Subject: NucNews 99/12/02 Briefs Please address replies to articles to the original publisher. Please send NucNews copies? Refuting false information appreciated! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [The full text can be found at http://prop1.org/nucnews/9912nn/991202nn.htm} * Chinese Official Visits Israeli Aircraft Plant * Russia Says Nuclear Ships Y2K Ready * Minor Accident Shuts Ukraine's Chernobyl Reactor * A Contamination Of Confidence Japanese Town's Pride Reputation Suffer Despite Assurances After Nuclear Accident * Cohen Warns Allies About Missiles * USEC to Retain Role in Russian Uranium Deal * Missile defense could zap presidential race * GOP Presidential Hopefuls Outline Foreign Policy * Energy's Security Initiative Lacks Fuel Funding Falls Far Short of Request * Today In History * Pentagon Study Blames Rocket Makers for Launch Failures * Chemical Plants' Readiness for Year 2000 Is Debated * Reports from Seattle from Peter Bergel Save Ward Valley * Clinton receives chilly response in Seattle * Seattle Cracks Down On Rioters as Ministers Wage Trade Battles * In Stormy Seattle Clinton Takes Up Protesters' Cause * THE OVERVIEW In Stormy Seattle Clinton Chides World Trade Body * THE BLAME Clenched Fists in Seattle Lead to Pointed Fingers * THE HOSTS Seattle Is Stung Angry and Embarrassed as Opportunity Turns to Chaos * THE VISITORS Seeing the Fear of Free Trade Made Concrete * THE REACTION Internationally Embarrassment for U.S. * Rebels in Search of Rules * The Fight in Seattle Over Trade * Forum Join a Discussion on the Protests Against the World Trade Organization * Protest's Architect 'Gratified' * Clinton Defends Open Trade * Extensive Security Planning Fails Test Tactics Wrong Officials Concede * Across the Atlantic Free Trade's Victors * Hell No! We Won't WTO! ------------ * Chinese Official Visits Israeli Aircraft Plant New York Times December 2 1999 By WILLIAM A. ORME Jr. http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/120299israel-china.html JERUSALEM -- A top Chinese official concluded a five-day visit to Israel on Tuesday with an unannounced stop at a state company that is outfitting Chinese aircraft with sophisticated surveillance radar.... The military contractor owned by the Israeli government is receiving a reported $230 million to equip the plane with its airborne radar system.... "There was nothing unusual about it said one executive. Li Peng's visit to Israel was not a secret and all the previous Chinese government delegations have visited IAI as well." ... The Pentagon has expressed deep concerns about the technology sales and the Clinton administration said last month that it had raised the issue with the Israelis. In Washington Wednesday a spokesman for Sen. Jesse Helms the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Helms had written to the Israeli ambassador Zalman Shoval asking Israel to reconsider the sale and its relations with China. Chinese officials in Beijing denied the existence of the contract but Israeli officials confirmed that a Chinese-owned Russian-built Ilyushin cargo plane was being equipped with an Israeli-made Falcon early warning radar system similar to the aerial reconnaissance radar in Boeing AWACS planes.... Related Articles China Denies It Bought Israeli Radar (Nov. 17 1999) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/111799china-israel-arms.html U.S. Seeks to Curb Israeli Arms Sales to China (Nov. 11 1999) http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/111199israel-china.html * Russia Says Nuclear Ships Y2K Ready New York Times December 2 1999 Filed at 9:52 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Y2K-Russia-Navy.html MOSCOW (AP) -- The year 2000 computer glitch presents no danger to the Russian navy's nuclear-powered fleet contrary to a report released earlier this year by a prominent Norwegian environmental group a Russian official said Thursday.... The Northern Fleet is based on the Kola Peninsula of northwestern Russia and operates 40 nuclear-powered submarines and three nuclear surface ships according to Bellona which specializes in studying the region. * Minor Accident Shuts Ukraine's Chernobyl Reactor New York Times December 2 1999 Filed at 5:35 a.m. ET By Reuters http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-energy-.html KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's troubled Chernobyl nuclear power plant has shut down its only remaining reactor because of a cooling system leak just a few days after restarting it from an earlier shutdown atomic authorities said on Thursday. * A Contamination Of Confidence Japanese Town's Pride Reputation Suffer Despite Assurances After Nuclear Accident Washington Post Thursday December 2 1999; Page A29 By Kathryn Tolbert http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/02/248l-120299-idx.html TOKYO-Doctors have tried everything they could think of to keep Hisashi Ouchi alive during these past two months. But they are not hopeful he will make it. * Cohen Warns Allies About Missiles New York Times December 2 1999 Filed at 2:46 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Europe-Defense.html BRUSSELS Belgium (AP) -- U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen armed with the latest U.S. intelligence warned the NATO allies Thursday about the increasing missile threat from rogue states and outlined Washington's plans for a defense system to combat it. * USEC to Retain Role in Russian Uranium Deal Washington Post Thursday December 2 1999; Page E03 By Martha M. Hamilton http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/02/195l-120299-idx.html Bowing to pressure from the Clinton administration and Congress the uranium-processing firm USEC Inc. yesterday dropped its threat to resign as the federal government's executive agent in a nuclear nonproliferation deal with Russia. * Missile defense could zap presidential race USA Today 2/01/99- Updated 02:40 PM ET http://www.usatoday.com/news/e98/omicinski/007.htm WASHINGTON - This year's successful test of a Star Wars-generation space-shooter that zaps incoming missiles with pinpoint accuracy at speeds up to 15 000 mph is another remarkable feat of American technology. Called an exoatmospheric vehicle - EAV - the weapon makes construction of a national missile defense not only possible but likely. Not surprisingly the space-shooter's accuracy rattled the Chinese and Russians. Sha Zakung Beijing's chief of arms control said a U.S. national missile defense will ''tip the global balance'' and ''trigger a new arms race.'' Col. Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev Russia's strategic missile commander said a national missile defense system - NMD - could upset the ''balanced system'' of arms control agreements. * GOP Presidential Hopefuls Outline Foreign Policy Washington Post Thursday December 2 1999; Page A18 By Edward Walsh http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/02/244l-120299-idx.html Arizona Sen. John McCain outlined his foreign policy views yesterday promising to preserve American preeminence in world affairs far into the future as he and the five other contenders for the Republican presidential nomination made separate appearances before an organization of Jewish Republicans. Accusing the Clinton administration of conducting a foreign policy marked by "strategic incoherence and self-doubt McCain said the next president must craft a foreign policy that recognizes that the threats posed by the post-Cold War era are more immediate and more likely to be realized than a massive intercontinental ballistic missile attack once was." Ethnic and religious hatreds, violent expressions of nationalism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them, and international terrorism now constitute the clear and present danger, he added. Specifically McCain promised a more "realistic" approach to Russia including opposition to Russian military intervention in Chechnya to "engage" China but oppose Chinese attempts to undermine U.S. interests and values and to implement a concerted policy of "rogue state rollback" aimed at regimes such as Saddam Hussein's in Iraq. Speaking to a largely Jewish audience the six candidates--including Utah Sen. Orrin G. Hatch publisher Steve Forbes activist Gary Bauer and radio talk show host Alan Keyes--all pledged to continue strong U.S. support for Israel and not to pressure Israel into accepting a flawed peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority. Bush the last candidate to speak said a lasting peace in the Middle East will not be achieved "if our government tries to get Israel to conform to our vision of national security." ... * Energy's Security Initiative Lacks Fuel Funding Falls Far Short of Request Washington Post Thursday December 2 1999; Page A37 By Roberto Suro http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/02/237l-120299-idx.html Gen. Eugene E. Habiger left chief of security and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson testified recently on Capitol Hill of the need for increased funding to protect the laboratories and safeguard computers from encryption. Plans to protect the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories from foreign espionage have fallen behind schedule because Congress failed to appropriate enough money for security measures the Energy Department's new "security czar" said yesterday.... * Today In History New York Times December 1 1999 Filed at 7:01 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-History.html In 1942 a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago. * Pentagon Study Blames Rocket Makers for Launch Failures Washington Post Thursday December 2 1999; Page A13 Associated Press http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/02/255l-120299-idx.html A recent string of multibillion-dollar U.S. space launch failures can be traced to flawed workmanship and engineering by the contractors who built the Titan IV and Delta III rockets a Pentagon study concludes. * Chemical Plants' Readiness for Year 2000 Is Debated New York Times December 2 1999 By STEVE STRUNSKY http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/02/news/national/regional/nj-chemical-y2k.html Workplace safety advocates in New Jersey say state regulators and the chemical industry are heading blindly into the new millennium relying on voluntary efforts by companies to avert accidents connected to Year 2000 computer problems. Related Sites N.J. Dept. of Environmental Protection's Y2K Alert Page http://www.state.nj.us/dep/special/y2k Federal Environmental Protection Agency's Y2K Chemical Alert http://www.epa.gov/ceppo/pubs/y2k http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/02/news/national/regional/nj-chemical-y2k.html# offsite