up to snuff? "You bet I don't," he said. He thinks it's odd that the government doesn't regulate gasoline or propane more strictly. Drivers should meet tougher training requirements, he says, and the government should take a closer look at routes. *Alerts are impractical* A Post-Dispatch survey of fire departments in the St. Louis area showed that most don't know exactly what is passing through their communities at any given time, although some wish they did. Officials from 31 fire departments that participated said they realize hazardous materials routinely pass within a half-mile of homes, schools and shopping centers in their communities every day with little or no advance notice. So many potentially dangerous shipments pass through the region that it would be impractical to alert departments ahead of time, as is done with radioactive materials, some acknowledged. For fire agencies, that means training and planning for potential disasters involving dangerous chemical spills. The O'Fallon, Mo., Fire Protection District is crisscrossed by highways and freight railroad tracks. Last year, the district gathered together several local leaders to discuss what would happen if the community were confronted by a railroad tank car leaking chlorine. "You have many more instances of different chemicals causing you problems than you do radioactive materials," said O'Fallon Chief Michael Ballmann. "I mean, if you are a gambler, you would go on the odds - and the odds are (in favor of) something like a tractor-trailer or even a normal train derailment of chlorine gas or propane or whatever the case might be." *Reporter Ken Leiser* *E-mail: kleiser@post-dispatch.com* *Phone: 314-340-8119* St. Louis Post-Dispatch. ***************************************************************** 90 harktheherald: Nuclear waste Saturday, February 07, 2004 - 12:00 AM N.S. Nokkentved THE DAILY HERALD | A radioactive waste bill in the Utah Legislature closes a loophole that might have allowed more concentrated waste into the state without legislative or gubernatorial approval. But critics fear the bill leaves another loophole open that would allow higher concentrations of plutonium and enriched uranium. Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, introduced a bill this week that would require the approval of the governor and the Legislature before a radioactive waste facility in the state could accept "radioactive waste having a higher radionuclide concentration limit than allowed under an existing approved license." He introduced the bill on behalf of a legislative task force on radioactive waste, on which he serves as co-chairman. The task force voted to extend the provision requiring legislative and gubernatorial approval, which now applies to Class B and C wastes, to all radioactive waste with a higher concentration. The task force concern grew from an issue that emerged late last year with efforts in Congress to reclassify highly concentrated radioactive waste from federal uranium processing plant in Fernald, Ohio. The change would have allowed the federal government to send the waste to Envirocare of Utah Inc., a radioactive waste landfill in Tooele County. Environmentalists praised Urquhart's bill as a good step, but some say it leaves open another loophole. Jason Groenewold, of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, is concerned that the Legislature was allowing state regulators to decide the concentration of nuclear material allowed into the state for disposal. That's a decision the Legislature should make, he said. The issue is a pair of license amendments to Urquhart's bill requested by Envirocare. One would increase the concentration of radioactivity in waste that also includes hazardous chemicals. The other would change the way limits are described for waste contaminated with plutonium and uranium, known as Special Nuclear Materials. Some think the amendments should be covered by the legislation, others think they shouldn't. "I think they should be," Urquhart said. The request to increase the concentration of mixed waste clearly falls under the legislation, Groenewold said. But the other request is less clear. Envirocare's license to dispose of wastes containing Special Nuclear Materials set the limit at concentrations up to 10 nanoCuries of radioactivity per gram of waste. A Curie is a measure of radioactivity, and a nanoCurie is one billionth of a curie. The company wants to change how the concentration is figured. Limits now are based on the amount of radioactivity per gram of waste, the change would base limits on the amount of radioactive material per gram of waste. Ken Alkema, Envirocare vice president, said the license amendment would not let the radioactive waste landfill dispose of waste in concentrations above 10 nanocuries. "We can't go above that," he said. "The only change is it allows us to take bigger containers." /*/ N.S. Nokkentved/*/ can be reached at 801-344-2930 or at nnokkentved@heraldextra.com// /This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1./ ***************************************************************** 91 TIMES OF INDIA: 'US must get Pak to sign NPT' MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2004 IANS[ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2004 02:09:03 PM ] NEW YORK: US Congressman Joseph Crowley has expressed concern at the pardon of Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan , who confessed to role in nuclear proliferation, and urged Washington to pressure Islamabad to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. A Q Khan with Musharraf Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapon's programme, had on February 5 confessed to sharing nuclear technology with Iran, North Korea and Libya. "I am concerned about the full pardon that President (Pervez) Musharraf has given Abdul Qadeer Khan. This sends a message to people in similar situations that sharing and assisting in the proliferation of nuclear secrets and weapons is acceptable," Crowley, who is co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said in a statement. "What will prevent this from happening again in Pakistan? While it is appropriate that the White House praised President Musharraf for breaking up what appears to have been one of the world's largest nuclear proliferation networks, President Musharraf must now acquiesce to signing the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the White House must insist on this." Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. | ***************************************************************** 92 [Fwd: [du-list] EEOICPA DOE SCANDAL] Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 20:24:48 -0800 Return-path: Envelope-to: rogerh@energy-net.org Delivery-date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 06:53:09 -0800 Received: from root by darwin.ctyme.com with ctyme-spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1ApqJ1-0006Nt-KZ for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sun, 08 Feb 2004 06:53:09 -0800 Received: from n13.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.68]) by darwin.ctyme.com with smtp (Exim 4.30) id 1ApqJ1-0006Np-DK for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sun, 08 Feb 2004 06:53:07 -0800 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1009892-5342-1076251986-rogerh=energy-net.org@returns.groups.yahoo.com Received: from [66.218.67.197] by n13.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 08 Feb 2004 14:53:06 -0000 Received: (qmail 58275 invoked from network); 8 Feb 2004 14:53:05 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.217) by m4.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 8 Feb 2004 14:53:05 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO n1.grp.scd.yahoo.com) (66.218.66.64) by mta2.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 8 Feb 2004 14:53:05 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: vcolley@earthlink.net Received: from [66.218.67.172] by n1.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 08 Feb 2004 14:51:53 -0000 X-Sender: vcolley@earthlink.net X-Apparently-To: du-list@egroups.com Received: (qmail 55763 invoked from network); 8 Feb 2004 09:55:45 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.218) by m19.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 8 Feb 2004 09:55:45 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO swan.mail.pas.earthlink.net) (207.217.120.123) by mta3.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 8 Feb 2004 09:55:45 -0000 Received: from user-33qt81m.dialup.mindspring.com ([199.174.160.54] helo=c8e7h0) by swan.mail.pas.earthlink.net with smtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1Aplf7-0005T2-00; Sun, 08 Feb 2004 01:55:38 -0800 Message-ID: <000101c3ee29$2165dee0$36a0aec7@c8e7h0> To: Cc: , , , X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 207.217.120.123 From: "Vina Colley" X-eGroups-Approved-By: tthornton04350 via web; 08 Feb 2004 14:51:53 -0000 X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 66.218.66.64 MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list du-list@yahoogroups.com; contact du-list-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list du-list@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 04:42:29 -0500 Subject: [du-list] EEOICPA DOE SCANDAL Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0102_01C3EDFD.F56EE460" X-Sender-Hostname: n13.grp.scd.yahoo.com X-Spam-Report: * -3.0 WHITE_PHRASE Phrases in non-spam * -5.0 SUBJ_WHITELIST Subject Whitelist * -1.0 SUBJ_GROUP Subject Indicates Discussion List [] * -2.0 YAHOO_HOST From Yahoo Host * -5.0 YAHOO_EGROUP From Yahoo eGroup * 1.0 HTML_MESSAGE BODY: HTML included in message * -5.0 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 0 to 1% * [score: 0.0000] * 0.1 MAILTO_LINK BODY: Includes a URL link to send an email * 1.0 MAILTO_WITH_SUBJ URI: Includes a link to send a mail with a subject * 0.1 RCVD_IN_SORBS RBL: SORBS: sender is listed in SORBS * [199.174.160.54 listed in dnsbl.sorbs.net] * 0.1 RCVD_IN_NJABL RBL: Received via a relay in dnsbl.njabl.org * [199.174.160.54 listed in dnsbl.njabl.org] X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-18.7 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,HTML_MESSAGE, MAILTO_LINK,MAILTO_WITH_SUBJ,RCVD_IN_NJABL,RCVD_IN_SORBS,SUBJ_GROUP, SUBJ_WHITELIST,WHITE_PHRASE,YAHOO_EGROUP,YAHOO_HOST autolearn=ham version=2.70-cvs X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.70-cvs (1.220-2003-12-04-exp) on darwin.ctyme.com

National Nuclear Workers for Justice is making the following suggestion on the EEOICPA DOE Scandal
 
This is the organization who helped the whistle blower from ENRON.  Please pass it on.  They already have a file started on DOE and Science and Engineering.
 

Science and Engineering has to be stopped.(subcontractor to DOE who does not have a certified medical records dept.  
 
I would not recommend dealing with the congress any longer. You can write to Congree if you like but for now we heard that the water and Power Energy Committee is doing the investigation and they want to hear from the patients. 
Please get as many people you can to first fax the letter over(to the number below) then call and
ask for the chief of staff to discuss the case.   Write to them all.  NNWJ would also like a copy of your testimony for permission to post. Use the same letter just different cover letter.  Put in big bold letters EEOICPA DOE Scandal 
These are the decision makers who are very concerned about the inside story of Science and Engineering.  A suggestion:  DO NOT notify any Legislators from Louisiana.

1) Senator Lisa Murkowski VM: 202-224-6665 Fax: 202-224-5301
2) Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell VM: 202-224-5852 Fax: 202-228-4609
3) Senator Gordon Smith VM 202-224-3753 Fax: 202-228-3997
4) Senator Jon Kyl VM: 202-224-4521  Fax: 202-224-2207
5) Senator Larry Craig 202-224-2752 Fax: 202-228-1067
6) Senator Jim Talent 202-224-6154 Fax 202-228-1518
7) Senator Jim Bunning 202-224-4343 Fax 202-228-1373
8) Senator Craig Thomas 202-224-6441 Fax: 202-224-1724
9) Senator Byron Dorgan 202-224-2251 Fax: 202-224-1193
10) Senator Bob Graham 202-224-3041 Fax: 202-224-2237
11) Senator Ron Wyden 202-224-5244 Fax 202-228-2717
12) Senator Tim Johnson 202-224-5842 Fax: 202-228-5765
13) Senator Dianne Feinstien Vm 202-224-6542 Fax: 202-228-3954 if busy
415-989-3242
14) Senator Charles Schumer 202-224-6542 Fax: 202-228-3027
15) Senator Maria Cantwell 202- 224-3441 Fax: 202-228-0514
16) Senator Kennedy VM: 202-224-4543 Fax: 202-224-2417
17) Senator Grassley VM: 202-224-3744 Fax 202-224-6020

You can also write to the chief editor of The Washington Post--this is the
paper all the legislators read.  Once it hits the post they pay attention.
The Washington Post 1150 15th St. NW Washington, DC 20071  Chief Editor:
Len Downie



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Yahoo! Groups Links
***************************************************************** 93 oaklandtribune: U.S. puts off lab's fusion ignition to 2014 * *Saturday, February 07, 2004* Change, due to budget shifts, puzzles scientists at Livermore By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER The Bush administration is pushing a test of limitless fusion energy on the world's largest laser into the next decade. Retreating from earlier projections, the administration's budget postpones demonstration of fusion "ignition" -- the lead rationale for the $4 billion National Ignition Facility -- until 2014. Federal officials blamed the delay on shifting budget priorities in 2002 and 2003 that slowed work on a key component for maintaining frozen pellets of hydrogen needed for laser fusion. NIF scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory initially were puzzled by the delay, suggesting privately that the elusive dream of physicists for more than 40 years might be reached sooner. "I can't guarantee an innovation that will move it up a year but it's sure possible," said physicist Bruce Warner, a senior NIF executive. Livermore's scientists originally had vowed to deliver ignition as early as 2002, that is, to create a miniature sun inside a laboratory by hot compression of hydrogen until it radiates more fusion energy than the energy of the incoming laser light. One of the nation's best hopes for proving the efficacy of a fusion reactor, while giving U.S. nuclear-weapons scientists an unprecedented look at the precise physics of exploding hydrogen bombs. But nuclear disarmament advocates, who are among NIF's leading critics, suggest the delay reinforces their doubt that the giant laser will achieve its ignition goal. "It's a huge slip. Nothing has been projected that far into the future," said Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs, a lab watchdog group. "It's gone from 2002 to 2008 to the idea they would begin experiments in 2008 but not be there until 2010. From a scientific perspective, it's 2000-never." Kelley said lab executives had promised more than was possible within the original $1.5 billion budget so that Congress would fund construction of the massive laser, a Rose Bowl-sized building full of exotic laser glass and flashlamps to deliver 192 high-powered beams to a golden target smaller than a thimble. "Their big problem is they began building NIF while they were designing it," she said. Scientists since have surmounted many obstacles, foreseen and unforeseen, even as costs soared in the late 1990s and threatened to kill the project. In 2000, Congress agreed to a tripled price tag for NIF and a completion date of 2008. That year, NIF scientists and their overseers at the U.S. Department of Energy predicted ignition at the end of two to three years of experiments, leading to an attempt at ignition in 2010 or, with unfavorable budgets, 2011. Lawmakers approved funds at or above Energy Department requests every year since. NIF scientists chalked up major successes last year, delivering four beams into the 30-foot spherical target chamber almost a year ahead of schedule. They fired 200 shots on the laser and began rudimentary experiments in 2003. But in 2002 and again in 2003, the Energy Department's weapons arm eliminated funds for designing and building a critical piece of the fusion machine known as the cryogenic target holder. It's designed to keep carefully frozen pellets of hydrogen chilled to almost 280 degrees below zero as they are positioned on a robotic arm inside the target chamber and scientists fire up the laser beams. Only this year did the National Nuclear Security Administration start funding aggressive studies of the problem and design of the holder. Warner said installing it could be six to eight years away. "This is a fair technical challenge for us," Warner said, noting that the layers of hydrogen ice must be of perfectly uniform thickness. Any thawing mars the smooth surface of the ice and can produce turbulence in the imploding pellet, probably wrecking the chances of ignition. "We're kind of at that pre-conceptual level right now. We have no hardware that we would actually put on NIF," Warner said. But scientists are toying with other ideas, such as bringing warm pellets into the target chamber and freezing them there. "We could innovate our way to an earlier attempt," he said. Contact Ian Hoffman at ihoffman@angnewspapers.com http://www.oaklandtribune.com/subscribe> ***************************************************************** 94 Oakland tribune: UC, lab to pay out millions * *Saturday, February 07, 2004* University and Lawrence Livermore come to $3.9 million settlement for charging DOE By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER Lawrence Livermore weapons lab and the University of California agreed this week to a $3.9 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice for mischarging on energy research projects. It is the second such settlement by Livermore in less than a decade, and the bad charges -- $2.2 million -- are more than four times the final amount of credit-card fraud and theft at sister lab Los Alamos that enraged Congress last year. The settlement is doubly unwelcome news for the University of California. It will carry the taint of the charging improprieties into competition for management of three national labs. The university also must pay the settlement out of roughly $16 million a year in lab contract fees that will finance its bids. Officials at the weapons arm of the U.S. Department of Energy declined to comment on impact of the settlement on UC's candidacy to continue running two of its labs. "These practices occurred in the 1990s," said Bryan Wilkes, spokesman for National Nuclear Security Administration. "However in this administration, we have emphasized the need for improved business practices and we don't expect to see this repeated." While admitting no wrongdoing, Livermore's settlement ends claims that managers in the lab's energy-research arm were charging their unrelated overhead expenses -- clerical staff, office space and so on -- to research projects funded by the Energy Department. Lab energy-research managers already were imposing overhead taxes on at least some of those projects. The Energy Department's Office of Inspector General and the Justice Department's Civil Division declined Friday to comment on the case, saying the settlement was not yet filed. Livermore paid about $2 million in an earlier settlement of Justice Department claims that managers of its former J Division shuffled charges among multiple secret research projects to keep them all solvent. Scientists in those projects devised intelligence technologies for the FBI, the Defense Department and other agencies. Lab executives vowed reforms and repeatedly cautioned managers in that part of the laboratory against the practice of pilfering from better-funded research projects to finance thinner ones, even if the intent merely was to keep the research going. Livermore spokeswoman Susan Houghton said the two improper charging cases are unrelated. "These are two different directorates, two different points in time," Houghton said. "You have totally different managers involved and people change places." The latest case began in the mid-1990s when Michelle Doggett, a manager of cooperative research and development agreements, or CRADAs, told supervisors and later university criminal investigators of improper charges to energy research accounts. She said some energy-research managers treated the CRADA funds as "funny money." Doggett said managers began alienating her, reassigning her from overseeing research funds and eventually driving her to resign. Last year, the university paid her $1 million to settle her claims of whistleblower retaliation. Lab auditors looked into Doggett's claims and found only about $32,000 of improper charging. But Houghton says they also notified the Energy Department of other improprieties discovered at the same time. "This was an act of using accounts to cover other accounts at a time when they should have said, quite frankly, 'We've run out of money, we can't do it any more.' And that's a management issue that we need to correct," Houghton said. "Should this have occurred? Absolutely not. Should we take steps to remedy and make sure dollars are there when we do the work? Yes. But there's a difference between intended malice and handling something incorrectly," she said. "In this case it was the latter. She said the managers involved no longer work at the lab. One manager who was implicated, Anthony Chargin, remains a University of California employee, detailed to manage construction of an experimental physics machine at another site. He continues to draw eligibility for a UC pension. "I think the lab owes Michelle Doggett an apology," said Doggett attorney Jan Nilsen. "The lab kept saying, 'Look, it's only $32,000. It's a de minimus issue. What is this employee complaining about?' They've paid out a million-dollar settlement, saying we did nothing wrong and now it's another $3.89 million." The lab's Houghton said the matters are not related. "We're grateful to her for the role she played in her own whistleblower complaint, but that's a separate issue from this," Houghton said. Contact Ian Hoffman at ihoffman @angnewspapers.com . ***************************************************************** 95 Tennessean: False alarms for radiation at K-25 investigated * * *Saturday, 02/07/04* | Middle Tennessee News & Information* *OAK RIDGE* ? Officials were investigating whether someone intentionally loosened electrical fuses to set off a radiation alarm and force the evacuation of 250 workers from a shuttered uranium enrichment plant. The ''criticality alarm'' sounded Wednesday in the mile-long, U-shaped K-25 building where uranium was enriched once for bombs and later for commercial nuclear reactors from 1945 to 1985. A spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs Co., the Energy Department's cleanup contractor, said investigators discovered three fuses on the alarm system had been removed and ''partially reinserted,'' triggering the false alert. But spokesman Dennis Hill said investigators might need several more days before they can say if it was an accident. ''Right now they really don't know what happened,'' Hill said yesterday. ''They are interviewing a large number of people who were in the area.'' The evacuation lasted about two hours. There was no contamination and no injuries. Work dismantling equipment inside K-25, which is scheduled for demolition, had resumed, Hill said. The building is part of a larger complex the Energy Department is converting into a commercial industrial park called the East Tennessee Technology Park. ? Associated Press Copyright 2003 The Tennessean ***************************************************************** 96 Rocky Mt News: By the numbers Saturday, Feb 7 George Kochaniec Jr. News Ted Borst, facility manager of the nuclear waste storage building at Fort St. Vrain, stands atop stored spent fuel from the former Xcel Energy nuclear power plant. Built in 1991, the storage building, near Platteville, contains 14.7 metric tons of radioactive material. The U.S. Department of Energy oversees the site and eventually must ship the waste to a permanent storage facility. Waiting game Fort St. Vrain warehouses highly radioactive nuclear waste while the wrangle continues over its final resting place * By Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News* *February 7, 2004* From a distance, the gray, windowless building looks like just another warehouse. But its concrete walls are thick enough to withstand the impact of a jet airplane or a devastating earthquake. And its alarms, hidden cameras and round-the-clock security make it virtually impenetrable. Fort Knox? Wrong, but close. It's at Fort St. Vrain, just outside Platteville. The building, surrounded by farmlands 35 miles north of Denver, guards one of the most toxic substances known to humans - nuclear waste, enough to fill a rail car. Built in 1991 to temporarily store the spent fuel from Xcel Energy's former nuclear power plant, the building contains 14.7 metric tons of radioactive material. The construction cost of the building was $22 million, and it costs another $3 million a year to house the waste. And this innocuous building is the poster child of a heated national debate: Where should we store the country's 77,000 metric tons of nuclear waste, and who is going to pay for it? The uncertainty has hurt the nuclear power industry, which has not built a new reactor in 20 years, although once a plant is built, nuclear-fired electricity is cheap and does not emit greenhouse gases. 2035 deadline The U.S. Department of Energy, which owns the Fort St. Vrain waste, initially planned to ship it to Idaho. That plan fizzled when Idaho successfully sued the department. Now the DOE is pinning its hopes on Yucca Mountain in Nevada to house the waste. But it is anyone's guess when the waste will leave Colorado, given the dozens of lawsuits involving Yucca Mountain. "We don't know when the spent fuel is going to leave this place," said Ted Borst, facility manager of the Fort St. Vrain storage building. "Whether it leaves tomorrow or in 2025, it is safe here, and we take our job seriously." Borst is an employee of Bechtel BWXT Idaho LLC, which has been subcontracted by the DOE to look after the plant's daily operations. For practical reasons, however, Jan. 1, 2035, is the deadline to ship out the waste. According to a 1996 settlement between the DOE and Colorado, the department has to pay $15,000 per day in fines if the waste doesn't leave Colorado by then. Sitting on waste Fort St. Vrain's nuclear reactor - which was capable of producing 320 megawatts of power for Xcel - never really ran smoothly. It was shut down in 1989 after 10 years of operation. Its spent fuel is among the 40,000 metric tons piled up from various power plants across the country - enough to fill a 5-yard-deep football field. There are 103 active reactors in the U.S., including one at the Federal Center in Lakewood. Nuclear reactors generate 20 percent of the country's electricity supply. But most of those power plants literally are sitting on their own toxic waste in the absence of a central storage facility. There are 131 nuclear waste storage facilities in 39 states - mostly managed by electric utilities at ratepayers' expense. Although Congress approved Yucca Mountain as a "geologic repository" for nuclear waste and the president signed the bill in 2002, Nevada and environmental groups are fighting it tooth and nail. The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, heard oral arguments in their cases in January. A decision is expected by the end of the year. The DOE argues the site has geological conditions that can help store the radioactive elements - 1,000 feet below the bedrock and 1,000 above the water table - for at least 10,000 years. Moreover, it'll be a relief for utility ratepayers. The Yucca question Since 1983, ratepayers of utilities with nuclear plants have been paying one-tenth of a cent toward the Nuclear Waste Fund. The fund - which had $12.4 billion at the end of 2003 - is intended for cleaning up nuclear waste, but the DOE can't touch it without congressional approval. Instead, the department has to rely on Congress each year to allocate cleanup funds. This year, the DOE is requesting $880 million to start groundwork at Yucca Mountain, including applying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license. "With Congress voting for it, we think the politics surrounding Yucca Mountain are over," said Joe Davis, DOE spokesman. "Moving forward, we believe we can present a credible scientific case to build and operate Yucca Mountain." The DOE hopes to construct a storage facility and start receiving nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain by 2010. And if that happens, the DOE can ship the waste from Fort St. Vrain by 2019. But that schedule remains uncertain. "I think it will be hard to meet that deadline, given all the lawsuits and other tactics used by obstructionists," said Jim Sims, who runs the Golden-based Western Business Roundtable and worked with Vice President Dick Cheney's office to draft the energy bill. "It is nothing short of outrageous that there are people trying to prevent permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel," Sims said. "Do we want radioactive waste to pile up at 103 reactors all over the country, or do we want to store it more than 1,000 feet below the bedrock in a desert where no one can get it?" Shipped through Denver The Washington-based U.S. Public Interest Research Group, an environmental organization, strongly opposes the Yucca Mountain solution. Anna Aurilio, the group's legislative director, criticized the decision to build Yucca Mountain to last at least 10,000 years. The DOE says that standard was set by the Environmental Protection Agency, which based it on estimates by various scientists. "That 10,000 years is an arbitrary number and not based on science," Aurilio said. "Some of the particles remain radioactive for thousands of years. We don't think it is responsible to come up with a number and decide to dump the waste because you have lobbying clout." For instance, plutonium-239, a radioactive isotope found in nuclear waste, has a half-life of 24,000 years - implying it remains highly radioactive for at least that many years. Scientists say it takes 10 half-lives for elements to lose their radioactivity. So, it would take 240,000 years for plutonium-239 to lose its radioactivity. Similarly, it would take millions of years for uranium-235 and -238 to lose their radioactivity. "It is very, very difficult to put something like that where it won't leak for thousands of years," Aurilio said. "Besides, we don't have the experience of building things that last 10,000 years." Aurilio said shipment of the waste is another huge concern. U.S. PIRG reports that it would require 105,000 truckloads to carry the nuclear waste through 44 states over 38 years. It notes Denver would see a shipment once every 13 hours. "The DOE acknowledges that a truck carrying a nuclear waste cask will emit the equivalent of one chest X-ray per hour of radiation to those who are caught in traffic nearby," says Environment Colorado, a local group. But the DOE challenges the assertion, noting there are thousands of shipments every day of material more hazardous than nuclear waste. Also, the DOE estimates it would take about 175 shipments each year for 24 years to ship all the waste to Yucca Mountain. The nuclear industry, however, remains optimistic. "No matter what the decisions in court cases are, it won't stop DOE from filing for a license with the NRC," said Mitch Singer, spokesman of the Nuclear Energy Institute - a Washington-based lobbying group for the industry. "There is no injunction or restraining order against the project as it is." Nuclear power standstill Utilities have not built a new reactor in 20 years, despite nuclear power being one of the cheapest and emission-free resources. Only three utilities - Excelon, Dominion and Entergy - have expressed some desire to build new reactors by applying for early site reviews. That's because the industry is mired in issues that make investors wary, Sims noted. "The question of waste disposal is the 900-pound gorilla sitting in the corner when you talk about nuclear energy," Sims said. Jake Mercer, energy analyst with Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis, agreed waste disposal is a major issue but added there are other factors hurting investment in new nuclear power plants. "After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, security at nuclear plants has become important, and, frankly, that comes at a cost," Mercer said. "Another thing is, nuclear plants are big and generate a lot of electricity; if one plant goes down, then there is more risk. "Utilities like to diversify their risks instead of concentrating on one or two plants." Nuclear plants cost more to build compared with coal- or natural gas-fired power plants. So they are more at risk for cost overruns. Also, nuclear plants are more expensive to fix if something goes wrong. That was the main reason Xcel decided to shut down the Fort St. Vrain plant after it became too costly to do repairs. Xcel owns two nuclear power plants in Minnesota that produce up to 1,700 megawatts of electricity. But it doesn't intend to build any new plants, said Charlie Bomberger, Xcel's general manager of nuclear asset management. "The risks of operation, even if you are a very good operator, can be very expensive," Bomberger said. "Just the risk you have with continuing nuclear regulation is onerous for a power company." The Bush administration-crafted energy bill - which stalled in the Senate last year and is likely to be revived this year - allows $6 billion in tax credits for new nuclear power plants. Environment Colorado opposes the construction of new nuclear reactors until the problem of waste disposal has been solved. "We end up shuffling the waste from one undesirable spot to the next because there isn't a good solution," said Robin Hubbard, the group's field director. "Fort St. Vrain points to the bigger problem that we need to critically look at where we get our power from." Security concerns Fort St. Vrain's storage facility cost $22 million to build, which was paid for by Colorado ratepayers. But they have since been reimbursed $7 million following a settlement between DOE and Xcel. It holds 1,464 blocks of spent nuclear fuel - mostly consisting of uranium and thorium - in 244 graphite cylinders. Each cylinder holds six blocks. The cylinders are stacked in a concrete building that is 150 feet long, 60 feet wide and 19 feet high. "Unlike other storages where spent fuel is submerged underwater in cooling pools, the spent fuel in Fort St. Vrain is contained in dry casks positioned under concrete and steel," said John Vincent, senior project manager with the Nuclear Energy Institute. "The honeycomb design adds to the structural integrity." The hexagonal fuel blocks - each about 31 inches high and 14 inches across - were transported from the adjacent power plant after Xcel decided to close it in 1989. Xcel converted that facility into a natural gas-fired plant in 2001. It now produces more than 700 megawatts of electricity. One megawatt serves the average electricity needs of 1,000 homes. Although Xcel built the waste-storage facility, the DOE took over its ownership and management following a lawsuit by the utility. The DOE's license to operate it expires in 2011 after which it will have to apply for an extension. The spent nuclear fuel in the facility remains highly radioactive, forcing tight security at all times. The DOE spends $3 million each year guarding the waste. "The two big risks are theft and sabotage," facility manager Borst said. "We have stepped up security after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. This is a no-fly zone. And the government is trying to determine additional security in the future." William Manker, mayor of Platte-ville, which is adjacent to the storage facility, has full faith in the DOE to protect the community from any radiation risks. About 2,500 people live in the area. "It doesn't worry me at all; they got it well-stored," Manker said. "I think the DOE is doing a very good job of taking care of it. I don't know what type of blast would set the radioactive thing loose." Borst said the spent fuel itself would not cause any explosion. At most, a broken fuel cask would release radiation that could harm human beings or animals within a certain distance. But that's a very unlikely situation. "If somebody can get to the plant, get the casks out and somehow find a way to penetrate the casks, the person would end up killing himself from radiation exposure," NEI's Singer said. "But it is incredible that such a thing would happen." /chakrabartyg@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2976 ***************************************************************** 97 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 12:26:00 -0800 (PST) EVACUATION route among factors in nuclear-plant license renewal Press of Atlantic City - Pleasantville,NJ,USA LACEY TOWNSHIP - Exelon Nuclear has until April to seek permission to continue operation of its Oyster Creek nuclear-power plant until 2029, twenty years after ... See all stories on this topic: CONFRONTING the Nuclear Threat America Didn't Want to Be True New York Times - USA ... will examine the equally critical question of whether the administration moved fast enough as the Central Intelligence Agency slowly untangled the nuclear ... See all stories on this topic: HUNGARY Mulls Future of Nuclear Energy Deutsche Welle - Germany Hungary has been a proponent of nuclear energy for decades. But a radioactive leak at the countrys only nuclear power plant last ... CZECHS and Slovaks Struggle with Nuclear Legacy Deutsche Welle - Germany When eight central and eastern European countries join the European Union in May, they will bring a number of problematic nuclear reactors with them. ... S'PORE-BASED firm named in Libyan nuclear probe Business Times Singapore (subscription) - Singapore By CHEN HUIFEN. (SINGAPORE) An international probe into the seized centrifuge parts that were meant for Libya's nuclear weapons programme has thrown up the name ... See all stories on this topic: SAVING the nuclear programme by Mir Jamilur Rahman . Hi Pakistan - Lahore,Pakistan ... side of the scale was the security of Pakistan, and on the other, the national hero who has provided impregnable security to Pakistan by making it a nuclear ... See all stories on this topic: PAKISTANI Mole Ran "Sams Club for Nuclear Weapons" ShortNews.com - USA An mentioned here on SN, top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was pardoned for his role in selling nuclear technology to other countries. ... See all stories on this topic: RUSSIAN Defense Minister concerned about nuclear security around ... Pravda - Moscow,Russia He expressed concern for the nuclear security around Pakistan. We have always paid attention to the threat of nuclear proliferation ... PAKISTAN'S nuclear mole 'just the tip of the iceberg' Financial Times (subscription) - London,England,UK A Pakistani scientist who has admitted to being at the centre of a network selling nuclear technology to other countries was yesterday called "the tip of an ... See all stories on this topic: PAKISTAN seeks to put lid on nuclear proliferation scandal Khaleej Times - Dubai,United Arab Emirates ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Saturday sought to combat international criticism for pardoning the man at the centre of a nuclear information trading scandal by ... See all stories on this topic: This daily-once News Alert is brought to you by Google News (BETA)... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Remove this News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts/remove?s=92d1672a1b037a07&hl=en Create another News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts?hl=en Try Google News: http://news.google.com/ ***************************************************************** 98 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 14:39:43 -0800 (PST) PAK not to seek US help for protection of nuclear assets : Masood PakTribune.com - Pakistan ISLAMABAD, February 09 (Online): Pakistan and United States will share assistance to avert nuclear proliferation, however, Pakistan will not seek any help from ... See all stories on this topic: AL-QAIDA may have nuclear weapons Al-Jazeera - Qatar A pan-Arab newspaper has said al-Qaida bought tactical nuclear weapons from Ukraine in 1998 and is storing them in safe places for possible use. ... See all stories on this topic: PAKISTAN leader's dilemma over nuclear hero Daily Nation - Nairobi,Kenya ... It pays to be a national hero. Mr Khan got his pardon. Mr Khan is credited with making India restless by engineering Pakistans nuclear weapons capability. ... See all stories on this topic: RUSSIA concerned about Pakistans nuclear scandal: India, ... Daily Times - Pakistan ... India and Pakistan pledged on Sunday to work to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) but reiterated that neither would sign up to the nuclear ... See all stories on this topic: IRAN denies receiving nuclear information from Dr Qadeer Daily Times - Pakistan TEHRAN: Iran on Sunday denied it had received nuclear technology from Pakistans top nuclear scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan who admitted to having passed ... See all stories on this topic: REVIEW process set for nuclear power plant renewal WFSB - Connecticut,CT,USA Waterford (AP) -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a public information meeting February 17th in Waterford to discuss the application to renew ... See all stories on this topic: FALLOUT Of Pakistan s Nuclear Proliferation Financial Express - New Delhi,India As almost any newspaper reader would have known by now, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has finally confessed to passing on nuclear enrichment technology, materials and ... KHAN'S nuclear smuggling ring tied to seven nations: Report Hindustan Times - New Delhi,India In addition to selling nuclear know-how to Iran, Libya and North Korea, top Pakistani scientist AQ Khan offered his expertise to Iraq and Syria even as his ... See all stories on this topic: AQ Khan: Father of nuclear proliferation The Kashmir Telegraph - Mumbai,India Will Dr AQ Khan be tried for allegedly transferring nuclear knowledge to Iran, Libya and North Korea? Should Musharraf and Vajpayee ... See all stories on this topic: INDIA, Pakistan say no chance they will sign nuclear treaty Calgary Sun - Calgary,Alberta,Canada ... AP) - India and Pakistan said Saturday they are sticking with their long-standing refusal to sign the world's main treaty to stop the spread of nuclear weapons ... This daily-once News Alert is brought to you by Google News (BETA)... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Remove this News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts/remove?s=92d1672a1b037a07&hl=en Create another News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts?hl=en Try Google News: http://news.google.com/ ***************************************************************** 99 [Fwd: [du-list] DU in the news - Feb 8th 04] Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 20:26:26 -0800 Return-path: Envelope-to: rogerh@energy-net.org Delivery-date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 13:33:18 -0800 Received: from root by darwin.ctyme.com with ctyme-spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1Apa4f-0006wh-S5 for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sat, 07 Feb 2004 13:33:18 -0800 Received: from n8.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.92]) by darwin.ctyme.com with smtp (Exim 4.30) id 1Apa4f-0006wR-Kq for rogerh@energy-net.org; Sat, 07 Feb 2004 13:33:13 -0800 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1009892-5338-1076189592-rogerh=energy-net.org@returns.groups.yahoo.com Received: from [66.218.67.199] by n8.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 07 Feb 2004 21:33:13 -0000 X-Sender: davidbroatch@xtra.co.nz X-Apparently-To: du-list@yahoogroups.com Received: (qmail 29674 invoked from network); 7 Feb 2004 21:33:12 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.218) by m6.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 7 Feb 2004 21:33:12 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mta205-rme.xtra.co.nz) (210.86.15.187) by mta3.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 7 Feb 2004 21:33:11 -0000 Received: from web4-rme.xtra.co.nz ([210.86.15.141]) by mta205-rme.xtra.co.nz with ESMTP id <20040207213124.MGFL5759.mta205-rme.xtra.co.nz@web4-rme.xtra.co.nz> for ; Sun, 8 Feb 2004 10:31:24 +1300 Received: from oemcomputer ([219.89.0.120]) by web4-rme.xtra.co.nz with SMTP id <20040207213123.JYEU23454.web4-rme.xtra.co.nz@oemcomputer> for ; Sun, 8 Feb 2004 10:31:23 +1300 Message-ID: <001801c3edc2$89a47280$100afea9@oemcomputer> To: "du-" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 210.86.15.187 From: "David Broatch" MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list du-list@yahoogroups.com; contact du-list-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list du-list@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 10:37:06 +1300 Subject: [du-list] DU in the news - Feb 8th 04 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0015_01C3EE2F.7FB2BE40" X-Sender-Hostname: n8.grp.scd.yahoo.com X-Spam-Report: * -5.0 SUBJ_WHITELIST Subject Whitelist * -1.0 SUBJ_GROUP Subject Indicates Discussion List [] * -2.0 YAHOO_HOST From Yahoo Host * -5.0 YAHOO_EGROUP From Yahoo eGroup * 1.0 HTML_MESSAGE BODY: HTML included in message * -5.0 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 0 to 1% * [score: 0.0000] * 0.1 MAILTO_LINK BODY: Includes a URL link to send an email * 1.0 MAILTO_WITH_SUBJ URI: Includes a link to send a mail with a subject * 0.1 RCVD_IN_SORBS RBL: SORBS: sender is listed in SORBS * [219.89.0.120 listed in dnsbl.sorbs.net] X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-15.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,HTML_MESSAGE, MAILTO_LINK,MAILTO_WITH_SUBJ,RCVD_IN_SORBS,SUBJ_GROUP,SUBJ_WHITELIST, YAHOO_EGROUP,YAHOO_HOST autolearn=ham version=2.70-cvs X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.70-cvs (1.220-2003-12-04-exp) on darwin.ctyme.com
BRITISH lawyer calls for Gulf War syndrome review
Xinhua - China
... Gulf War syndrome has been attributed to stress, smoke from burning
oil wells, injections, depleted uranium ammunition and other causes, although
many believe ...
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/07/content_1303355.htm>

DISTINGUISHING Neocon Commentary from Drivel
Dissident Voice - Santa Rosa,CA,United States
... where reportedly 6000 Iraqis were dying a month, and an outbreak of
genetic disorders were reportedly occurring against the backdrop of a
depleted uranium- ...
<http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb04/Petersen0207.htm>


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