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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 US: TVA seeking local investors*
2 Korea lumped in with Iraq
3 KEDO Members to Discuss Heavy Fuel Shipment to NK   
4 Tenex Might be Stuck With Tonnes of Uranium it Produces for US 
5 A Missile Shield Appeals to a Worried Japan
6 US: With Republicans in charge, focus shifts to tax cuts, energy, 
7 After Iraq, Bush will attack his real target
8 ROK, Japan Agree to Maintain KEDO Project 
9 US: Graham's priorities: plutonium, loan forgiveness, Bush agenda
10 Seoul, Tokyo agree to honor nuclear pact*
11 U.N. Plans Immediate Test of Iraq Inspections
12 Iraq Inspections Receive Approval From Arab League
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
13 Vietnam, South Korea to cooperate on nuclear power plant 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
14 Studies barely scratch surface of Gulf War's toll on health
15 US Used More DU Weapons In Afghanistan Than Gulf
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
16 US: Letter: We Must Keep Eye On (Nebraska) Nuke Dump Issue 
17 US: Vermont Yankee images found on trashed computers 
18 2 German Police Hurt in Nuke Protest
19 US: Three Yucca lawsuits to be heard together
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
20 A Clear View On The US War On "Terrorism"
21 U.N. Set to Move in Quickly to Seek Iraq Nuclear Arms
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
22 Cleanup man to clean out desk at labs
23 Workers shipping waste set DOE records 
24 Inside America's nuclear dustbin
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
25 Slowly, courageous young women are taking up careers in Afghanistan 
*****************************************************************
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 TVA seeking local investors*

Florence, Ala. 

*Power distributors to get discounted rate in return*
*
By Dennis Sherer Staff Writer * *November 11. 2002 12:00AM*

The Tennessee Valley Authority is asking its power distributors 
to help it pay to restart an idle reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear 
Plant and other big-ticket items.

TVA has asked its 158 power distributors to invest in a fund that 
would be used to help pay for restarting Unit 1 at the nuclear 
plant near Athens and other major expenses, such as installing 
air pollution reduction devices at coal-burning power plants. In 
return, the power distributors would be able to buy electrical 
power at a discounted rate for 10 to 20 years.

David Smith, TVA chief financial officer, said numerous power 
distributors have expressed interest in the program.

"I think pretty much all of the distributors are interested," he 
said.

Some, including Muscle Shoals Electric Board, have already 
enrolled, he said.

"We're excited by the amount of interest and support we have 
already received," Smith said.

TVA has not announced a goal for how much money it hopes to raise 
from the offering.

Jack Hilliard, general manager of Florence Utilities, said the 
department is interested in the TVA offering.

"We're taking a serious look at it," Hilliard said.

The 5 percent return TVA is offering power distributors on their 
investment is tempting when compared to other investments in 
today's slumping economy, Hilliard said.

"It looks good today, but we've got to make sure it will still be 
good 10 years down the road. When the economy snaps back, 5 
percent may not be a good return," he said. "Personally, I think 
it's a good deal TVA is offering the distributors. But I don't 
feel we have enough information yet to make a decision."

TVA is asking utilities to invest at least $250,000 for a minimum 
of 10 years. Initially, TVA was asking for a minimum of $1 
million. However, many smaller power distributors did not have 
that much money they could invest.

David Thornton, general manager of Tuscumbia Utilities, said the 
power distributor is considering the TVA program now that the 
minimum investment has been reduced.

"There's not many small utilities that have an extra $1 million. 
But now that they've reduced the minimum to $250,000, we're 
definitely going to take a look at it," he said.

The Tuscumbia Utility Board is expected to discuss investing in 
the TVA program Tuesday.

Power distributors have until Dec. 15 to make a decision on the 
program, Smith said. TVA plans to spend $1.8 billion at Browns 
Ferry to return the Unit 1 reactor to service by 2007. It will 
spend $353 million on the project this year.

The federal utility is also spending about $1 million a day on 
equipment to reduce pollution from its coal burning power plants, 
including Colbert Fossil near Barton.

The investments by the power distributors would help TVA pay for 
the projects with having to borrow money from conventional 
lenders and raise its $25 billion debt.

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or 
dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com.
*****************************************************************
 2 Korea lumped in with Iraq

[http://www.heraldsun.com.au]     
  
By MICHAEL HARVEY 12nov02

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has likened the nuclear 
threat posed by North Korea to Iraq's rogue behaviour.

In a speech in China yesterday, Mr Downer refocused attention on 
possible links between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction 
in the Asia-Pacific region. 

He attacked North Korea's refusal to meet international demands 
to end its weapons program. 

"Pyongyang's admission that it has a uranium enrichment program 
is renewed cause for grave concern about North Korea's 
intentions," he said. 

Like Iraq, North Korea had signed up to global treaties against 
nuclear weapons -- but had failed to deliver. 

"We cannot turn a blind eye to North Korea's transgressions," Mr 
Downer said. His comments came as Prime Minister John Howard held 
out hope Saddam Hussein's regime would comply with the United 
Nations' latest ultimatum to disarm. 

"It is encouraging there are signs emerging that Iraq will accept 
the terms of the resolution," Mr Howard told Parliament. "It is 
early days yet but it is to be hoped that those signs do bear 
fruit and do turn out to be the case." 

As the clock ticks on UN demands Iraq disarm or face war, Mr 
Howard hailed the new resolution as a tribute to common sense of 
UN Security Council members. 

"It should also be said that it is a vindication of the strong 
and patient attitude adopted by the President of the United 
States," Mr Howard said. 

© Herald and Weekly Times   
*****************************************************************
 3 KEDO Members to Discuss Heavy Fuel Shipment to NK   
 
   Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English About Korea
 
Updated Nov.11,2002 16:32 KST      
      
To decide whether to keep supplying heavy fuel oil to North 
Korea, officials from South Korea, Japan, and the United States 
are set to continue discussions at a KEDO executive board meeting 
in New York on November 14. The crucial negotiations come as a 
ship carrying 42,500 tons of heavy oil is on its way to North 
Korea and concerns are mounting over a possible suspension of US 
fuel oil shipments to the Stalinist country. 

Should the United States stop supplying heavy oil to the North it 
will be its first case of diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang, since 
the latter admitted last month that it was undertaking a secret 
nuclear weapons program. As a shipment of heavy oil is being 
delivered to North Korea, Washington wants to cut off the 
supplies, whereas South Korea and Japan see the need to keep them 
going, despite the North's violation of the 1994 Geneva Agreed 
Framework. 

Members of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization 
comprised of the United States, South Korea, Japan and European 
Union are scheduled to meet in New York on Thursday in hopes of 
reaching a consensus on the issue. But ahead of that meeting, 
White House National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice indicated 
on Sunday the administration's intent to halt fuel supplies by 
saying it's not going to be business as usual. 

In addition, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said, while the 
U.S. has no intention of attacking the North as declared before, 
Pyongyang will not be able to solve its economic problems as long 
as it continues its uranium enrichment program. 

(Arirang TV) 
*****************************************************************
 4 Tenex Might be Stuck With Tonnes of Uranium it Produces for US 
Consumption
 
 Section on Russia's nuclear industry international co-operation 
and exports of Russian nuclear technology. 

MOSCOW - As of 2003, Russia may be stuck with tonnes of highly 
enriched and natural uranium that it produces annually because of 
— oddly enough — an expiring anti-dumping investigation that, 
since 1992, has prevented Russia from selling natural and 
enriched uranium on the American market without a matching sale.

Charles Digges, 2002-11-11 16:26

Few, if any, moves have been made in Russia's favour to remove a 
so-called "Suspension Agreement" under which Russia is allowed to 
sell uranium in the US — provided there is a matching sale from 
an American company — frustrating Moscow's Tekhsnabexport, or 
Tenex, which had hoped to broaden what it sees as its shrinking 
market share. 

The uranium in question — which has nothing to do with Russia's 
1993 HEU-LEU non-proliferation agreement, under which Russia 
dilutes highly enriched uranium (HEU) from warheads for use in 
American commercial reactors — may now have few if any market 
outlets, according to Sergei Grishin, assistant director at 
Tenex, which is the Russian nuclear fuel exporter with close ties 
to the Ministry of Atomic Energy, or Minatom. 

"Exports of [HEU] from current production to the United States 
may stop as soon as next year because of the expiration in 2002 
of the contracts that were approved in 1992 while reaching the 
[Suspension] Agreement to cease an anti-dumping investigation," 
said Grishin to Interfax news agency, at a recent conference in 
Moscow. 

"The hopes for cancelling or requesting indulgence on the US 
anti-dumping measure are, in the medium-range perspective, quite 
undefined, as witness the large contracts on HEU-LEU in the past 
few years," he said to Interfax in remarks confirmed by Tenex 
spokeswoman Nadezhda Yavdolyuk. 

According to Minatom figures, deliveries under the Suspension 
Agreement to the United States consisted, in 2002 alone, of 4.2 
metric tonnes of uranium. Neither Yavdolyuk nor Grishin nor 
Minatom would indicate how many tonnes have been delivered on a 
yearly basis, however. Grishin, speaking to Interfax, defined the 
quantity as a "commercial secret," and Minatom sources refused to 
say if 2002 was indicative of standard annual shipments. 

At issue is an investigation started in the early 1990s by the US 
Department of Commerce —referred to simply as Commerce — and the 
International Trade Commission, or ITC, into Russian uranium 
"dumping" practices on the American market, where dumping refers 
to the export and sale by a country of a product at a price lower 
than it charges in its own home country, a spokesman for the 
World Trade Organization told Bellona Web. 

The Commerce and ITC investigation was prompted by allegations 
that Russia was selling natural uranium to American utilities for 
dumping prices, US nuclear industry sources, who requested 
anonymity, told Bellona Web. 

As a result of the investigation against it, Russia agreed in 
1992 to sign a ten-year Suspension Agreement, meaning Moscow 
accepted to refrain from selling HEU or natural uranium in the 
United States — unless it pursues so-called matching sales to 
make sure a sale from another, American, company was on the 
market. Signing the Suspension Agreement ended Commerce's and the 
ITC's investigation, the US industry sources said. But judging 
from the 4.2-tonne figure supplied by Minatom, even the 
Suspension Agreement wasn't denting Tenex's US business much. 

Now that the Suspension Agreement has ended, Tenex apparently 
wants — in fact, says it needs — the American market. But it 
cannot continue to operate on it without a continuance of the 
Suspension Agreement. Additionally, according to US industry 
sources, a full-throttle fight with Commerce and the ITC for an 
industry share in the United States means the dumping 
investigation from the 1990s would be reopened. 

"The Russians came up for reconsideration in Commerce and [they] 
sent a communiqué saying they would not seek a change in the 
status. This was generally regarded to mean that they were going 
to fight the Suspension Agreement," said a US industry source. 

But Tenex cannot have it both ways under American law — lifting 
the Suspension Agreement means it cannot do business in America, 
but continuing it means they will have to do so under the 
condition that they always seek a matching sale. "The Suspension 
Agreement has ended, which means that the investigation would 
proceed again [if they want to sell on this market]. It's a 
cumbersome process either way," said the source. 

Tenex's Yavdolyuk agreed. 

"It is all vague at this point," she said. 

Whatever the outcome, this leaves Tenex with lots of uranium to 
move, but few markets to move it to. At the Moscow conference, 
Grishin spoke hopefully of opening trade with Japan or Taiwan. 

But there are formidable diplomatic obstacles to doing so. 

In the case of Japan, American fuel sellers would be upset by 
Japan opening its doors to competing sales. As for Taiwan, Moscow 
does even not recognize it as a sovereign and separate nation 
from mainland China. 

Nonetheless, Taiwan has been aggressively seeking storage for its 
low-level nuclear waste in the Russia far-eastern Kuril Islands 
for some years now, apparently ready to disregard diplomacy when 
faced with a nuclear waste hazard that could endanger its own 
population. 

Grishin said many of Russia's current uranium woes are due to the 
fall of the Soviet Union, which, he noted to Interfax, meant that 
"Russia was cut off from the richest bases of natural uranium in 
Central Asia." 

"We are unable, like our competitors [France and England] to 
bring Canadian and Australian uranium into our country for 
enrichment, given the unacceptable conditions [imposed by] the 
governments of [Canada and Australia]," he told Interfax. 

This, Grishin noted to Interfax, is bound to get worse: Referring 
to information contained in the "Pink Book," recently published 
by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), some 56 percent of 
the world's investigated uranium deposits — worth $40 per 
kilogram — are located in Canada and Australia. 

But for Russia's import and export market to get anywhere, noted 
Grishin in his Interfax interview, vast and far-reaching 
improvements have to be made to Russia's nuclear infrastructure. 

"Our industry has lagged behind the process of restructuring of 
the nuclear industries of other states of the nuclear club, which 
were able to transform the huge potential originally intended for 
military programmes into powerful corporate structures intended 
for the civilian market," said Grishin, according to Interfax. 

"Our industry has even lagged behind the development of Russian 
legislation, oriented to the principles of market economy."   

  Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: 
Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no 
[info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no 
[webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 
38 38 62  * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 5 A Missile Shield Appeals to a Worried Japan

The New York Times 

November 11, 2002*  

*By JAMES BROOKE*

TOKYO, Nov. 10 ? Alarm over North Korea's missile and nuclear 
weapon programs is pushing Japan toward joining the United States 
in trying to develop a missile defense program, officials and 
analysts here say.

"We should exert efforts to get the program to leave the research 
phase as soon as possible," Japan's Defense Agency chief, Shigeru 
Ishiba, told a Parliament committee last week, urging faster work 
with the United States on a program that uses missiles to 
intercept other missiles.

With parts of Japan only 350 miles away from North Korean 
territory, many Japanese have recently felt a surge in 
insecurity. First, North Korea admitted to a visiting American 
diplomat that it maintains a secret nuclear bomb program. Then, 
last Tuesday, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman reacted 
to a breakdown in talks with Japan by saying that North Korea was 
"reconsidering" the moratorium on missile tests that it adopted 
after it test-fired a rocket over Japan in 1998.

"The impact of the news from North Korea has been strong," 
Masashi Nishihara, president of the National Defense Academy, 
Japan's interservice military college, said on Friday. "North 
Korea has reversed its positions. That justifies us to move 
forward to develop missile defense, and to eventually deploy it."

In a poll conducted a week ago for the liberal daily Asahi 
Shimbun, 95 percent of 2,068 Japanese respondents surveyed said 
they were "concerned" about North Korea's nuclear program.

On Friday, Yomiuri Shimbun, a conservative daily, ran a headline 
that said, "U.S. to Press Japan to Build Missile Shield." But in 
a briefing for the news media, the reported instrument of 
pressure, Douglas J. Feith, the under secretary of defense for 
policy, said there was no need for a heavy sales job.

"You don't have to pressure Japan for Japanese to realize that 
Japan is facing a serious threat of missile attack," he said, 
referring to North Korean capabilities. "There are missile arcs 
that one could draw that clearly cover Japan. That's what makes 
the missile threat very serious."

The Pentagon says North Korea has about 100 Rodong missiles with 
a range of about 1,000 miles that are capable of hitting all 
major Japanese cities. Chinese officials estimated last month 
that North Korea had at the most five nuclear weapons.

Asahi Shimbun said the United States was moving missile 
surveillance units to Japan. On Oct. 21, an RC-135S Cobra Ball 
reconnaissance aircraft equipped for tracking ballistic missiles 
arrived in Okinawa from the United States, it said. Ten days 
later, the Invincible, a ship equipped with advanced radar to 
monitor mid- range missiles, visited Okinawa for the first time, 
it added.

American officials declined to address the reports, saying they 
do not comment on military operations.

Japan is already conducting research on antimissile technology, 
which the United States hopes to deploy in 2008. But, wary of 
provoking China, the long-established nuclear power of Northeast 
Asia, Japan had planned to delay until 2004 any decision on 
taking part in field trials. Mr. Ishiba, who took over as Japan's 
defense minister last month, has pushed for a commitment, though 
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has remained noncommittal.

Within Mr. Koizumi's coalition government, a pacifist party, New 
Komeito, played a central role two weeks ago in winning elections 
for governing party candidates. New Komeito is reportedly 
preventing Mr. Koizumi from sending warships to the Arabian Sea 
to support American military operations.

"Our premise is that North Korea will sincerely implement 
agreements in the Pyongyang declaration and we want the North to 
sincerely maintain the declaration," Mr. Koizumi said on Tuesday, 
referring to the statement that he and North Korea's leader, Kim 
Jong Il, signed on Sept. 17 in North Korea's capital. The 
declaration upholds the Korean peninsula as free of nuclear 
weapons.

Japan now demands that North Korea dismantle its nuclear bomb 
program before receiving Japanese aid. Japanese officials met 
recently with Pakistani officials, hoping to learn details of 
North Korea's technology. Last month The New York Times reported 
that Pakistan supplied North Korea with nuclear bomb-making 
equipment. Pakistan has denied the report.

"The final aim of North Korea is to obtain economic aid ? the key 
thing is money," Shunji Taoka, a defense affairs writer for Asahi 
Shimbun, said on Friday. Referring to the billions of dollars in 
aid that Japan has offered North Korea, he added, "Japan's 
Foreign Ministry has a rare chance to be a major player."

But if forced into a corner, North Korea might resort to a 
familiar negotiating tactic: provoking a crisis. It might test a 
new rocket engine, test-fire a new generation rocket or expel 
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, Scott Snyder, 
Korea representative for The Asia Foundation, a United States 
government-supported group, said. "They will try to use a crisis 
to escalate things, and they can do it," he said.

A cartoon published here last week showed Kim Jong Il as a 
panhandler, holding a sign that read, "Will not bomb for food."

Several high-level American officials have been visiting Japan. 
Last Thursday, it was Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff. James A. Kelly, the assistant secretary of state 
for Pacific and East Asian affairs, met here on Saturday with his 
Foreign Ministry counterparts from Japan and South Korea. The 
Kyodo news agency reported today that Mr. Kelly predicted to 
Japanese officials that next year Congress would stop financing 
for oil shipments to North Korea.

"Will Japan go nuclear?" Hau Boon Lai, a columnist for The 
Straits Times of Singapore, asked, echoing regional concerns that 
Japan is considering building nuclear bombs.

But aversion to nuclear arms runs deep here. Mr. Nishihara of the 
defense academy said, "I have not seen any arguments that Japan 
should go nuclear."

Copyright The New York Times Company
*****************************************************************
 6 With Republicans in charge, focus shifts to tax cuts, energy, 
conservative judges
 
CONNIE CASS, Associated Press Writer         Sunday, November 10, 
2002   
  
WASHINGTON (AP) -- 

Senate Republicans are pulling out wish lists that grew tattered 
and faded over the past 17 months and busily underlining and 
highlighting and prioritizing. Among their favorites: cutting 
taxes, approving conservative judges, and drilling for oil in the 
Alaskan wilderness. 

By early next year, the Republicans will once again be running it 
all -- the White House and both chambers of Congress -- as they 
did during President Bush's first few months in office. 

Ideas that seemed like pie in the sky while Democrats controlled 
the Senate suddenly look doable again. 

That does not mean it will be easy. The Senate remains closely 
divided, and Democrats can use parliamentary maneuvers to delay 
and even block bills. "Some people say, 'Full steam ahead, just 
get it done.' That's easier said than done in the Senate," noted 
Trent Lott, who will once again be Senate majority leader. "But 
we do have an opportunity now." 

Many of the president's initiatives have been passed by the 
House, only to languish in the Senate, which shifted to 
Democratic control after Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords defected from 
the GOP to become an independent in the summer of 2001. 

Among the ideas seeing new life since Republicans swept the 
midterm elections last week: 

TAXES AND ECONOMY
 
A major goal for Bush is making permanent $1.35 trillion in tax 
cuts that were enacted last year and are set to expire in 2010. 
They include lower income tax rates and a phase-out of the estate 
tax. 

To help revive the economy, Bush wants legislation that would 
include government-backed terrorism insurance, meant to free up 
billions of dollars worth of construction projects put on hold 
for lack of private coverage. The legislation might also include 
Republican proposals for more tax relief for businesses, to spur 
investment; new deductions to help investors with losses from the 
plunging stock market; and incentives to enhance retirement 
savings. 

There will be little traction now for Democrats' ideas in this 
kind of measure, such as increasing the minimum wage and 
extending unemployment benefits. 

With budget deficits growing, Bush also will be looking for more 
congressional cooperation in curbing federal spending. 

ANTI-TERRORISM
 
A new Homeland Security Department to guard against terrorists 
may break free from the Senate now. The idea has been ensnared in 
a partisan battle over Bush's insistence that the agency's 
170,000 workers be exempt from collective bargaining rights. Bush 
angered Democrats by accusing them of putting special interests 
-- the unions -- ahead of Americans' security. 

The change in leadership may also be reflected in investigations 
of intelligence failures before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 
Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas one of the CIA's strongest 
defenders, is expected to become chairman of the Senate 
Intelligence Committee. 

IRAQ
 
Congress has backed Bush on the possible use of force in Iraq, 
and the election results will further strengthen his hand if he 
decides to go to war. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee, Richard Lugar of Indiana, is a centrist who 
worked closely with the Democratic chairman, Joseph Biden of 
Delaware, so this is a rare instance where lawmakers expect the 
changeover in power to bring few major shifts. 

JUDGES
 
More conservative judges could soon be sitting on federal courts. 
After months of complaining that Democrats were holding up the 
president's judicial nominations, Republicans are planning ways 
to quickly push dozens of candidates for judgeships through the 
Senate. They also hope to revive two appeals court nominations 
that were rejected by the Judiciary Committee -- cases that Bush 
cited in the campaign to portray the Democrats as 
obstructionists. 

Republicans also are excited about the possibility that Bush will 
get to make his first Supreme Court nomination, should a justice 
retire, with the GOP controlling the Senate confirmation process. 

ENERGY
 
The odds have improved somewhat for Bush's plan to open Alaska's 
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, but Democrats 
could still block it with a filibuster. Other energy policies 
left in limbo because of disagreements between the House and 
Senate now will probably be decided along Republican lines -- 
with more focus on energy production and less on conservation. 

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., is likely to assume chairmanship of 
the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and continue to lead 
the appropriations subcommittee that deals with energy financing. 
This will give Domenici -- a strong advocate for nuclear power 
and the Energy Department's research labs, two of which are in 
his state -- unprecedented sway over development of energy 
policy. 

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
 
Both parties want to expand prescription drug coverage for the 
elderly. The issue was prominent during the 2000 elections but 
got bogged down in Congress, with Democrats pushing for a more 
expensive plan with better benefits. The election results enhance 
the odds that the GOP version -- which relies on private 
insurance companies instead of Medicare to administer the program 
-- will prevail. 

SOCIAL SECURITY
 
Prospects look better for partial privatization of Social 
Security, an issue that all but disappeared when the high-flying 
stock market took a nosedive. The volatile market aside, Bush and 
congressional Republicans still hope to allow younger workers to 
divert a portion of their payroll taxes into 401(k)-style 
investment accounts. Democrats oppose the plan as too risky for 
workers who rely on Social Security as their safety net. It might 
be a year before the issue comes up for votes in Congress. 

©2002 Associated Press   
*****************************************************************
 7 After Iraq, Bush will attack his real target

Toronto Sun Columnist: Eric Margolis
 
[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/home.html]
   			   				 			 Inside CANOE.CA SLAM! Sports Jam! Showbiz AllPop CNEWS
 November 10, 2002 
 
[margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com] -- Contributing Foreign Editor
 
NEW YORK -- President George Bush wrapped himself in the American 
flag and won a major victory last week as U.S. voters gave 
control of both houses of Congress to the Republican party. In 
mid-term elections, the party in power almost always fares badly, 
but this year an electorate, gripped by fear of terrorism, and 
whipped into war fever by high-voltage propaganda, voted 
Republican. Thank you Osama and Saddam. 

One poignant photo said it all: Georgia's defeated Democratic 
senator, Max Cleland, sitting in a wheelchair, missing both legs 
and an arm lost in combat in Vietnam. This highly decorated hero 
was defeated by a Vietnam war draft-dodger who had the audacity 
to accuse Cleland of being "unpatriotic" after the senator 
courageously voted against giving Bush unlimited war-related 
powers. I do not recall a more shameful moment in American 
politics. 

Bush's victory is clearly a mandate to proceed with his crusade 
against Iraq. Preparations for war are in an advanced stage. The 
U.S. has been quietly moving heavy armour and mechanized units 
from Europe to the Mideast. Three division equivalents and a 
Marine heavy brigade are now in theatre. An armada of U.S. 
warplanes is assembling around Iraq, which is bombed almost 
daily. U.S. special forces are operating in northern Iraq, and, 
along with Israeli scout units, in Iraq's western desert near the 
important H2 airbase. The war could begin as early as 
mid-December if there is no coup against Saddam Hussein. 

But for all the propaganda about wicked Saddam, Iraq is not the 
main objective for the small but powerful coterie of Pentagon 
hardliners driving the Bush administration's national security 
policy. Nor is it for their intellectual and emotional peers in 
Israel's right-wing Likud party. The real target of the coming 
war is Iran, which Israel views as its principal and most 
dangerous enemy. Iraq merely serves as a pretext to whip America 
into a war frenzy and to justify insertion of large numbers of 
U.S. troops into Mesopotamia. 

A minor threat 

Israeli defence officials have long dismissed demolished Iraq as 
a minor threat, even though it likely has between six and 18 old 
Scud missiles hidden away. Saddam did not use chemical weapons in 
1991 for fear of Israeli nuclear retaliation. Israel now has the 
world's most advanced anti-missile system, Arrow, with two 
batteries operational, and numerous batteries of the latest U.S. 
Patriot missiles in place. 

The prevailing view in the Israeli military is that Iraq will be 
quickly defeated by U.S. forces, and then likely split into two 
or three cantons. Israel's North American supporters, however, 
are still being given the party line that Israel is in mortal 
danger from Iraq. 

Iran is a different story. Iran is expected to produce a few 
nuclear weapons within five years to counter Israel's large 
nuclear arsenal, and is developing medium-range missiles, 
Shahab-3s and -4s, that can easily reach Tel Aviv. 

With 68 million people and a growing industrial base, Iran is 
seen by Israel as a serious threat and major Mideast geopolitical 
rival. Both nations have their eye on Iraq's vast oil reserves. 

Israel's newly appointed hardline defence minister, former air 
force chief Shaul Mofaz, who was born in Iran, has previously 
threatened to attack Iran's nuclear installations. Thanks to 
long-range F-15Is supplied by the U.S., plus cruise and ballistic 
missiles, Israel can strike targets all over Iran. This week, 
Israel's grand strategy was clearly revealed for the first time, 
though barely noticed by North American media, as Prime Minister 
Ariel Sharon called for an invasion of Iran "the day after" Iraq 
is crushed. 

Elections in Israel at the end of January will probably return 
Sharon's Likud party and its extreme rightist allies to power, 
this time with a strengthened position. Ferocious competition for 
party leadership between the iron-fisted Sharon and the even more 
hardline Benjamin Netanyahu suggests a further move to the far 
right, zero chance for peace with Palestinians, and a more 
aggressive policy towards Israel's unloving neighbours. 

In the U.S., Pentagon hardliners are drawing up plans to invade 
Iran once Iraq and its oil are "liberated." They hope civil war 
will erupt in Iran, which is riven by bitterly hostile factions, 
after which a pro-U.S. regime will take power. If this does not 
occur, then Iraq-based U.S. forces will be ideally positioned to 
attack Iran. Or, they could just as well move west and invade 
Syria, another of Israel's most bitter enemies. 

Israel's Likudniks thirst for revenge against Syria - and also 
Iran - for supporting Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, which drove 
Israeli forces from Lebanon. 

Pentagon superhawk Richard Perle, told the TVO program Diplomatic 
Immunity that the U.S. was prepared to attack Syria, Iran, and 
Lebanon. 

By February or March, the U.S. media will likely be flooded with 
dire warnings about the threat to the world from Iran. Israel's 
American lobby will turn its guns from Iraq to Iran. "Links" will 
surely be "discovered" between Iran and al-Qaida. The 
cookie-cutter pattern that worked for whipping up war psychosis 
against Iraq should work just as well against Iran, Syria or 
Saudi Arabia - and win the next national election. 

Eric can be reached by e-mail at  
[margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com] . Letters to the editor 
should be sent to  [editor@sunpub.com] or visit his home page. 

[http://www.canoe.ca/home.html]
*****************************************************************
 8 ROK, Japan Agree to Maintain KEDO Project 
 
KoreaTimes : 

[KoreaTimes National]   

By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter 

South Korea and Japan agreed on the need to maintain the ongoing 
nuclear program initiated by the Korean Peninsula Energy 
Development Organization (KEDO) yesterday as the only realistic 
mechanism toward the settlement of the issue of North Korea¡¯s 
alleged nuclear development program. 

South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong and his Japanese 
counterpart Yoriko Kawaguchi agreed that the KEDO was the only 
alternative to deter North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, 
indicating the need to keep the organization¡¯s nuclear project 
afloat despite a dispute over the matter. 

``The two ministers agreed to closely cooperate with other KEDO 
member nations, notably the United States and the European Union, 
to help resolve the issue peacefully through dialogue,¡¯¡¯ said 
Shin Jung-seung, director-general at the Foreign Affairs-Trade 
Ministry, while briefing reporters on the results of the foreign 
ministers¡¯ meeting. 

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Second Ministerial 
Conference of the Community of Democracies, which opened 
yesterday at COEX Convention Center in southern Seoul. 

The two ministers also agreed to continue close consultations 
ahead of a meeting of the executive board members of KEDO in New 
York on Nov. 14. 

They called on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear development 
program, claiming it is in violation of various international 
pacts, such as the 1994 Geneva agreement under which the 
reclusive nation pledged it would rescind its then-nuclear 
program in exchange for the supply of 500,000 tons of heavy fuel 
oil per year and the construction of two light-water reactors. 

On the other hand, South Korea and the United States continued 
contacts to narrow differences regarding the issue yesterday. 

Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly met with 
Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun and Deputy Foreign Minister 
Lee Tai-sik to coordinate policies toward North Korea, especially 
about whether to continue shipments of fuel oil to North Korea. 

South Korea has been clarifying its stand that at least the 
November batch of the oil, which has already left Singapore for 
North Korea, should be delivered as the immediate halt will have 
severe repercussions, worsening the security situation on the 
peninsula. 

In the face of Seoul¡¯s insistence, Washington, which had 
maintained the hard-line policy of putting the shipment on hold, 
has begun to take softer stance. 

``The atmosphere has not been pessimistic,¡¯¡¯ a Foreign Ministry 
official said. 

Another senior ministry official told The Korea Times that the 
Nov. 14 New York meeting would decide the fate of the shipment of 
the fuel oil to the North. 

``KEDO is not supposed to block the oil provision unless all its 
members support it,¡¯¡¯ the official said on condition of 
anonymity. 

But other sources presented a more cautious attitude, citing the 
hawkish atmosphere within the U.S. administration and the U.S. 
Congress. 

White House National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said in an 
interview, ``The North Koreans should understand that it¡¯s not 
going to be business as usual as we move forward here. We¡¯ll 
look at the specifics with the people who are involved in the 
direction.¡¯¡¯ 

ÀԷ½ð£ 2002/11/11 18:34
   
*****************************************************************
 9 Graham's priorities: plutonium, loan forgiveness, Bush agenda

By AMY GEIER EDGAR
Associated Press Writer

Q: What three specific tasks would you most like to accomplish in 
your first term?

A: No. 1, specifically, we need to get legislation to make sure 
that South Carolina doesn't become a permanent repository for 
plutonium. A lawsuit was never the way to go. It has to be done 
by legislation to protect the state. ...

No. 2, I would like to get my teacher loan forgiveness bill 
passed because if you don't have some attractive device to 
recruit new teachers to the rural and urban poor centers of this 
country, the teacher shortage is going to be felt in those areas 
a lot worse than it will be everywhere else. The suburbs and the 
nice parts of the world are going to always be able to attract 
people. ...

No. 3, I would like to be an integral part of the president's 
national and international agenda and be thought of as a key ally 
in that endeavor to try to get his agenda moving. ...

Q: What do you see as your biggest obstacle to getting those 
tasks accomplished?

A: Some of those are very specific, like the legislation on 
plutonium. I think we can do that, I've just got to network. The 
teacher loan forgiveness bill, I think we're almost there. I've 
got one foot in both bodies. I'm still in the House during the 
lame duck and I'm about to go the Senate, so I'm going to use 
this island of time to go network like the devil to try to get 
some of this done early next year or maybe even before next year.

In terms of the big picture items - the president's agenda - I 
will be part of a team there so I want to be seen as a good team 
member who is working for the conservative cause and working for 
the president to be successful. ...

Q: Many presidential and vice presidential candidates come from 
governor's offices or Senate seats. Could this position be a road 
to a higher office for you someday?

A: Let me tell you, the road I've taken has aged me and, I think, 
made me a tougher person. The rule is that every senator looks in 
the mirror and thinks they'll be president. I don't do that. I 
think I can contribute to my state and my nation. ... I've been 
blessed by the people to have this job, and I need no more. No, I 
don't ever see myself being president. The idea of doing more 
doesn't have to be being president. ...

Q: You've talked recently about attracting more black voters to 
the GOP. How do you plan to break down stereotypes and accomplish 
that goal?

A: A lot of retail politicking. We'd go around to parts of the 
state where Republicans don't really spend a lot of time and just 
try to form personal relationships. ... It's just like football 
recruiting. You're looking for talented people out there who can 
serve the team well ... Thirty-one percent of the population in 
South Carolina is African American. If you can't get 10 percent 
of votes out of 31 percent of the people, something's wrong. That 
something's probably a complicated problem to deal with, but it's 
nothing that can't be solved if people really want it to change. 
You don't have to change your ideas or philosophies. I just think 
you've got to change the way you communicate and relate. I'm very 
intent on doing that. It just disturbs me that we're going to 
have a General Assembly, if we don't watch it, where you have 
white Republicans and black Democrats.

Q: Although you were a McCain supporter in 2000, you now appear 
to have thrown your support wholeheartedly behind President Bush. 
Are there any issues on which you disagree with Bush and how 
would you handle votes on these issues?

A: When things come up that you disagree with, you stand your 
ground, like trade. (Also) concurrent receipts for veterans. 
Right now, the law is such that if you're a disabled veteran and 
a military retiree, you have your veterans' benefits reduced by 
your retirement pay or vice versa. That's an offset that I think 
is probably not fair. It costs a lot of money to correct this 
unfairness, but I'm willing to spend the money and try to change 
the way that program operates. The administration is threatening 
to veto the efforts of the Congress, and quite frankly, I'd vote 
to override the veto. ...

Another area: drought relief. I live in a part of the country 
where we've had five years of just failure of any adequate rain. 
It's hurt our farming community, and I think we need to either 
take some money out of the farm bill for drought relief or put 
new money on the table. I'm open to any idea. I'm not open to the 
idea of doing nothing. ...

Q: There's been a lot of discussion on how you are similar to 
Sen. Thurmond. In what ways do you differ from the senator?

A: We're similar in our political philosophies, and I would like 
to be thought of as somebody that really did have a servant's 
heart. ...

But here's one difference: The thing that intrigues me the most 
about politics is not only just trying to get somebody in the Air 
Force Academy or West Point - which is a thrill, to help a family 
with a problem - but Social Security, where's it going to be when 
I'm gone? Medicare, how can you add a prescription drug benefit 
that brings out the best but doesn't doom the next generation to 
having to pay for a benefit that got out of control? How do you 
reshape the military post-9/11? How do you keep the budget 
balanced and reform taxes at the same time? That intrigues me, 
and I guess one difference would be, at least later in life, Sen. 
Thurmond was a stalwart for South Carolina needs. I'm starting 
politics at the Senate level, and I am very intrigued about how 
can we make all this work out. It's overwhelming when you think 
about it. ...

Coming into politics, that will be the biggest difference between 
him leaving and me coming. Later in his political life he was 
totally a servant of the people and I want to keep that tradition 
alive. But I see myself having some new ideas and new energy 
about the problems that face my generation of political leaders.


Last modified: November 10. 2002 4:03PM

heraldtribune.com

© Sarasota Herald-Tribune. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 10 Seoul, Tokyo agree to honor nuclear pact*

United Press International <index.cfm>

By Jong-Heon Lee UPI Correspondent Published 11/11/2002 8:24 AM

SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Foreign ministers from South 
Korea and Japan agreed Monday to support a 1994 deal as the 
"realistic" option to curb North Korea's nuclear weapons 
ambitions, adding pressure on the United States, which has 
maintained a tough stance against the North.

The backing came ahead of a meeting this week on the landmark 
deal, which is in danger of collapse in the wake of Pyongyang's 
admission of a uranium enrichment program.

The United States, which signed the Agreed Framework, has blamed 
North Korea of violating the accord under which it pledged to 
freeze its nuclear weapons program. As a result, the United 
States has threatened to cut off the oil supply for North Korea 
since that agreement had called for the United States to give 
North Korea two light-water nuclear reactors and an annual 
shipment of 500,000 tons of heavy oil.

South Korea and Japan are major players in the Korean Peninsula 
Energy Development Organization, a U.S.-led international 
consortium financing the $4.6 billion light-water reactor project 
for North Korea.

"The two ministers shared the view that the KEDO project is the 
realistic means to frustrate North Korea's nuclear development," 
Shin Jung-seung, head of the Asia-Pacific affairs bureau at 
Seoul's foreign ministry, said.

Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong and his Japanese counterpart 
Yoriko Kawaguchi also agreed to "closely" consult each other over 
oil shipment for North Korea.

The meeting came three days ahead of the KEDO board meeting amid 
growing calls for a halt to a U.S. fuel oil shipment for North 
Korea.

"The KEDO meeting is aimed at deciding whether to keep supplying 
Pyongyang with fuel oil. But the fate of oil shipments depends on 
U.S. President George W. Bush's political decision expected as 
early as Tuesday," a senior government official told United Press 
International on condition of anonymity.

Copyright © 2002 United Press International
*****************************************************************
 11 U.N. Plans Immediate Test of Iraq Inspections

The New York Times 
*November 10, 2002*  

*UNITED NATIONS*

*By STEVEN R. WEISMAN*

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 ? United Nations weapons inspectors plan to 
force an early test of Saddam Hussein's intentions by demanding a 
comprehensive list of weapons sites and checking whether it 
matches a list of more than 100 priority sites compiled by 
Western experts, Bush administration and United Nations officials 
say.

The officials said the site list had been quietly put together in 
the last several months, winnowed down from more than 800 in the 
United Nations' database. The short list was derived from the 
findings of previous weapons inspections and the latest 
intelligence culled from defectors and other sources by American 
and other intelligence experts.

Fortified by the approval on Friday of a tough Security Council 
resolution demanding that Iraq comply with a new inspection 
regime, United Nations officials are expected on the ground in 
Iraq on Nov. 18. A week or so later, the first inspectors are to 
arrive and begin their work.

A provision in the resolution says that any "false statements or 
omissions" regarding weapons sites would constitute a "material 
breach of Iraq's obligations."

Many experts say Mr. Hussein is more likely to defy the 
inspectors than to cooperate. But the concern in the 
administration is to make sure any defiance by Iraq is beyond 
dispute. Only then could the administration convince the United 
Nations, its allies and Americans in general that war is 
necessary.

Many administration officials say they would far prefer a bold 
rebuff by Mr. Hussein, rather than have him seem to cooperate but 
actually try to run out the clock with evasions and confusing 
tactics in the hope that support for war will subside. Speed is 
important, military experts say, because the cooler winter 
months, ending in February or March, are the optimal time for an 
attack against Iraq.

The chief of the inspection team is Hans Blix, executive chairman 
of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection 
Commission, or Unmovic. Mr. Blix, who is to lead the inspections 
of biological and chemical weapons, said this week that the first 
team of inspectors would number between 80 and 100. Mohamed 
ElBaradei is to lead the team of nuclear weapons inspectors.

Mr. Blix and Mr. ElBaradei have personally assured top Bush 
administration officials ? including Condoleezza Rice, the 
national security adviser, and Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy 
defense secretary ? that their teams will be assertive in their 
demands of inspection sites. Their first order of business is to 
ask for Mr. Hussein's list of such sites.

Administration officials say it should be easy to tell whether 
those sites match the ones on the inspectors' list. But not 
everyone is convinced.

Martin Indyk, a former staff member of the National Security 
Council under President Bill Clinton, recalled that while 
monitoring Iraq inspections in the 1990's, he frequently went to 
bed at night convinced that Washington had solid intelligence 
information on weapons sites. But often, he said, the next 
morning showed nothing was there. "There's a risk in the whole 
enterprise of not finding anything," he said.

Senator Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana, who will be 
chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the new Senate, 
said: "The inspectors may have some success unearthing things and 
revealing them to the world. But my own view is that it will be 
very difficult to find and discover the evidence. How can you 
tell if a kettle where shampoo is being made was once used to 
make anthrax?"

As for Mr. Hussein's list of sites, people with experience in the 
matter recall that shortly after the end of the Persian Gulf war 
in 1991, Mr. Hussein declared that Iraq had no nuclear weapons or 
biological programs but that his forces had already used chemical 
weapons.

"It was a blatantly false declaration," said Timothy McCarthy, a 
former weapons inspector. "As we went along, the lies became 
smaller and more calculated."

*Continued* 1 | 2 

Copyright The New York Times Company 
*****************************************************************
 12 Iraq Inspections Receive Approval From Arab League

The New York Times 

 *November 11, 2002*  

*DIPLOMACY*

*By NEIL MacFARQUHAR*

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 10 ? Arab governments voiced collective 
support today for new weapons inspections inside Iraq, although 
they want Arab experts added to the inspection teams and warned 
that the latest United Nations resolution should not be 
considered a free pass for Washington to invade.

The support, expressed in a resolution at a meeting of Arab 
League foreign ministers in Cairo, suggests that most governments 
in the region remain perfectly happy to see Saddam Hussein 
defanged, political experts said, yet fear the repercussions of 
another war in the region.

The action by the Arab League stressed that the Security Council 
vote on Friday was "not a pretext for another military action 
against Iraq," Naji Sabri, the Iraqi foreign minister, said today 
after the Arab League meeting.

At the same time, Iraq appeared to be bowing toward the 
inevitable, with Iraqi television announcing that Mr. Hussein was 
planning to convene a special session of Parliament on Monday to 
discuss the issue of renewed inspections ? the usual choreography 
for a simulated public stamp of approval for a decision the 
leadership finds distasteful.

The extent to which Arab governments are concerned about the 
effects of any action against Iraq on regional stability was 
expressed today by Syria's foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, on 
the sidelines of the meeting. He said Syria's decision to join in 
a unanimous 15-0 Security Council vote to pass the resolution 
demanding renewed inspections to find potential nuclear, 
biological and chemical weapons was intended to spare the Iraqis 
from being attacked by the United States.

"This resolution stopped an immediate strike against Iraq, but 
only an immediate strike," he said. "Now America cannot strike 
Iraq under U.N. auspices, although of course the United States 
can strike Iraq unilaterally outside international law. If this 
happens, the world will not be with the Americans. It will have 
to deal with all those demonstrators from Los Angeles to the Far 
East and the Arab countries."

"This resolution was for the immediate effect," he said. "It 
avoided an inevitable strike against Iraq."

Iraq's government-controlled newspapers had initially called the 
Security Council resolution "bad and unfair." But by today, Iraqi 
officials and news media were hailing it as an international 
effort to thwart the American desire for war.

Although Iraq has until Friday to declare that it intends to 
comply fully with the terms of the resolution, Mr. Sabri noted 
that Iraq had agreed before to renewed inspections and thought 
there was no need to alter the United Nations guidelines about 
the way they worked.

"The problem is that we need experts who work in a professional, 
objective way," Mr. Sabri said, adding that, as the Arab League 
communiqué said, the new inspection teams should not "try to 
provoke or incite clashes as they have previously."

He said that such unbiased arms inspections would expose the 
"great lie" promulgated by the United States. "It is the lie 
about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," he 
said.

The Arab League resolution also restated the longstanding Arab 
position that Iraq must work with the United Nations inspectors 
and demanded that the inspection teams add more Arab experts.

The resolution emphasized that only the Security Council should 
evaluate reports from the inspectors. Such cooperation should 
lead to the lifting of penalties that have been in place against 
Iraq since it invaded Kuwait in 1990, the league said, adding 
that ordinary Iraqis had suffered because of the sanctions.

In addition, the league proposed that the United Nations pay 
equal attention to Israel's weapons of mass destruction and 
stressed that Arab League members were committed both to 
maintaining Iraq as a united country and to maintaining the 
stability of all Arab countries. "They reiterate the absolute 
Arab rejection to striking Iraq and consider it a threat to the 
national security of all Arab countries," the league resolution 
said.

*Continued* 1 | 2 

Copyright The New York Times Company
*****************************************************************
 13 Vietnam, South Korea to cooperate on nuclear power plant 

AP World Politics  

Nov 11, 6:24 AM

HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam and South Korea agreed Monday to 
cooperate on a nuclear power project for Vietnam, an official 
said. 

The memorandum of understanding was signed in Hanoi by Vietnamese 
Vice Minister of Industry Nguyen Xuan Chuan and South Korean Vice 
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Kim Dong-won, said an 
Industry Ministry official. 

Under the agreement, South Korea will help Vietnam with its 
long-term nuclear energy strategy, that includes eventually 
producing some of the power-plant parts locally. No other details 
of the deal were released. 

Vietnam has said that it needs nuclear power plants by 2017 to 
meet increasing electricity demands, average growth of some 15 
percent per year. 

More than 50 percent of Vietnam's electricity is generated by 
hydropower plants, the remainder by gas-fueled or coal-fired 
plants. 

  Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The 
*****************************************************************
 14 Studies barely scratch surface of Gulf War's toll on health

Contra Costa Times | 11/11/2002 | 

 By John Simerman CONTRA COSTA TIMES

  [James Taylor of Pacheco Calif., a former combat swim 
instructor and Marine, suffered breathing problems after spending 
eight months in the Gulf War. ] Contra Costa Times/Mark DuFrene  
    
  James Taylor of Pacheco Calif., a former combat swim instructor 
and Marine, suffered breathing problems after spending eight 
months in the Gulf War.   

James Taylor of Pacheco can't say just what turned him from an 
ultra-fit Marine combat swim instructor to a disabled asthmatic 
with chronic bronchitis whose severe attacks prompt frequent 
scrambles to the emergency room.
 
Whatever it was, Taylor traces it to the Persian Gulf, where he 
served before returning home in 1991 with breathing problems and 
horrible coughing fits.
 
"When we got there we didn't have biological equipment. We had 
second-rate gas masks, no chem or bio suits," said Taylor, now 
35. "You throw that in with botulism shots, pills for nerve 
agents and blood agents, anthrax ... I'm not a scientist. I can't 
say for sure."
 
Like many veterans who have been denied a recognized link between 
their unexplained symptoms and service in the Persian Gulf, 
Taylor wonders if U.S. military leaders will take the war's 
lessons to heart as the Bush administration readies a new attack 
on Iraq.
 
Pentagon officials say they have. Missteps during the gulf war 
have prompted a renewed focus on soldier health, as military 
leaders contemplate a new kind of warfare, and an Iraqi 
government armed with untold chemical and biological weapons.
 
Among the lapses of 11 years ago, federal officials acknowledge 
inadequate protective gear, excessive false readings from 
chemical sensors, mismanagement of medical records and poor 
administration of a stew of vaccines and inoculations.
 
Vaccine shortages left many soldiers without, while others took 
far too much. Some received the anthrax vaccine without knowing. 
Who and how many is unknown because of bad record-keeping.
 
"We didn't know what we were going up against," Taylor said. 
"They really don't have an excuse this time."
 
Concerns from the gulf war drove the Pentagon to launch a major 
"Force Health Protection" initiative to safeguard soldiers. 
Congress in 1997 weighed in with a law demanding that soldiers 
undergo health screenings before, during and after they deploy.
 
The Defense Department now has better gas masks and protective 
suits, decontamination units and chemical detection equipment, 
and the services have developed better training to prevent 
chemical, biological and radiation exposure.
 
Yet problems persist.
 
The General Accounting Office, while acknowledging advances since 
the gulf war, recently found that the Pentagon lost track of as 
many as 250,000 defective chemical-warfare suits and that defense 
officials have no solid strategy for low-level exposures to 
chemical agents.
 
Medical panels and a presidential committee on gulf war illnesses 
recommended several measures to protect the health of soldiers. 
But a report two years ago by the Institute of Medicine found the 
response lacking.
 
"The most important recommendations remain unimplemented despite 
the compelling rationale for urgent action," the report found.
 
A major problem is tracking soldier movement and maintaining 
health records that can be accessible to military and private 
doctors when soldiers return home. Earlier this year, the 
Department of Defense created a new directorate to oversee those 
efforts.
 
"We've made some good strides, but we really need to do a much 
better job of keeping medical records, making sure vaccinations 
are given before we get into theater," said Dr. Michael 
Kilpatrick, deputy director of the Defense Department's 
Deployment Health Support Directorate.
 
Kilpatrick said the Pentagon now sends advance teams to sample 
air, water and ground before operations move into an area. In 
Afghanistan, Special Forces use Palm Pilots to keep medical 
records, he said. During the gulf war, many paper records 
disappeared.
 
Gulf war veterans groups remain skeptical. They have spent years 
fighting for health care, battling the Pentagon for information 
and demanding recognition and funding of research that seeks to 
explain why some soldiers fell ill, while others who fought 
alongside them remained healthy.
 
Gulf war veterans are divided over a new foray into Iraq, said 
Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War 
Resource Center.
 
"Those who aren't sick say 'Let's go back and finish the job,'" 
said Robinson, a former Army Ranger. "If they know someone who is 
sick or are sick themselves, they are very leery of going back to 
fight what will certainly be a chemical and biological war."
 
The federal government has spent more than $120 million studying 
possible causes of the mysterious conditions reported by gulf war 
veterans, including fatigue, muscle pain, memory loss, sleep 
disorders, respiratory trouble and other chronic illnesses.
 
Gulf war veterans complain of symptoms at more than twice the 
rate as those who did not serve there, defense officials say.
 
But they have reported only one scientific link -- a recent 
finding that veterans who served in the Persian Gulf region are 
at greater risk for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou 
Gehrig's disease, a rare and fatal neurological illness. The 
reason is unclear.
 
On Oct. 31, the Department of Veterans' Affairs said it would 
more than double research funding for gulf war illnesses. The 
announcement came after a British study, funded by the U.S. 
Department of Defense, found that gulf war illnesses were not 
stress-related psychiatric disorders.
 
Some research points to neurological damage.
 
An advisory committee in June estimated that between 25 percent 
and 30 percent of the 700,000 U.S. veterans who served in the 
gulf war are now ill.
 
More than 8,000 have died. By comparison, 148 troops were killed 
in action, and fewer than 500 were wounded in the Persian Gulf 
region during the war.
 
"It was the anti-Vietnam War. It was the clean victory. The 
problem was, you could be injured from more than bullets and 
bombs," said Robinson. "Science is just now catching up."
 
Veterans point to a host of possible causes for their illnesses.
 
Among them are smoke from oil fires set by the Iraqis; depleted 
uranium used in U.S. ammunition; vaccines and inoculations, 
including an anthrax vaccine and an experimental botulism 
vaccine; and sarin nerve gas exposure from the destruction of 
weapons at an Iraqi munitions depot.
 
"To have so many possibilities on the table is just medically not 
a tenable situation," Kilpatrick said. "We need to have that 
baseline information, to say what we can rule out, even if we're 
not able to diagnose a disease and recognize symptoms."
 
More difficult, he said, is changing a culture in which military 
planning trumps health care. "The biggest obstacle clearly is the 
demands of the battlefield. We have to find a happy medium."
 
The task is more urgent, with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's 
apparent readiness to deploy chemical or biological agents in 
battle, regardless of the impact on his own fighters, said Rep. 
Christopher Shays, R-Conn., chairman of the House Subcommittee on 
National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations.
 
Shays, who led congressional hearings on gulf war illnesses, has 
criticized the Pentagon's insistence that hazardous exposure 
levels were not enough to sicken the troops.
 
"The military's the military. When they go into battle, they 
don't always keep the best medical records and so on," he said. 
"But there's no illusion about the environment we're sending our 
soldiers in. Battlefields are always toxic. In this case, beyond 
toxic, you may have chemical and biological agents."
 
One of the biggest problems during the gulf war were false alarms 
from tightly calibrated chemical sensors. Soldiers didn't know 
what was real, said Dr. Bernard Rostker, the Pentagon's top 
official for gulf war illnesses during the Clinton 
administration.
 
"They were basically useless," said Rostker of the sensors. 
"There are new sets of alarms, much more sensitive."
 
Rostker, who said he spent four years "trying the damnedest to 
pin (gulf war veterans' illnesses) to something," said the 
changes hold promise.
 
"We're better prepared than we were, and we're much more 
sensitive to the fact, 'Pay me now or pay me later,'" Rostker 
said. "Whether you learn enough, God knows. I hope we don't have 
to prove it."
 
Reach John Simerman at 925-943-8072 or  [jsimerman@cctimes.com] .   

*****************************************************************
 15 US Used More DU Weapons In Afghanistan Than Gulf

Nov 11, 2002
Source: NNI

"U.S. forces must refrain from using depleted uranium weapons 
like the ones they used in Afghanistan in their possible attack 
on Iraq," said the discoverer of Gulf War syndrome, Dr. Asef 
Dracovic, in an interview with Al-Jazeera television. He warned 
against the syndrome and said that if U.S. forces use depleted 
uranium (DU) in the threatened attack on Iraq, as they did in 
Afghanistan, it would have very serious implications.

Dracovic said that U.S. forces used more DU weapons in 
Afghanistan than they used in the Persian Gulf War and the 
Balkans wars, adding that if the same amounts were used in Iraq, 
it would have terrible consequences. He stated that thousands of 
DU bombs were used by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. About 80,000 
U.S., 15,000 Canadian, and a large number of British soldiers are 
suffering from Gulf War syndrome, but unfortunately the media has 
covered up the whole issue under pressure from the U.S. 
administration.

Meanwhile, in recent days there have been numerous reports about 
the birth of many disabled and deformed children in Afghanistan. 
A large number of health specialists in Afghanistan as well as 
international observers, including one of the officials of a 
local hospital, regard the increased number of birth defects in 
Afghanistan to be the direct result of the U.S dropping DU bombs 
on Afghanistan.

The use of DU weapons has not only harmed children but also has 
contaminated plant and animal life in the war-ravaged and 
impoverished country. If U.S. forces use DU weapons in their 
threatened war against Iraq, two important Muslim countries of 
the region will suffer for years.

*****************************************************************
 16 Letter: We Must Keep Eye On (Nebraska) Nuke Dump Issue 

Press &Dakotan - 

11/11/02 

111102 opEd 1 yankton.net In recent years the U.S. government has 
shown interest in installing a nuclear waste dump in northern 
Nebraska. --> Web posted Monday, November 11, 2002 

Kristi Donelan, Wagner, 

In recent years the U.S. government has shown interest in 
installing a nuclear waste dump in northern Nebraska. The whole 
idea of this is ridiculous. It might harm the lovely landscape of 
Nebraska and South Dakota, not to mention effect humans who live 
here. 

The government claims that the fuel rods are safely kept 
underground in cool pools or dry casts, and the fuel rods can be 
retrievable for up to 300 years. Even though the fuel rods would 
be retrievable, they would still be able to leak nuclear waste. 
If the waste would leak, it could possibly seep into the water 
supply. Is the government prepared to fix a leak and know what to 
do when the water supply becomes contaminated with nuclear waste? 

There should not be a nuclear waste dump in Nebraska because 
while they are transporting the waste or installing the waste, 
there could possibly be an accident. If this would happen, 
nuclear waste would spill all over the land. The contaminated 
land would become wrecked for years, and no one would want to 
live there. 

As a South Dakota and Nebraska resident, I think we should become 
informed about the nuclear waste situation. Not only will this 
affect the nation, but it will also affect the residents of South 
Dakota and Nebraska directly. If we don't take a stand, we may 
one day have a nuclear waste dump in our back yards. 

All Contents ©Copyright Yankton Daily Press &Dakotan . Please
*****************************************************************
 17 Vermont Yankee images found on trashed computers 

Brattleboro Reformer
 								 							   						 					
Monday, November 11, 2002 - 12:35:31 AM MST                                             
 			
By KATHRYN CASA Reformer staff 
			
BRATTLEBORO -- A pair of computers discovered in a Dumpster 
behind a Canal Street gas station contained interior photographs 
and information from Vermont Yankee and other nuclear power 
plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has confirmed. 

A spokesman for Vermont Yankee said plant personnel were not 
aware of any missing computers, and the existence any such 
photographs would not breach the power plant's security. 

Dan Waters, night manager at the Gulf gas station on Canal 
Street, said he found the two Gateway 2000 desktop computers last 
week in the Dumpster behind the station. He said when he plugged 
them in the computers were immediately functional. 

One file contained what Waters said appeared to be photographs of 
the Vermont Yankee control room. He said there were pictures of 
someone inserting a

cylindrical-shaped object into some type of hole. Waters said he 
believed the computers belonged to Vermont Yankee because of the 
pictures, and because there was a file on the desktop containing 
Yankee phone numbers. 

Yankee spokesman Rob Williams said Sunday that even if there had 
been pictures of a control room, they could not have been used in 
any way to breach security at the nuclear power plant. 

"The (federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission) told us about this 
on Friday, so we asked the sheriff's department to retrieve them 
for safekeeping, which they did. We're not aware of any computers 
missing, but we have donated many, many computers over the years 
to organizations throughout Windham County," Williams said. 

He said there could have been Gateway 2000 models among the 
donated computers. Williams said Yankee security officials will 
review the information on the computers and report their findings 
to the NRC. 

Waters said when he found the computers last week he contacted 
Vernon Police Chief Randy Wheelock, who in turn contacted the 
NRC. 

"We don't believe there there's any cause for concern as far as 
the security of the plant," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said late 
Sunday. 

Sheehan confirmed that the NRC was informed late last week that 
two computers containing information about Vermont Yankee "and 
apparently some other plants as well" had been found in a 
Dumpster. "The material may have been information that was 
available from publicly available Web sites," Sheehan said. 

"The Windham County Sheriff's Department has launched an 
investigation into the discovery of this equipment," Sheehan 
said. "The NRC, as well as the utility, is cooperating with the 
sheriff's department to help identify what was on the computer 
hard drives." 

Windham County Sheriff Henry Farnum on Sunday confirmed that 
deputies from his department picked up the computers at the 
request of the federal agency. 

"We have an open investigation coded as an assist to the NRC with 
the recovery of two computers, and they have agreed to work with 
us this next week to determine the origin" of the computers, 
Farnum said. "The indication is that the computers may contain 
sensitive information. We have not been able to confirm that at 
this point. We simply collected them." 

Williams said he could only speculate as to how photographs of 
Vermont Yankee might have been found on a computer. 

"We take a lot of digital pictures, that's state of the art," he 
said. "It may be that these (computers) were donated and just 
were not dealt with in the same way from the information 
technology aspect." 

Other sources said interior photographs of Vermont Yankee could 
be easily scanned into any computer, and that such photographs 
don't pose a security risk. Anyone with a photo pass is allowed 
to photograph anything in the plant, according to one source, who 
added that the material is widely available exactly because it 
could in no way contribute to a breach of security. 

Sheehan said the NRC would continue to follow the investigation 
"to make sure this is successfully resolved." 

The discovery of the computers came to light Friday, the same day 
Vermont Yankee took news reporters and photographers on a tour of 
the plant to show off its new, $8 million security upgrade. 
Reporters were not given full access to the upgrades, for 
security reasons, but they were shown new fences, guard towers 
and X-ray scanning equipment. 

The upgrade was implemented after Vermont Yankee scored a low 
"yellow" rating for a mock terrorist attack staged by federal 
regulators just days before Sept. 11, 2001. 

The issue of security at the nation's nuclear reactors has come 
to the fore since the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the 
World Trade Center, reportedly at the hands of the al-Qaida 
terror network. It has since been reported that al-Qaida has 
considered attacking U.S. nuclear facilities. 

Deb Katz of the watchdog Citizens Awareness Network in Shelburne 
Falls, Mass., said the computer discovery is disquieting. 

"I know people toured Vermont Yankee recently looking at how 
secure it was," Katz said of the Friday press briefing at the 
plant, " but it's all of these little glitches that nobody thinks 
of that can lead to serious consequences." 

Katz said she believes the Yankee site remains vulnerable, 
despite the upgrades. "The NRC and the reactor have not looked at 
the issue of sabotage, either internally or externally, in enough 
detail," Katz said. 

Since security arrangements have been upgraded, the NRC has 
amended Yankee's security rating from yellow, the second lowest 
rating, to green. 
 			
©1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and NENI Newspapers
*****************************************************************
 18 2 German Police Hurt in Nuke Protest
 
Las Vegas SUN
 
November 11, 2002 By JUERGEN VOGES ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DANNENBERG, Germany- Anti-nuclear activists staged a parade 
through this north German town near a nuclear waste dump Monday, 
and two police officers were injured in a skirmish with 
demonstrators. 

Police said most of the approximately 1,000 protesters 
demonstrated peacefully against a shipment of 12 containers of 
atomic waste that left the reprocessing plant at La Hague, 
France, Monday night. 

The train, with about 300 police aboard, was expected to reach 
the French-German border Tuesday afternoon. The shipment is the 
largest yet for dumping at Gorleben. 

About 15 Greenpeace activists wearing white jumpsuits protested 
at the Valognes, France, train terminal as the 1,455 ton shipment 
left northern France. 

In Germany, about 100 radicals in the group of protesters clashed 
with police, who responded with truncheons. About 60 people also 
blocked the road between the town of Dannenberg and Gorleben, 
ignoring a ban on all demonstrations in a within 50 yards of the 
last part of the route. 

The nuclear dump at Gorleben is 75 miles southeast of Hamburg and 
has been a focus of Germany's anti-nuclear lobby. 

Over the weekend, farmers and anti-nuclear groups symbolically 
set up at least 12 "villages," with camp fires and bales of hay, 
near the route and several thousand people demonstrated at 
Gorleben 

This week's shipment is the first since last November, when 
demonstrators repeatedly defied some 17,500 police to stage 
sit-down protests along the route through Germany. 

Those protests were smaller than demonstrations that marked the 
previous transport in March 2001, the first in three years. The 
previous German government had suspended shipments after leaks 
were found in some containers. 

Spent fuel from Germany's 19 nuclear power plants is sent to 
France and Britain for reprocessing under contracts that then 
oblige Germany disposed of the waste. 

Last year, the government and power companies signed an agreement 
to phase out nuclear power within about 20 years. Activists hope 
that protesting waste shipments will force a quicker shutdown. 

All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 19 Three Yucca lawsuits to be heard together
 
Las Vegas SUN
 
November 11, 2002 
 
LAS VEGAS SUN

 A federal appeals court last week agreed to hear three major 
Yucca Mountain nuclear repository lawsuits together.

 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on 
Thursday agreed to have the same three-judge panel consider 
Nevada's three suits challenging Department of Energy plans to 
build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest 
of Las Vegas.

 Oral arguments on the cases are scheduled for September 2003 
before the court.

 The three lawsuits will remain separate but will be argued 
during the same week, the court said.

 Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa praised the 
decision, saying it "bodes well for Nevada's success."

 State officials wanted the same panel to hear all three lawsuits 
together rather than spreading them out over a period of months, 
said Joe Egan, a Virginia lawyer who heads Nevada's Yucca 
Mountain legal challenge.

 Egan said the court's schedule could decide the legal merits of 
Yucca Mountain by the end of 2003.

 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in a related matter, is 
completing an investigation in the state's allegations that 
Nevada officials were shut out of Yucca Mountain meetings between 
the Energy Department and NRC staff.

 NRC Chairman Richard Meserve is expected to receive the results 
of the investigation, an NRC spokeswoman said.
 
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
 20 A Clear View On The US War On "Terrorism"

Jihad Unspun - 

US Used More DU Weapons In Afghanistan Than Gulf

Nov 11, 2002 Source: NNI
 
"U.S. forces must refrain from using depleted uranium weapons 
like the ones they used in Afghanistan in their possible attack 
on Iraq," said the discoverer of Gulf War syndrome, Dr. Asef 
Dracovic, in an interview with Al-Jazeera television. He warned 
against the syndrome and said that if U.S. forces use depleted 
uranium (DU) in the threatened attack on Iraq, as they did in 
Afghanistan, it would have very serious implications. 

Dracovic said that U.S. forces used more DU weapons in 
Afghanistan than they used in the Persian Gulf War and the 
Balkans wars, adding that if the same amounts were used in Iraq, 
it would have terrible consequences. He stated that thousands of 
DU bombs were used by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. About 80,000 
U.S., 15,000 Canadian, and a large number of British soldiers are 
suffering from Gulf War syndrome, but unfortunately the media has 
covered up the whole issue under pressure from the U.S. 
administration. 

Meanwhile, in recent days there have been numerous reports about 
the birth of many disabled and deformed children in Afghanistan. 
A large number of health specialists in Afghanistan as well as 
international observers, including one of the officials of a 
local hospital, regard the increased number of birth defects in 
Afghanistan to be the direct result of the U.S dropping DU bombs 
on Afghanistan. 

The use of DU weapons has not only harmed children but also has 
contaminated plant and animal life in the war-ravaged and 
impoverished country. If U.S. forces use DU weapons in their 
threatened war against Iraq, two important Muslim countries of 
the region will suffer for years.
 

*****************************************************************
 21 U.N. Set to Move in Quickly to Seek Iraq Nuclear Arms

The New York Times 

*November 11, 2002*  

*INSPECTIONS*


*By JULIA PRESTON*

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 10 ? United Nations atomic experts have 
finished detailed plans for a "full court press" of fast-moving 
inspections that will quickly uncover any major nuclear weapons 
program Iraq has undertaken in the last four years, according to 
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the nuclear team.

While Mr. ElBaradei said he was confident he would find "all 
large components" of nuclear weapons work in Iraq, he cautioned 
that his inspectors could face difficulties detecting smuggled 
nuclear materials and will need help from other governments. He 
said it could take several months to assess evidence the Bush 
administration has provided to support its claims that Iraq is 
trying to build a nuclear weapon.

"We are going to use every weapon in our diplomatic inspection 
arsenal to make sure that if there was any breach, we can detect 
it and detect it early," said Mr. ElBaradei, the director general 
of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in an interview 
Friday, when the Security Council unanimously approved a 
resolution giving the inspectors enhanced authority.

"We are going to be tough," he said. "We will not tolerate any 
cat-and-mouse."

Mr. ElBaradei will travel to Baghdad on Nov. 18 with Hans Blix, 
the head of the United Nations chemical, biological and 
long-range missile inspections team. The inspectors have been 
barred by Iraq since they withdrew in December 1998, on the eve 
of American and British bombing raids to punish Baghdad's 
failures to cooperate with the inspectors.

Bush administration officials have said they will be watching the 
inspectors' every move, ready to go to the Security Council to 
call for war against Saddam Hussein at the first sign that he is 
cheating or obstructing the inspectors' work. But while the 
United States and Britain, the co-authors of the resolution, see 
the inspections as a trigger for war, other Security Council 
members are hoping they will force Iraq to disarm and lead to 
peace.

Up to now, Mr. ElBaradei, who is based in Vienna, has stayed in 
the background as Mr. Blix talked to the Security Council and 
reporters, even though the two chiefs have equal authority. But 
as the inspections get under way, Mr. ElBaradei becomes a key 
figure for the Bush administration.

In a report in February 1999, the atomic agency said its 
inspections to that point "revealed no indication" that Iraq had 
a nuclear weapon or retained "any practical capability" to make 
fuel. Iraq is only allowed to have very limited amounts of 
radioactive isotopes for medical treatment and agricultural uses.

President Bush has charged that Mr. Hussein reactivated his 
nuclear program, employing many scientists and technicians and 
withholding key information about procurement and foreign 
assistance. Mr. Bush warned that if Iraq acquired fissile 
material, it could build a weapon within a year.

Mr. ElBaradei said he would arrive in Iraq with about 10 atomic 
experts, and a week later start building the team to about 25 
inspectors. They will move quickly to revisit sites they examined 
previously, he said, to see whether old surveillance systems 
remain in place and to set up environmental sampling to test for 
radioactivity.

He said that he would need up to three months to set up a broader 
plan of work based on programs that Iraq declares and suspicions 
the inspectors may have about hidden activity.

He said that he and Mr. Blix expect to have latitude to make 
judgments about Iraq's cooperation, suggesting that their 
standards might be more flexible than the administration's.

The inspectors will not be alarmed by "a minor omission" in 
Iraq's weapons declaration, Mr. ElBaradei said. "We will be 
guided by the definition of material breach, which is really a 
major violation of the very purpose of the process."

Mr. ElBaradei said it is virtually impossible for Iraq to conceal 
an advanced nuclear weapons program, because it requires large 
industrial sites and emits radioactivity. But it will be hard for 
inspectors to discover if Iraq has smuggled in small amounts of 
uranium or plutonium.

"The difficult part would be if Iraq were to import nuclear 
material from abroad, across the border, that would be a real 
challenge to our system," Mr. ElBaradei said. He is appealing for 
intelligence data any country might have about black market 
nuclear trading with Iraq.

The atomic chief predicted that evaluating information provided 
by the Bush administration about Iraq's attempt to buy aluminum 
tubes, which the president cited as the most damning evidence of 
Iraq's nuclear ambitions, would be a complex job. While he is 
expecting more details from Washington, he said he did not yet 
know if the tubes went to Iraq, and he remained unsure if they 
were for nuclear development. "Our assessment is that they could 
have been used for conventional rockets in addition to being used 
for uranium enrichment," he said.

During the Security Council's heated negotiations over the 
resolution, Mr. ElBaradei, an Egyptian, reached out to the Arab 
world to defend the inspections, and conducted a long interview 
with Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language television station. "The 
Arab world must understand that there is a problem in Iraq, and 
it is not because Iraq is an Arab country," he said. "It is 
because Iraq has not fulfilled its obligations with regard to 
disarmament."

The new resolution, he stresses, has language ? albeit deeply 
buried ? that holds out the prospect to Baghdad of an end to 
economic sanctions within a year if Mr. ElBaradei and Mr. Blix 
give their approval. But Mr. ElBaradei expects his word to carry 
weight in the Middle East if he says that Mr. Hussein balked. "I 
think they will probably listen to me, because I will speak to 
them in their own language," he said.


Copyright The New York Times Company
*****************************************************************
 22 Cleanup man to clean out desk at labs

Tri-Valley Herald Online
 				
November 11, 2002 - 2:50:52 AM MST                        
 		   	 	
John McTague was brought on board to reform labs rife with 
mismanagement, scandal

By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

 A former Ford Motor Co. executive drafted to rescue the nation's 
nuclear weapons-design labs from mismanagement and security 
scandals has asked the University of California to find his 
replacement. 

John McTague's departure as UC vice president for lab management 
raised eyebrows and mixed reviews at Lawrence Livermore and Los 
Alamos national laboratories that were the focus of his 
attention. 

U.S. Energy Department officials, UC officials and Rep. Ellen 
Tauscher, D-Alamo, heaped praise on McTague for improving 
management of the labs. Tauscher thanked him for his "service in 
what is undoubtedly a tremendous assignment -- managing 18,000 of 
the world's smartest men and women ... while keeping the work 
environment open and ensuring strong accountability." 

McTague led a UC campaign to reverse its labs' painful record on 
safety, information security and projects such as the National 
Ignition Facility, which missed its budget by more than $1 
billion and its construction dates by years. In mid-October, the 
Energy Department's defense arm -- the National Nuclear Security 
Administration -- gave top marks to Los Alamos and Livermore for 
safety, security, accountability and project management, among 
others. 

"They agreed that we had done everything that was expected," 
McTague said by phone. Anticipating the high grades, McTague told 
UC president Richard Atkinson of his plans to leave. Atkinson 
asked him to keep those plans quiet for a while longer. 

"It's clear that John's leadership and private sector experience 
have led to real changes in the day-to-day management of the 
labs," Atkinson said Friday of his friend, whom he personally 
brought to UC offices in Oakland as a reformer a year and a half 
ago. 

Lab officials who dealt with McTague were less effusive. "He 
didn't personally do anything. He just kept harping on us," said 
one senior executive. "Certainly he was focused on those 
performance measures, (but) that is all he did." 

McTague's notice of resignation, which is effective once the 
university finds a successor, comes six months after he committed 
what is widely seen inside the laboratories as an egregious 
blunder: He advanced a Los Alamos weapons executive over insiders 
for the directorship of Lawrence Livermore. 

It was an audacious, if perhaps naive, effort to morph a sibling 
rivalry spanning three generations into a new cooperation. 
Livermore scientists took to the phones and air waves in protest, 
suggesting Los Alamos candidate Ray Juzaitis was tainted beyond 
consideration by the Wen Ho Lee security scandal, a matter for 
which Juzaitis had dubious direct responsibility. 

He withdrew his candidacy, however, and the university turned to 
a popular Livermore weapons designer, Michael Anastasio, as 
director. 

The incident embarrassed Atkinson and top officials of the Energy 
Department and both labs. To an extent, its effects countered 
McTague's desire to bring the labs together by deepening their 
historic rift. 

McTague suggested Friday that those wounds are healing, however. 

"The cooperation among the labs is at a historic high," McTague 
said. "They still haven't stopped competing as I'm sure you're 
aware." 

Once a successor is chosen, McTague will return to UC Santa 
Barbara and a professorship in materials.

 Contact Ian Hoffman at  [ihoffman@angnewspapers.com] 
		   	 	
©1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
*****************************************************************
 23 Workers shipping waste set DOE records 

The Daily Camera: Boulder County
 		 		
November 10, 2002

ROCKY FLATS Workers at Rocky Flats set Department of Energy 
records last fiscal year for shipping offsite large amounts of 
radioactive waste. 

The former nuclear weapons plant south of Boulder is the 
department's most active site cleanup project. 

In fiscal year 2002, Flats workers shipped to New Mexico 3,778 
cubic yards of waste contaminated with mid-level radioactivity 
and 33,820 cubic yards of low-level waste to the Nevada Test 
Site, more than the previous three years combined. Workers also 
shipped waste to Tennessee, Washington, Utah and Texas. 

Camera Staff Writers Greg Avery and Katy Human contributed to 
this report.   

[http://www.dailycamera.com
*****************************************************************
 24 Inside America's nuclear dustbin
 
Times Online

November 10, 2002                      

By Lucinda Kemeny, the sunday times, in Nevada

Can America show Britain the way forward in dealing with nuclear 
waste and save British Energy from administration? 
  		 		
NINETY MINUTES’ drive from Las Vegas is Yucca Mountain, a ridge 
of rock jutting out of the Nevada desert. It attracts thousands 
of visitors. There is no amusement park at Yucca and it is no 
place of beauty. The excitement stems from what has been going on 
inside the mountain since it was declared a suitable site for 
America’s first nuclear-waste repository. 

Clearance came this year from President George Bush, almost 30 
years after the first holes were drilled in the mountain to see 
if it could provide a good storage site for the country’s 70,000 
tonnes of nuclear waste. Some $4 billion (£2.5 billion) has been 
spent on the project so far. 

Now it is up to the scientists at the site to convince the 
authorities to allow construction to start. It could be a few 
more years before they get the licence they need. 

In the meantime, the spotlight has turned to Britain and why we 
have not come up with a similar solution to the waste problem. A 
decision along the American lines would turn our nuclear industry 
into a profitable business. 

The arguments are clear. At the end of this month, British Energy 
must put forward an acceptable rescue plan because its £650m 
government bail-out is due to end. If it fails, it risks being 
put into administration and, in the worst-case scenario, the 
lights could start to go out across Britain because British 
Energy produces one-fifth of the country’s electricity. 

The company was badly affected by falling electricity prices and 
now loses money on each kilowatt of power it produces, but the 
biggest albatross around its neck is its fuel- reprocessing 
contract with BNFL, the state-owned nuclear services business. 

If it could simply bury the waste in the ground, British Energy 
would save £300m each year. More than that, if the government 
decided to pay for a repository in the same way as in America, 
where every nuclear generator pays a small percentage of its 
profits into a central fund, British Energy would be economically 
viable. 

One senior executive in the nuclear industry says: “In America, 
companies pass their liabilities for spent fuel to the 
government, but over here British Energy has to keep the 
liability even though it pays BNFL for reprocessing.” 

British Energy’s liabilities were £14.1 billion for the latest 
financial year. BNFL suffered a £1.9 billion loss. This was 
because it had always held out hope of a repository in Britain, 
allowing it to stretch out its liabilities into the future. But 
this idea has now been ditched, crystallising the liabilities and 
taking BNFL from a profit to a loss. 

In America the generators have contributed to a $10 billion piggy 
bank that has helped pay for the development of a waste 
repository that will take the liabilities off their hands for 
good. Britain is at least a decade behind. Look below the surface 
and the problem seems even worse. Not only is there no final 
solution for nuclear waste, there is also no policy on waste at 
all.

Every year, thousands of tonnes of spent fuel end up sitting in 
shallow ponds at 33 sites around the country. Can we really do no 
better than this? The problem of what to do with the uranium and 
plutonium that is the by-product of nuclear fuel is nothing new. 
Politicians have been scratching their heads over it for years. 
In 1997, under the last Conservative government, it looked as if 
a solution was in sight. 

Nirex, the private agency set up in 1982 to provide radioactive 
waste disposal services, settled on Sellafield in Cumbria as a 
potential site for a repository. Having got around the concerns 
of local communities, Nirex felt that Sellafield, already a 
nuclear site, would be the perfect place to store waste in the 
long term. 

But after £500m was spent, an application to the government to 
start working on the site in a more detailed way was turned down 
by John Gummer, secretary of state at the time. 

Since then, John Mathieson, international relations manager for 
Nirex, says the organisation has taken new heart. “We have been 
working things through to understand why things went wrong and 
how we could improve next time,” he says. Others claim that 
Nirex’s failure caused far wider ripples. Since then, 
policymaking in this area has been a complete shambles. 

While Britain has stood still, other countries, most notably 
America but also Finland and Sweden, have got their acts together 
and are moving forward on their own solutions. 

Pressure is mounting for an answer. After September 11, it is no 
longer an option to leave plutonium, which can be used for making 
bombs, in surface storage sites and even the House of Lords has 
concluded that burying it is the best way forward. 

But for all this, the government is in no mood to move quickly. A 
consultation started last year on the matter and is not due for 
completion until 2007, and even that is only on a policy decision 
and not on a site for the waste. 

The power of the green lobby also has to be taken into account. 
Greenpeace and others have stood firm against Yucca and argue 
that deep disposal is not a safe option because the waste could 
contaminate the local water system. They argue that nobody can 
predict how radioactivity might leak and that Yucca is especially 
unsafe because Nevada is America’s third most active earthquake 
zone. 

Greenpeace is not alone. Yucca already faces five or six 
lawsuits. A formal objection by the state of Nevada on all manner 
of grounds has been designed to stop development. 

A spokesman says: “This will get settled in the courts, but 
federal law is paramount.” 

In other words, what Bush says, goes. Even so, those who are 
against the project will probably have plenty of time to let 
their views be known because Yucca’s budgets have been cut and 
the date for opening the repository has already slipped. It will 
be 2010 at the earliest before waste goes in the hole. 

At the very least, however, there is a policy. Professor Ian 
Fells, a specialist nuclear adviser and academic, says: “There 
are sites in Scotland and England where the geology is 
appropriate (for storing nuclear waste). It is just that we are 
pathetic about it. The government has to settle on an area.” 

He points to overseas examples where generators have worked 
closely with local communities to make sure that they are 
recompensed for having a nuclear plant or repository in their 
area. 

Yucca has offered $10m to help the local Nye County community 
improve its infrastructure. Cynics would no doubt see this as 
bribery, yet Yucca’s scientists claim that Nye has already swung 
behind the project. The community readily got involved when the 
idea became a reality. 

In Britain, the waste debate is moving at a snail’s pace — far 
too slowly to come to the aid of the nuclear industry. 

Early responses to the government’s consultation have concluded 
that Nirex needs to be beefed up and made completely independent. 
To the industry, however, this is not the core issue. 

Without a policy on waste disposal, there can be no building of 
new nuclear power stations and with Britain’s ageing reactors due 
to start shutting down next year, this is critical, both to 
meeting the country’s future energy needs and hitting our targets 
on green energy. 

For all its bad public relations, nuclear power emits no 
greenhouse gases and in these terms it contributes the biggest 
percentage of the country’s green fuel. 

Meanwhile, if British Energy is to survive as an economically 
viable company, the issue of waste cannot be ignored. Keeping 
billions of pounds in liabilities on its balance sheet cannot be 
a long-term option. 

BNFL will be saved from this when the government spins off its 
liabilities into a separate organisation, the Liabilities 
Management Agency. In the long run, it will also benefit from the 
setting up of a repository because of its skills in transporting 
nuclear waste. 

Reprocessing, where it makes its money from British Energy, would 
come to an end, but the company is more than able to make up this 
loss elsewhere. In any case, Britain may follow the example of 
America, which no longer reprocesses its fuel because it does not 
want to generate any more dangerous plutonium than is necessary. 

YUCCA MOUNTAIN
 
+ Ninety miles northwest of Las Vegas, Yucca is a 6,500ft high 
volcanic ridge about  six miles long
 
+ It is near the Nevada site where more than 800 nuclear bomb 
tests have been conducted
 
+ The mountain is formed from volcanic tuff, a rock considered 
ideal for a repository since it is impermeable to water, which 
could corrode the metal canisters in which waste would be kept
 
+ Yucca is in one of America’s most active earthquake zones; in 
the past 25 years the area has had more than 600 quakes of 2.5 or 
more on the Richter scale 

[http://www.thetimes.co.uk
*****************************************************************
 25 Slowly, courageous young women are taking up careers in Afghanistan            
	
News Network International [N.N.I]
 	 	 	
 KABUL Nov 13 (NNI): As this Muslim nation observes Ramadan, 
women are taking advantage of new religious freedoms. 

Young girls are now permitted to attend school, and this week NBC 
was permitted to film in a local medical academy where a group of 
200 young women comes each day to become midwives. 

There may be no electricity, and just one blood pressure gauge to 
share among them, but there is plenty of determination. There are 
hopeful signs that Afghanistan is emerging from war and Taliban 
oppression, but there are also frightening signs that some 
Afghans want to turn back the clock, reports NBC's Kevin Tibbles. 

This country is in desperate need of skilled medical workers. A 
recent study by UNICEF in conjunction with the U.S. Centers for 
Disease Control revealed that a woman dies every 20 minutes in 
Afghanistan due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth. 
In some remote parts of the country, this mortality rate is 130 
times higher than it is in the United States. Why? Because women 
here have no access to basic medical care. 

Because of the Taliban repression of women, 95 percent are 
illiterate and do not know what to do if their pregnancy goes 
wrong. And when a mother dies, her newborn has only a 25 percent 
chance of reaching his or her first birthday. With basic medical 
care, 90 percent of pregnancy-related deaths could be prevented. 

“We’ve never seen numbers like this before in the world,” said 
UNICEF’s Shairose Mawji as she sat on the Across the room, in a 
dingy unlit corner, 17-year-old Fazonna cares for tiny Fazel, 
born that morning. “Most women simply have their babies alone at 
home,” she says. “I had to come to Kabul as a refugee after the 
Taliban burned our village.” 

For most Afghan women, getting pregnant is one of the most 
dangerous things a woman can do. The women in the midwifery class 
want to change that. “I think it is a very good thing, a good 
job, for a woman to help solve another woman’s problems,” says 
18-year-old Selselah. After enduring five years of not being 
allowed to attend school under the Taliban, she not only wants to 
complete her training as a midwife, she wants to continue her 
studies to become a doctor. 

But even now, these young women must prove their courage on a 
daily basis. They don their burqas for the trip to and from the 
classroom, and are kept separate from male medical students at 
all times. 

They’re also very aware of the enduring fundamentalist sentiments 
of some Afghans. In the past few months, several schools that 
allow girls to attend have been firebombed. Threats to others 
have been nailed to nearby trees. 

“There was a warning posted saying that if people continued to 
send their girls to school, they’d bomb it next time,” said Sally 
Austin of CARE. “It’s frightening, it makes people retreat into 
their shells,” said Mary MacMakin, who has been helping Afghan 
widows make and sell clothing for the group Physiotherapy and 
Rehabilitation Support for Afghanistan. “They don’t want to do 
anything that is going to endanger their families, themselves or 
their property.” 

While the Al-Qaida and Taliban leadership has either gone 
underground or been killed, remnants of the regime aren’t hard to 
find, whether it’s an uncovered woman being harassed and 
threatened, or a bomb being left in a baby carriage on the side 
of a street. 

MacMakin recalls an incident in which a group of armed men 
stopped some of her female workers. “They said to my staff, 
‘Cover your face!’ and one of them is a little feisty and she 
said, ‘You don’t have to. That regime is finished!’ The reply? 
‘Oh yes you do, we are here.’ ” 

Not only must the United States and international troops on the 
ground contend with Taliban holdovers, competing warlords and the 
struggle for power in this vast, mountainous country, they must 
also find the resources to protect those Afghans brave enough to 
take the first steps out of darkness.                                                   

b         
    
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