World pension problems growing
By Dar Haddix
UPI Business Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Japan's pension problems of the last 10 years are a good indicator of what other aging countries will be facing in the near future. However, the effect in the United States will probably be less severe as it is not aging as rapidly as some other developed countries.
"Read past news stories about Japan over the past decade and you will get a glimpse of what many other countries will be facing in the coming decade," World Economic Forum contributor Sylvester Schieber told United Press International.
Schieber, who recently returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is director of research at consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide, and co-author of the International Pension Readiness Report, created in partnership between Watson Wyatt and the World Economic Forum.
Even with the best solutions, he said, in some cases workers will end up shouldering a bigger burden of the taxes, or retirees will have to endure much smaller pensions.
"In some countries the demographic outlook is so grim that is the case," Schieber said.
"The Japanese government has just tabled a proposal to reduce the replacement rate in its pension system from about 58 percent of final wages to 50 percent over the next 15 years or so, and to raise the payroll tax at the same time from about 15 percent of pay to 28 percent. Once again, Japan is an example of what many societies face. The United States should not (face such a problem) because of our very favorable demographics, unless our health care system blows up on us."
Though unpopular, pension reform is necessary in countries with below-replacement-level birth rates, the report said.
In some developed countries, like Japan, Spain and Germany, as well as countries like China, some Eastern European countries and former members of the Soviet Union, low birth rates mean that the elderly and retired population could grow to be as large or larger than the working population, increasing retirement system costs and possibly pitting workers against retirees, according to the report.
In fact, Japan's old age dependency ratio is expected to rise almost 90 percent between 2000 and 2030, the report said.
Another problem is how workers who receive public pensions view pension reform. Unlike the United States, where private pensions are more prevalent, in countries like Germany and Italy workers primarily receive public pensions, similar to U.S. Social Security.
Though pension reforms are necessary to cut costs -- in Italy, pensions account for about 14 percent of gross domestic product -- the government's efforts to push ahead with reforms have been met with resistance. Also, large public pensions discourage workers from saving more money themselves, the report said.
The problem is that people in these countries are used to thinking that governments, not people, finance pension programs, Schieber said.
"The fact of the matter is that people finance these programs through taxing mechanisms. Until policymakers start telling people the truth about the cost of these programs and who has to pay for it, there will be a reluctance to adopt adequate reforms," he said.
There are two pension systems -- pay-as-you-go (referred to as pay-go) and funded. The pay-go pension system is based on a percentage of a worker's earnings, while funded pensions builds up a fund sufficient to pay future benefits.
Birth rate is one consideration when constructing a national pension system. Another is productivity. A lower birth rate and lower productivity favors funded plans, while a higher birth rate and higher productivity favors pay-go plans. While the U.S. birth rate is lower than it was years ago, it has stayed higher than many developed countries due to immigration and relatively high fertility rates. Other factors are also important. For instance, the overall trend worldwide is toward lower retirement ages even as life expectancy increases, which can increase the burden on workers.
The U.S. Social Security system was set up as and still is a pay-go system, but as amendments in 1983 increased taxes and caused a fund buildup. It stands at about $1.3 trillion so far, which will probably rise to between $3 trillion and $5 trillion, but will be liquidated when baby boomers start retiring in 10-15 years. In other words, it has the appearance of being funded, but the surplus is only temporary. The current fund equals three years of payments, while a real funded system would contain 10-15 years of payments. Schieber and co-author John Shoven go into this in their book, "The Real Deal: The History and Future of Social Security."
Long-term, a mixed "pay-go" and funded pension system would be best for the United States, Schieber said.
"If we were simply talking about a retirement savings program, a funded system would be the most economically efficient. Since we have redistribution built into our system to protect low-wage workers, a mixed system is probably optimal." Redistribution results in larger benefits for the lower-paid than they could save for themselves. This enhancement must be paid by higher-paid workers.
Schieber also disagreed with claims by some experts that the low-skilled job base is expanding, and therefore no extraordinary measures to redistribute pensions would be necessary.
"If we start to grow low-skill jobs relative to high-skill activities, it will reverse the trend of more than 200 years. I do not believe we are going to do this unless our education system collapses.
"To an extent our income tax system subsidizes lower earners relative to higher ones. Beyond that, I do not believe we will get into a major income redistribution program ... our welfare reforms adopted during the Clinton administration go in just the opposite direction," he said.
One seeming paradox presented by the report is that raising the retirement age is one way countries are considering to boost labor forces depleted by retirees, along with enticing more young adults and women into the workforce -- but yet, recently many companies have laid off older workers or encouraged them to retire early to cut costs. Schieber said these phenomenon should not be confused, as one is related to individual companies' circumstances, while raising the retirement age is a macroeconomic issue.
Even with favorable long-term demographics, the effect of the large baby-boomer population beginning to retire in the next decade will bring stresses similar to those being felt in Japan and the other countries. In order to avoid a possible Japan replay in the United States, the changes recommended by the report will need to be made soon.
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Analysis: Environmental questions for LNG
By Hil Anderson
UPI Chief Energy Correspondent
LA JOLLA, Calif., Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The emergence of liquefied natural gas as a factor in the U.S. energy supply is a fairly new phenomenon as are the concerns raised by the environmental community.
Activists for the environment have begun to point out that there is no free lunch when it comes to the expanded use of LNG, and that even this clean-burning fuel can result in harm both in the United States and abroad.
"It is not enough to just say that LNG is a clean-burning fuel," said Atossa Soltani, a director of Amazon Watch who seemed somewhat out of place in her colorful feathered earrings among the button-down lawyers, government officials and energy executives attending the Institute of the Americas LNG conference.
"It can result in huge amounts of devastation to pristine areas as well as to human rights and cultures," she added, looking at the flipside of LNG's promise as supplement to the dwindling U.S. supply of natural gas.
Gas has long been popular with anyone concerned about reducing emissions in the air, primarily from power plants that have in the past burned coal and fuel oil. It is the task of drilling for gas in areas like the Amazon Basin or other ancient wildernesses that can muddy that view.
The greens have long been critics of the oil industry's involvement in the Amazon and other such remote regions due both to the heavy-industry nature of petroleum extraction and the often-lax environmental laws in other nations, which can result in the kinds of disruptions that has Soltani and other like-minded activists concerned.
Most energy companies stress their commitment to environmental protection, and many have taken steps to clean up their jungle operations. But Soltani told United Press International that she expected to see an awareness grow on the part of the public to the potential damage from increased gas production in the Amazon and similar wild locales.
She also cautioned that the rush to build LNG receiving terminals in the United States and Mexico could derail careful environmental and safety planning.
"Most people know that one or two plants will be built," she said in speaking about proposals to build LNG terminals in Mexico's Baja California. "But there will be a dozen proposals for the region. It's a race."
Bill Powers, a consulting environmental engineer in San Diego, concurred that a more cautious approach to the planning of LNG terminals in North America, particularly by local officials in the communities selected as sites.
"A lot of times, due diligence amounts to the developer coming in and telling you how wonderful their project is," said Powers, who was among the speakers at the LNG seminar at the University of California, San Diego campus.
As an engineer, Powers was more in tune with the safety aspects of LNG and is convinced that terminals in the United States should be located on offshore platforms rather than on lots in already-crowded urban seaports where scores of residents and workers would be effected by a worst-case accident or even an deliberate attack by terrorists.
"The predominant concern is one of safety and risk," he told UPI. "The concentration of these (planned) facilities is in populated areas."
Opposition has already cropped up in Long Beach to a proposed $400 million LNG terminal in Long Beach as well as projects in Maine and Mobile Bay in Alabama.
There has been one major fire associated with LNG in the United States. It occurred during World War II when an LNG tank in Cleveland ruptured due to metallurgical problems. The resulting fire cost 128 lives and left hundreds of people injured.
Present-day proponents of LNG say that engineering advances have largely eliminated the risk of a massive explosion, and they downplay chance of a terrorist attack by pointing out that LNG terminals are relatively small in size and are usually located in the vicinity of refineries and chemical plants that would offer a far more tempting target.
"Cleveland at least gave us an idea of what could happen if everything went to hell in a hand basket," Powers said. "This is what could happen."
All of those concerns, he said, could be avoided if more companies opted to build their LNG terminals on offshore platforms well away from people. At the very least, energy companies should be more upfront with the communities they plan to set up shop in rather than "rolling out their project and telling us to embrace it."
"LNG has been very confusing," Powers offered. "It's very easy to sell it to the public as a clean fuel. But when you get to matters of putting in LNG infrastructure, then these are big questions."

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Institute of the Americas LNG conference
LA JOLLA, Calif., Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The Institute of the Americas had a two-day conference at the University of California, San Diego this week on issues surrounding the anticipated boom in liquefied natural gas consumption in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
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Algeria blast shakes LNG boosters
The Jan. 19 explosion at an liquefied natural gas plant in Algeria was a coffee-break topic on everyone's mind as it highlighted safety issues that could throw a wet blanket on plans to build new LNG terminals in several U.S. and Mexican seaports.
The blast at the Sonatrach processing facility in Skikda killed 27 workers, injured several others and wrecked three of the plant's production trains to the tune of $800 million.
Attendees at the conference admitted the explosion could give LNG a black eye, but they pointed out that the explosion occurred in a boiler and did not involve any LNG.
The California Energy Commission went so far as to issue a report on the incident pointing to photographic evidence as proof that LNG was not involved.
"If LNG had been the fire's fuel, the fire would have been taller and less orange," it concluded. "Furthermore, the 'explosion' was a mechanical failure involving the steam system, not a chemical explosion."
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Homeland security may open door to LNG permits
The U.S. war on terrorism may actually have the side effect of easing the permit process for liquefied natural gas terminal projects in the United States.
A report by Pace Global Energy Services said the 2002 Maritime Transportation Security Act established the Coast Guard as the single point of contact for federal permits for offshore LNG terminals.
Offshore platforms where LNG tankers can discharge their frigid cargoes are seen as a handy means of handling LNG in both U.S. and Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico because it allows tankers to avoid crowded harbors and offload well away from population centers.
Another regulatory change cited by Pace was the FERC's 2002 decision not to require terminal operators to allow open access to their facilities, and to allow the negotiation of market-based rates rather than the lower cost-of-service rates.
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Mexico, Canada also looking to LNG
The turn toward greater use of liquefied natural gas is not strictly an American phenomenon.
Mexico is also planning to add LNG to its domestic energy mix as well as linking up to the U.S. market.
Mexico's undersecretary for hydrocarbons, Francisco Barnes told United Press International that plans to build 1-3 LNG terminals in Baja were being formulated with both Mexican and U.S. customers in mind. The possibilities include both cross-border gas shipments and the fueling of power plants in Mexico that would sell electricity into California.
"There is enough of a market in both Mexico and the Southwestern United States to support two (projects)," he said.
Barnes predicted that Canada would also become a regular LNG importer because of projections that western Canadian gas fields won't be able to expand production enough to meet growing gas demand in the United States.
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Fluor touts new technology to supply gas-powered vehicle fuel
Fluor Enterprises, a California-based engineering firm, is pitching a new liquefied natural gas processing technique it says will result in a significant increase in the supply of natural gas suitable for use in LNG and compressed natural gas vehicles.
The technology is referred to as the "integrated LNG regasification process," and is designed to reduce the energy consumption of current regasification techniques, and produce more vehicle-spec fuel at a lower cost.
Fluor said most LNG doesn't meet vehicle-fuel requirements for methane and ethane content.
The new process eliminates that problem, which could pay off handsomely for an LNG supplier in a location such as California, where demand for LNG fuel for cars and trucks is expected to grow from 50,000 gallons per day currently to 350,000 gallons per day in 2010.
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LNG's growth won't be that rapid
The growth of liquefied natural gas imports to North America is poised to take off, but at least one consulting firm was cautioning that the benefits wouldn't be seen for several years.
Scotland's Wood Mackenzie is predicting that the United States will probably see gas supplies increase and prices fall this year and next, but one of the company's executives Friday called it the "calm before the storm."
"After 2005, we don't see the ability to keep up with demand," Ron Kapavik, senior vice president of Wood Mackenzie's Houston office, told UPI.
Kapavick said his company had concluded that while the natural gas supply situation in the United States had improved in recent months, production in the deeper and more challenging waters of the Gulf of Mexico could be expected to tail off in the near future as prices on the well-supplied gas market decline.
Kapvick said Wood Mackenzie was expecting natural gas to dip to around $4.25 MMBtu this year and climb to around $4.50 next year as deep-water Gulf of Mexico production declines.
Given the ballpark 3-year time frame to build a receiving terminal, the United States won't be seeing much help from LNG imports until nearly the end of the decade.
Most experts agree that the heavy degree of investment needed to establish an LNG operation in the United States is leaving the field to the major companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco.
Wood Mackenzie and other analysts are predicting that once LNG becomes a permanent component to the U.S. energy mix toward the end of the decade, it could pressure natural gas prices at the benchmark Henry Hub into the $3-$4 per MMBtu range -- that's right about the $3.50 MMBtu threshold many in the industry peg as needed to make LNG profitable in the United States.
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Analysis: Medicare costs hard to predict
By Ellen Beck
United Press International
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The Bush administration's cost estimate for the new Medicare drug law is almost $140 billion more than the Congressional Budget Office's projection and one reason may be an optimistic expectation of how many beneficiaries will join a new managed care option in the senior health insurance program.
The White House released the OMB estimate Thursday, the first time it actually pegged a number to the new, 10-year reform that brings prescription drugs to Medicare and adds new managed care options.
The Bush administration, in fact, carefully avoided the subject until now. Instead, it allowed the Congressional Budget Office's non-partisan evaluation that the bill would cost $395 billion to carry the legislation through Congress.
Thought the actual paperwork has not yet been released, analysts, lawmakers and administration sources have blamed the increase on a variety of possibilities -- everything from the potential cost of drug coverage to rising numbers of Medicare beneficiaries as the baby boomers retire.
Throughout the Medicare debate, from June through December last year, when President Bush signed the law, there has been a continual difference of opinion between the administration -- via the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- and CBO over the potential success of adding preferred provider organizations to the managed care mix that now mainly includes HMOs.
CMS optimistically predicted 30 percent or more of the nation's 41 million Medicare beneficiaries likely would accept the new PPO option.
The CBO, however, looking at the marginal success of the Medicare+Choice HMO program -- which at its best garnered 13 percent of the senior population -- said the number more likely would top out at around 15 percent. It pegged spending on Medicare Advantage at only $14.2 billion over the 10-year span.
Hence, said Joseph Antos, Wilson Taylor Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, the cost of the entire Medicare Advantage program -- under which the managed care options function -- would be higher under the White House forecast.
Even with that explanation, both numbers still are "a guess" and that "discrepancies are the name of the game with budgets," Antos, a former assistant director for health and human resources at CBO, told United Press International.
Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute in Washington, a non-profit free-market health policy research organization, said in briefing paper issued Friday there often are disagreements between the CBO and OMB.
"The difference is in the assumptions the actuaries use in their computer modeling," Turner wrote, and added it is almost impossible to predict what the 41 million Medicare seniors will do.
Antos said when Bush releases his fiscal 2005 budget on Monday, it will be interesting to see how the numbers look for the new Health Savings Accounts, originally forecast at $7 billion via the tax breaks they offer.
People who do not have group health insurance can open a HSA to save money tax free for medical expenses. The HSA must be accompanied by the purchase of a private, high-deductible -- and lower cost -- health insurance plan. The idea is the money in the account can be used to pay for medical services not included in the less-generous coverage.
Another tax-free savings plan originally included in the House Medicare bill was called Health Savings Security Accounts, which could be set up by anyone either uninsured or covered by a health plan with an annual deductible of at least $500, or $1,000 for family coverage. Antos said Democrats and Republicans alike were concerned about the $160 billion price projected for the HSSAs so the idea was dropped.
Antos said he would not be surprised if projections for the number of HSAs rise -- increasing the cost of that program as well. Though HSAs did not receive a lot of attention prior to the new law's passage, the administration actively has been promoting them since the first of the year.
The $140 billion discrepancy in cost projections probably is more of a political football for Republicans and Democrats who are unhappy with the Medicare law. Conservative Republicans and some Democrats who argued the $395 billion price tag was too low now can enjoy a big "I told you so."
The Bush administration, in fact, stands to suffer potentially significant fall-out from the Republican Party's conservative wing, which really did not want the Medicare drug law in the first place. When faced with the inevitable, they tried to impose provisions that would force the government to cap spending should Medicare expenditures reach a certain level.
Some Democrats also have used the new budget estimate to renew calls to change the law. They want to allow the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate the lowest prices with pharmaceutical companies for Medicare drugs to lower costs for the government.
A letter sent this week from the CBO's Douglas Holtz-Eakin to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., indicated such a provision would not make much of a difference.
At Frist's request, CBO looked at the effect of removing the so-called "non-interference" clause and concluded it would have a "negligible effect on federal spending."
Holtz-Eakin wrote that CBO estimates the private health plans participating in the Medicare Advantage and Part D program will obtain substantial savings, so the HHS secretary "would not be able to negotiate prices that further reduce federal spending to a significant degree." He said because the private plans will be at a substantial financial risk in offering the drug coverage, they will have strong incentives to negotiate the lowest prices.
Scott McClellan, White House press secretary, was grilled by reporters Friday but did not answer directly questions about why Bush did not know last fall, before he signed the Medicare bill into law, about the government's projections were for the bill.
"You have to keep in mind that these are estimates of something that is very difficult to estimate, I guess is the best way to put it," McClellan said. "But there are hundreds of assumptions that you make when you make those estimates. And, obviously, changes in one or two of those assumptions can significantly impact those estimates."
He said putting the increase in perspective it would amount to only about 2 percent of the estimated cost of Medicare and Medicaid over the 10-year period.
Ellen Beck is Healthcare Correspondent for UPI Science News. E-mail ebeck@upi.com

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>> MILITARY POST...

Jamming devices help stave off roadside explosives
By John J. Lumpkin
Associated Press
Soldiers riding in convoys in Iraq are relying on electronic "jammers" to help protect against the roadside bombs insurgents have used to deadly effect.
The anti-bomb technology isn't perfect, however. In some cases it only delays a bomb from detonating, so it can still explode and kill bystanders.
It's unclear how widely the jammers -- the same technology that saved Pakistan's leader from a recent assassination attempt -- are being used in Iraq.
Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, acknowledged their use in testimony this week before the House Armed Services Committee, but he declined to discuss the bomb defenses in detail. The military does not want to provide useful information to Iraqi insurgents, officials say.
Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., suggested few are being used.
"The Iraqis have figured out if they hit that detonator enough times, they're going to kill a vehicle that does not have a jammer," Taylor told Schoomaker. "The percentage of vehicles that have some form of electronic jammer -- it is minuscule, and I know it, you know it, and the Iraq insurgents know it."
But Schoomaker said protection doesn't depend on universal use.
"Every vehicle doesn't have to be equipped," he said. "You have to have groups of vehicles that have that kind of capability, under an umbrella."
The jammers work by preventing a remotely transmitted signal -- say, rigged from a cell phone -- from detonating an explosive when the bomber presses the button. Depending on the distance, power and design of the jammer, some might prevent the bomb from going off. Others might instead set it off before or after the convoy passes -- potentially wreaking havoc on bystanders.
Roadside bombs have been primary killers of U.S. troops in Iraq. Many go off under passing convoys, killing or injuring the occupants of one of the vehicles.
But in some cases, they have gone off only after a convoy has passed.
That can be a sign that a jammer on one of the vehicles did its job, said James Atkinson, head of the Granite Island Group, a Gloucester, Mass.-based security and counterespionage firm.
Anti-bomb jammers have been in use since the early 1980s, Atkinson said.
Military aircraft have used them for decades, and versions of anti-jamming technology are advertised on the Internet. It's unclear if those versions are effective, however.
Depending on their sophistication, jammers can cost from hundreds to millions of dollars. Most can be powered by a car engine.
Some work by transmitting on frequencies that bombers are known to use. Guerrillas frequently rig remote-controlled detonators out of garage door openers, car alarm remotes or cellular phones, Atkinson said.
Others, called barrage jammers, put out signals on a wide range of frequencies, he said. These will knock cellular phones and CB radios off the air in a given area.
Both kinds can cause a premature or late detonation of a bomb, or prevent it from going off entirely.
"When you see a car bomb that goes off several blocks away from its intended target, it's usually a dead giveaway it was jammed," Atkinson said.
Jamming devices carried in the motorcade of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf delayed the detonation of a huge bomb that exploded moments after his limousine passed over a bridge near the capital Dec. 14, Pakistani intelligence has said.
Since then, Pakistan has imported more jamming devices for security of VIPs, a senior government official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity Thursday. He refused to give further details, including where the devices were imported from, citing security reasons.
In Israel, a special unit in the Ministry of Defense developed jamming technology in the early 1990s and used it extensively in southern Lebanon in the mid- to late 1990s in an effort to neutralize roadside charges placed by Hezbollah.
It is unclear what defenses exist against other kinds of bombs, such as those that rely on timers or are hard-wired to a switch. Pakistani officials claimed their jamming devices also interrupted a timer.
In Iraq, employing the jammers is one of a number of steps the military is taking to protect vehicles and soldiers. Others include deploying a more heavily armored Humvee and giving soldiers improved body armor.
"We've taken some major moves there that are paying off, in my view." Schoomaker said.
In Baghdad, a military official said the Iraqi bombs have varied widely in sophistication.
"Our soldiers have become ... very adept at noticing, observing," said Brig. Gen. Vincent Boles, commander of the 3rd Corps Support Command. "We're discovering more than are exploding."



Guidelines issued for homemade vehicle armor
By David A. Lieb
Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Responding to soldiers' fears of roadside bombs and sniper bullets in Iraq, the Pentagon has issued new guidelines on how military trucks and Humvees can be customized with homemade armor.
The guidelines come after several deploying Army Reserve or National Guard units took it upon themselves to get extra armor for their vehicles, only to learn that they would have to go through official channels and testing before they could use it.
While not encouraging Army units to buy their own armor, the military is acknowledging it's an option, Maj. Gary Tallman, a Pentagon spokesman for Army weapons and technology issues, said Thursday.
An Army field manual published in 1997 contains basic guidance for "vehicle hardening," describing how to use sand bags for protection and explaining some of the mechanical problems that can result from being weighed down by extra armor.
New guidance was e-mailed during the past week to Army commanders, detailing what types of materials units should buy, where they can get the supplies and how they can get their specific armor designs tested for use, Tallman said.
The Army's updated procedures were prompted partly by the Jefferson City-based 428th Transportation Company, which in December turned to a local steel fabricator to make steel plating for its five-ton trucks and Humvees.
Like many transportation companies, the unit's vehicles have thin metal floorboards and, in some cases, canvas doors that aren't designed for combat.
Tallman said at least two units already in Iraq also have made their own armor for vehicles.
The Army is trying to produce more than 4,000 heavily armored Humvees for duty in Iraq, but that may take until 2005. The Army also has ordered 8,400 add-on kits that will provide armor protection to ordinary Humvees and can be installed in the field. Officials expect to have all the kits delivered before year's end.



Fatal Afghan blast under investigation
By Amir Shah
Associated Press
GHAZNI, Afghanistan -- The U.S. military Friday was investigating whether an explosion at a weapons cache that killed seven soldiers and wounded three was an accident or an attack.
Thursday's blast -- one of the deadliest for U.S. forces since they deployed here two years ago -- also left another soldier missing and wounded an Afghan interpreter.
Afghan officials called it an accident, but Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman at U.S. military headquarters in Kabul, said its investigators were still looking into the explosion.
The blast occurred as the soldiers worked around the cache of rifle ammunition and mortar rounds in the village of Dehe Hendu, about 90 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul, in Ghazni province.
Hilferty said nothing indicated "active enemy activity" at the site of the explosion, but said investigators were exploring the possibility that "it could have been a booby-trap."
He said it was unclear whether the soldiers were handling the weapons, which he said included rifle ammunition and mortar rounds. He gave no details of where the weapons were concealed.
Ghazni province Gov. Haji Asadullah Khan said the blast was set off by mistake as the soldiers were trying to defuse arms at an old weapons depot found in an open area.
"I'm sure it wasn't a plot by the Taliban," Khan said. "We know the area and the people are good."
The deaths come at the end of a bloody month that has underlined the danger and instability still plaguing Afghanistan two years after a U.S.-led invasion ousted the hard-line Islamic Taliban regime for harboring Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida network.
Coalition soldiers regularly uncover and destroy caches of weapons, much of it dating back to the U.S.-backed mujahedeen resistance against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Residents often lead military units to the caches -- a sign, the military says, that it is winning the confidence of Afghans tired after almost a quarter-century of strife.
The wounded soldiers were evacuated to a hospital at Bagram Air Base, the main camp of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. Hilferty said the three soldiers and the interpreter were released after treatment.
Names of the victims were not released.
This month alone, about 80 people have died in violence in Afghanistan, including civilians, militants, police officers, international peacekeepers and American soldiers.
Only 16 U.S. soldiers died in the initial combat in Afghanistan in 2001, but the death toll earlier this month from all anti-terrorist missions worldwide under Operation Enduring Freedom reached 100 -- of those about two-thirds in Afghanistan, half in combat and the rest in accidents.
The United States provides 9,000 of the 11,000-member anti-terror coalition troops stationed in Afghanistan. Officials say U.S. forces are preparing a spring offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts amid concern that operations in Afghanistan haven't been as effective in breaking up terrorist networks as they had hoped.
Hilferty said Thursday that the U.S. military is "sure" it will catch bin Laden -- chief suspect in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that sparked the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan -- this year, perhaps within months.
Separately, investigators also are sifting through evidence from suicide bombings that killed British and Canadian soldiers in Kabul earlier this week. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for both blasts, alleging they are the start of a bombing campaign across the country.
British troops held a memorial Thursday for Pvt. Jonathan Kitulagoda, 23, of Plymouth in southwest England, killed the day before by a suicide bomber.
Kitulagoda was killed when a suicide bomber detonated a taxi next to an unarmored jeep. Four other British soldiers were wounded. That attack came a day after a Canadian soldier was killed in a similar suicide attack.
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

>> "RECONSTRUCTING IRAQ" WATCH...

...UPDATES ANYONE?
Iraqi Governing Council Member Says Lebanon Will Release Money Confiscated From a Plane
The Associated Press
Published: Jan 31, 2004
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanon has agreed to return to Iraq $15.6 million that it confiscated from a plane at Beirut's airport in early January, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council said Saturday.
Mouwafak al-Rubaie spoke to reporters about the cash after talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Airport officials seized the money - 19.5 billion Iraqi dinars - after it was found on a private plane that flew in from Baghdad on Jan. 14.
One of the Lebanese businessman on the plane, Mohammed Assem Abu Darwish, who was arrested and then released, was quoted as telling police that the money was to pay mainly for armored cars to protect Iraqi officials.
"We discussed many issues, including the issue of money in dinars held in Beirut," al-Rubaie said of his Hariri meeting. "This issue is in its final phase. God willing, this money will be released and returned to Iraq."
Al-Rubaie said Lebanon had also promised to return the funds that Iraq deposited in Lebanese banks during the regime of ousted President Saddam Hussein. But he did not give a date for when this would happen.
Lebanese authorities have said the money will be returned when Iraq has a sovereign government. Lebanon has not given a figure for the money, but the U.S. Treasury has said it amounts to $495 million.
Also Saturday, Al-Rubaie met Lebanon's top Shiite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
He said Fadlallah wanted to see a quick end to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, and that he explained to the sheik the process by which the occupying powers are scheduled to hand over authority to an Iraqi government on June 30.
AP-ES-01-31-04 2305EST

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>> MONEY FLOW WATCH...


Iraq allows in foreign banks
February 2, 2004 - 8:05AM
Iraq announced it has awarded Britain's HSBC and Standard Chartered and the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) the first licences given to foreign banks for 40 years.
The announcement came in a press release from the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) which also said it had decided to liberalise interests rates from March 1.
HSBC, NBK and Standard Chartered Bank were selected "to proceed to the final stage of the foreign bank licensing process" and should begin operations before the end of the year, it said.
They were selected from 15 applicants representing "strong international banks and prestigious regional banks from the Arab world and Gulf region" that responded to a CBI request for proposals which closed last December.
The CBI said it might select other banks at a later stage.
The CBI also said it will soon meet the three selected banks "to explain the remaining technical elements of the licensing process" and anticipated that "all three will be granted a license by mid-March 2004."
"The banks will be required to begin actual banking operations on-ground in Iraq no later than December 31, 2004. These banks will bring modern banking practices, capital and know-how to the Iraqi economy."
The invitation to foreign banks is the first since the banking sector was nationalised in 1964, four years before the former ruling Baath party swept to power.
Iraqi private banks were allowed to open in the early 1990s to compensate for the devastating impact of UN sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of neighbouring Kuwait.
The CBI also announced "the complete liberalisation of domestic interest rates."
"Effective March 1, interest rates on deposits, loans, credits, securities, and all other domestic financial instruments will be fully determined by market conditions," said a statement from the bank.
The CBI touted the decision as one more step to modernise and overhaul Iraq's rusty state-controlled financial system for a free-market economy.
"Supervision of all commercial banks, state-owned and private, is being strengthened to ensure that banks function according to international standards," it added.
The bank also disclosed plans to "establish deposit insurance to provide additional protection to small and medium sized depositors."
In September, Iraq announced liberal investment laws, allowing 100 per cent foreign ownership of companies.
?2003 AAP
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World Bank authorized as Iraq Trust Fund administrator
The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors have authorized the bank to act as an administrator for the Iraq Trust Fund which will finance a program of emergency projects and technical assistance.
The program is contained in the Interim Strategy for Iraq. It includes not only specific projects and technical assistance, to be financed by the trust fund, but also a program of economic and sector work aimed at laying the groundwork for an expanded development assistance program in the near future.
The Interim Strategy builds on the Bank's previous work in Iraq during 2003 and outlines a Bank-sponsored work program for Iraq for the next six to nine months.
Over the last two decades, the effects of war, misdirected resources, and Iraq's centralized command economy have stifled growth and development. Basic infrastructure and the education and healthcare systems have dramatically declined due to years of neglect.
International sanctions imposed in 1991 further crippled Iraq's economy. Despite the country's rich resources, Iraq's human development indicators are now among the lowest in the region.
Although reliable economic information remains limited, unemployment is high and there is severe poverty and vulnerability stemming from decades of economic decline combined with the impact of the recent war.
Preliminary estimates indicate that Iraq's gross domestic product (GDP) declined by about four percent in 2002 and a further 31 percent in 2003, amounting to an estimated $13-17 billion in 2003, or $480-630 per capita. This year, however, GDP is projected to increase by about 33 percent, bringing it to $17-22 billion or $620-810 per capita.
The work program detailed in the Interim Strategy is based on a Joint Iraq Needs Assessment of reconstruction and development challenges conducted by the United Nations and the Bank last year.
The immediate goals of the work program are three-folds--build the Iraqi government's ability to manage a reconstruction program, including administering large amounts of external funding in a transparent and accountable manner; initiate emergency programs to address urgent needs such as job creation and restoring basic infrastructure and services; and provide policy advice and analytical work that will pave the transition to a market-based economy and a medium-term development program.
During this interim period, the Bank will implement projects in close coordination with Iraqi officials out of a temporary office set up in Jordan. The Iraq Trust Fund is one of two trust funds that fall under the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq designed by the World Bank and the UN.
The Facility was created in response to international donors' request for a vehicle to channel their resources and coordinate donor financing for Iraq's reconstruction and development activities.
The Bank's lending services remain subject to Board approval on several issues including settlement of Iraq's arrears, the security situation on the ground, and the legal issue of Iraq's government. -- (menareport.com)
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Iraq grants licenses to three foreign banks
Iraq's financial sector was transformed yesterday when the Central Bank extended operating licenses to the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), UK-based Standard Chartered and the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank (HSBC), ending decades of a state-controlled industry.
"They can start operations as of the middle of March," said an aide to central bank governor Sinan Al-Shabibi at a recent press conference. "There will be another three foreign licenses announced shortly."
The opening of the banking sector is part of a comprehensive reform program announced by the US-supported Iraqi interim administration in September. The restructuring allows for six foreign banks to acquire up to 100 percent of local banks in the next five years.
Following this timeframe, there will be no limits on foreign bank entry into the country.
Foreign banks were expelled from Iraq in the 1960s. Following the first Gulf War in 1991, Saddam Hussein authorized for the first time the formation of private banks in Iraq. From 1992 until the end of the decade, 17 such banks were established. Up until the second Gulf War, however, these banks were prohibited by Saddam from conducting international transactions - including payments, remittances, and letters of credit. -- (menareport.com)
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Open for Business: Iraqi companies discuss contract opportunities worth $18.6 billion
Representatives of the US lead Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) held an open meeting with Iraqi business people on January 29, 2004.
Iraqi companies, together with the CPA's Project Management Office and Private Sector Development Team, discussed opportunities to bid for prime and sub-contracts from the Supplemental Budget.
The Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Iraqi Industry, Federation of Iraqi Businessmen, Society of Iraqi Businessmen, and the Iraqi American Chamber of Commerce and Industry invited their members to the meeting, together with the Iraqi Business Center.
The CPA outlined its initiatives for training and financing of Iraqi companies to best prepare them to compete for contracts, and offered advice and incentives for Iraqi businesses to respond to tenders. -- (menareport.com)
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Reconstruction work to begin at Umm Qasr, Iraq
Work will start soon on a $10.3 million project to renovate the Umm Qasr Naval Base for the Iraqi Armed Forces. The project is funded through the Project Management Office (PMO) of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).
The work at Umm Qasr is expected to be complete in approximately mid-May 2004. The prime contractor, US-based Weston Solutions intends to involve Iraqi contractors, suppliers and labor, stated a press release.
The PMO manages the $18.4 billion appropriated by the US Congress to support the reconstruction of Iraqi infrastructure. Umm Qasr project includes building renovation; construction of electrical, water and sanitary sewage systems; security improvements; dock repair and dredging. -- (menareport.com)
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Reconstruction work to begin at An Numiniyah, Iraq
Work will start soon on a $65.4 million project to rebuild the An Numiniyah military base for the Iraqi Armed Forces. The project is funded through the Project Management Office (PMO) of the US-backed Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).
The CPA intends to involve Iraqi sources of subcontractors, suppliers and labor, stated a press release. The PMO manages the $18.4 billion provided by the US Congress to support the reconstruction of Iraqi infrastructure.
The An Numiniyah project, located southeast of Baghdad, includes the renovation of existing buildings and infrastructure on the base and the construction of new facilities to support operations and training. The prime contractor is US-based Earth Tech.
Work will also be performed on the water supply, wastewater treatment and power services at the base. The work is expected to be complete in approximately mid-April 2004. -- (menareport.com)
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Reconstruction work to begin at Al-Kasik, Iraq
Work will start soon on a $46.7 million project to renovate the Al-Kasik Army Base for the Iraqi Armed Forces. The project is funded through the Project Management Office (PMO) of the US-backed Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).
The PMO manages the $18.4 billion appropriated by the US Congress to support the reconstruction of Iraqi infrastructure. The Al-Kasik project includes the renovation of existing buildings and infrastructure on the base and the construction of new facilities to support operations and training.
Work will also be performed on the water distribution, sanitary sewage, wastewater treatment, and electrical distribution systems at the base. Al-Kasik is located in the northern part of Iraq west of Mosul.
The work to support one brigade of the Iraqi Army is expected to be complete in approximately mid-March 2004 and the work to support a second brigade is expected to be complete in mid-May 2004. The prime contractor, Shaw Environmental intends to involve Iraqi sources of subcontractors, suppliers and labor, said a press release. -- (menareport.com)

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NEWSWEEK RADIO | 2/1/04
Iraq: Bremer's Hurdles
Michael Hirsh, Newsweek Senior Editor, Baghdad
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Racing the Clock in Iraq
Our intel about what the postwar scene would look like was wrong, too. Now Paul Bremer, America's modern-day MacArthur, has only five more months to make it all work
Geert van Kesteren for Newsweek
On the clock: Facing a five-month deadline, L. Paul Bremer has little use for big ideas in Iraq
By Michael HirshFeb. 9 issue - What's next?" It's Jerry Bremer's mantra, his passion. Dreamy visions for Iraq's future, once so much part of the war rhetoric in Washington, only irk him at this late stage. "Schedule, schedule, schedule--that's what I want," Bremer raps out. "I want benchmarks for the number of days. I need a chart of what tasks are falling behind." There are so many tasks. He's training Iraq's new police, civil-defense force and Army. He's creating village councils, an anticorruption agency and inspector-general offices. Hospitals, schools and sewage lines. In all, an astonishing 17,500 projects so far.
A bomb nearby rattles the doors to his dusty office; Bremer doesn't flinch. What's next? Farms--a wheat shortfall looms. Power--Iraq's diesel inventory, which he checks every morning, is low. Bremer's just returned from the United Nations, where he humbly ate the Bush administration's crow and asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan's help to quell Shiite demands for direct elections. Next he must meet the Kurds; they want autonomy in the north, and he's pushing for a deal. What's next? "You've got a few minutes for lunch, sir," says an adjutant, delivering a Styrofoam plate from the Army mess to his desk. Bremer gulps down the glutinous chicken and rice, staring into the blue light of his computer screen. He doesn't seem to pay attention to the food; all he's aware of consuming these days is time. He has so little of it. He's obsessed with compressing the time left to him, grinding it down until every minute is directed toward his goal: to build something lasting in Iraq.
And so it goes, 16 to 18 hours a day. Bremer's ultrasecure command post in Saddam's old imperial-palace complex at the heart of Baghdad is a beehive of true believers: military officers, civilian aides, defense contractors and CIA officials who stream in and out of his small office. The 3,000 staffers in his Coalition Provisional Authority get to swim in Saddam's pool, but otherwise live a spartan existence; many sleep in a large dorm, with double-decker beds, men and women mixed together, housed in Saddam's cavernous "Decision Room." That's the place where the dictator once informed officers if they would live or die. The question is, will America's efforts to remake Iraq live on--or die off once Bremer leaves? To find out, NEWSWEEK recently gained access to Bremer's inner sanctum, spending a week sitting in on his meetings, flying with him to Mosul as he oversaw a graduation class of Iraq's new Civil Defense Corps.
Presently a new team enters the office of Iraq's civil administrator, his democracy task force, the project closest to his heart. Bremer notes he's giving the teaching teams some $450 million, nearly five times what they were budgeted; he talks about bringing in local U.S. battalion and brigade commanders. "You've got basically nothing in this area!" he says, scanning a printout. He asks if there is "an escape clause" in the contract being given to the U.S. company that's doing the democracy promotion because "it very well may be that the U.N. takes over." The Iraqi electricity minister pops in, and Bremer, with his usual genteel good humor, admonishes him for making wild predictions about megawatt increases in the country's still-flickering power supply (even now, Baghdad blacks out several times a day). Though he's careful not to flaunt it, Bremer controls everything down to Iraqi ministers' travel plans. "We're both going to get run out of town if you keep doing that," Bremer says. "What do we care?" the minister jokes, "we're both going to lose our jobs anyway."
That is true. On June 30 Bremer will hand over sovereignty to a new Iraqi government, and he doesn't even know yet how it's going to be chosen. But for the moment the 62-year-old, a onetime marathoner and triathlete who looks a good 10 years younger, is effectively America's viceroy here, with vast powers of the kind last wielded by Douglas MacArthur in Japan. And the success or failure of George W. Bush's faltering adventure in Iraq--and America's future stature in the Arab world--hangs very much on what he does in the interim. Bremer can move $100 million around on a whim (anything more, and he has to check with Congress). "It's like being a president, a governor, a CEO and a general all wrapped in one," says his top aide Dan Senor. And as the months have passed, the insurgency has raged and the Bush administration's hopeful vision for Iraq has dimmed, Bremer has shown less and less patience for the "spider's cage" of bickering bureaucrats in Washington who want to noodle every contract. He simply doesn't have the time for it. "I can't have someone back in Washington telling me not to build a hospital in Basra but to do an irrigation project in Mosul," Bremer tells an aide. "You want to do that, you've got to get out here. We've got a flak jacket with your name on it."
Resolutely on his side, he knows, is President Bush's national-security adviser and alter ego, Condoleezza Rice, with whom he confers nearly every day on the red secure phone in his office. (He talks with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld less, about three times a week.) "He's doing a heroic job," Rice told NEWSWEEK, adding that her own role is to break through bottlenecks for him. It was Bremer who, with the White House's backing, demanded the $18.6 billion for Iraq's reconstruction (the rest of the $87 billion was for the military). Why? Because after a few months on the ground Bremer realized it was time to dispense with the pretense in Washington that this wasn't nation-building from the ground up. The official rhetoric is that the Iraqi people are choosing their own course to democracy. In fact, America is trying to create a brand-new Iraq.
As a result, Bremer may have the toughest job in the world right now. Consider: the fabled MacArthur, the "American Caesar," took seven years to remake Japan. John McCloy, the High Commissioner who reconstituted post-Hitler Germany, took three years, coming on top of four years of military rule. Bremer has just five months to go. And whereas Japan was already unified, Bremer is trying to build a new Iraq by abruptly reversing the divide-and-rule course that Saddam brutally pursued for 35 years. He must meld together fractious Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in a backward economy with a jobless rate still at 30 to 40 percent (about half what it was after the war, by Bremer's latest estimate), and in a region of the world where bordering nations, like Iran and Syria, are constantly interfering. Henry Kissinger, who's made diplomatic history himself, says the task his onetime protege is engaged in (Bremer was his chief of staff and managed his firm, Kissinger Associates) "is unprecedented." Bremer's job is "much harder" than MacArthur's, says Kissinger. "I can't think of many situations in which there were so many moving parts. And so many conflicting pressures that had to be resolved in so little time ... Secondly, in Japan there was no challenge to legitimacy of the occupation. It was basically accepted."
NewsweekThe lack of a sense of legitimacy--both in Iraq and the international community--is Bremer's most fundamental problem at the moment. First, it means his life is in constant danger as an occupier. Bremer's safety is more closely guarded than that of his boss back in Washington, George W. Bush. The president, at least, can go to the bathroom on his own in the West Wing. Bremer is ringed by concentric circles of blast walls, razor wire and chicanes (zigzagging concrete blocks to slow vehicles) in a four-square-mile area called the Green Zone that is crawling with troops and armored vehicles. Still, so grave is the risk of infiltration by insurgents and terrorists (disguised as one of the many Iraqi workers at the CPA) that even inside that protective bubble, Bremer must be accompanied by four fierce-looking bodyguards armed with Bushmaster rifles when he needs to use the restroom 20 feet from his office. It's not the kind of thing that MacArthur had to worry about.
None of this was expected when Bush launched his war, saying Americans would be welcomed as liberators. Perhaps the best measure of the failure so far of the administration's grand neocon vision is that while Americans are now spending hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on Iraq, they'll find no gratitude here. Few Iraqis can admit, even to their family or friends, that they are working for a U.S. company, much less the CPA. The reason: they would be shunned or killed. Despite Saddam's capture on Dec. 13, the insurgency persists. It is now inseparable from the occupation itself, fueled by deep resentment of Americans and their foreign and Iraqi collaborators. Just last Friday there were 35 attacks, nearly as many as occurred daily in the worst month before the capture. For Iraqis hungry for the vision Bush promised, after nearly 11 months of chaos, it's all too slow, too violent, too brutal at the hands of U.S. soldiers who can detain them arbitrarily, and often do. To correct that, Bremer is engaged in what he says is the fastest police-training program in history (85,000 new trainees in a year). But meanwhile the daily killings, humiliations and power outages have created a sense among Iraqis that the Americans have bungled things.
Yet Bremer and his sleep-starved team believe the vision of a new, stable ally in the Mideast is not only achievable, but still likely. Bremer's hope is that the June 30 handover and the withdrawal of U.S. troops to bases outside the cities will blunt the insurgency; someday perhaps, he says, Iraqis will come to remember their liberation more fondly. Now he has a more immediate concern: the one thing that hasn't happened in postwar Iraq, except in isolated cases--ethnic and sectarian fighting.
Bremer is urgently dealing with a growing Shiite rebellion over the issue of whether the new transitional assembly set to accept sovereignty will be elected or chosen by caucuses of elites, his plan. Suddenly he desperately needs the approval of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf, the Shiite cleric who commands much more prestige than the administrator. Sistani, knowing the Shiites represent a majority, wants national elections. The Sunni minority doesn't, and it is fomenting the Iraqi insurgency. The Kurds, meanwhile, want to wait on elections until they can "normalize"--return Kurds to areas that Saddam cleaned out. Bremer's task is to give Sistani something that sounds like elections while allaying Sunni and Kurd fears of disenfranchisement. Bremer hopes that a U.N. team now here will affirm the U.S. view that elections are impossible before handover, because of the lack of voter registration, census data and so on, allowing Sistani a face-saving way out. And he says that contrary to reports Sistani refuses to deal with him, the two have "been communicating since May." But NEWSWEEK has learned that Sistani is planning a new obstacle: a committee of his own that will dissect the United Nations' findings, possibly causing more delays.
Most of today's headaches predate Bremer's arrival in mid-May. Poor planning and Rumsfeld's insistence on cutting, by about half, the 400,000-man invasion force the brass wanted for Iraq resulted in rampant looting and unsecured caches of weapons, now used by insurgents. But Bremer has made some misjudgments. He has relied too much on slow-moving American contractors. Bremer has also been obsessed with the model of postwar Germany; he carries around a timeline labeled MILESTONES: IRAQ AND GERMANY, and insisted on pursuing that approach--a new constitution guaranteeing rights first, elections second, and only then sovereignty. But he failed to gauge rising Shiite demands for national elections and the rage the occupation would engender. When the Shiites stymied his attempts to draft a constitution, he had to publicly retreat on Nov. 15, announcing that sovereignty would be granted first. "Both Germany and Japan were defeated nations," Bremer says now. "In a psychological way, the people understood they'd gone into total war and been defeated ... The difference here is, what was defeated was a regime, and the Iraqi people have quite understandably a distaste for the occupation."
And yet there remains a paradox in Iraqi attitudes that Bremer still hopes to exploit in orchestrating a happy transition to Iraqi control under a U.S. defense umbrella (essentially the outcome in postwar Japan and Germany). For many Iraqis, the deepest fear now is civil war. Most can't live with the occupation, but few can imagine living without it, or at least a strong U.S. military presence. The key will be to make it less in-your-face, even as permanent-looking bases in Iraq are being erected. "Prior to the regime's fall, my feeling was that civil war would be a very remote possibility," Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani told NEWSWEEK in an interview last week. "Now I think it will take very little to start one. If Coalition forces leave, we could be only 24 hours away."
For Bremer and for America, the stakes could not be higher. If he fails and Iraq begins coming apart after he leaves, America will face a terror-generating black hole in the Mideast for decades to come. Other nations like Saudi Arabia and Egypt are likely to be destabilized. (And Bush could possibly lose in November, in a race in which Iraq could be the main issue.) If he succeeds, then the much-fabled virtuous cycle of Arab reform so touted by the hawks could get underway, and Bremer could well end up as Bush's second-term secretary of State. Rice, asked about that prospect, laughed and responded, "Jerry can do just about anything." The president is deeply fond of Bremer, administration sources say, and Colin Powell plans to leave. TO JERRY, THE RIGHT MAN FOR A BIG JOB, reads Bush's scrawled inscription on the photo of the two of them, which sits atop a shelf in Bremer's plainly furnished office. Is Bremer the right man? "If anyone can pull it off," says Kissinger, "he can."
NewsweekMost Iraqis living today have known only two leaders: Saddam Hussein, an unlettered mass murderer from Tikrit who misspent his nation's great wealth, and L. Paul Bremer III, a patrician diplomat from Connecticut who today yearns to do a "Rip Van Winkle" and sleep for three months at his weekend retreat in Vermont. The only thing the two leaders have had in common is near-absolute power, and a certain remoteness from the public eye. So when Iraqis actually meet Bremer, the man who effectively replaced Saddam, their culture shock is palpable. Saddam probably never said to a Kurdish leader, as Bremer did last week, "Let me take your coat." Though he's sometimes accused of arrogance in policy circles, especially at the United Nations, Bremer seems to have an antibody to personal hubris. Where Saddam erected giant portraits of himself and had feasts set for him at every palace every day, Bremer often stands in line in his mess, and hates publicity. Last week, when he ventured out to meet Iraqi journalists--something he regularly does to win public support (while largely ignoring the U.S. media encamped here)--Bremer was mobbed by the reporters, who seemed almost aquiver with adulation. Seeking souvenir photos, several of them fought for a position next to him, arguing over whose camera would be used. (Although these same journalists would not dare praise him once out of the Green Zone.) Later the Iraqis said they were amazed by his humility. "Iraqis like you, Mr. Bremer," one local reporter gushed. "The ones that aren't trying to kill me," Bremer shot back, grinning.
It does seem odd that anyone would want to kill this genial, good-humored man. A devout Roman Catholic (his nickname, Jerry, comes from his patron saint, Jerome), Bremer has framed on his desk, right next to his computer, a Latin inscription that is his life's guiding principle. NON SUM DIGNUS: "I am not worthy." It's what a Catholic says at mass before receiving the host. "What is significant about it is that every Catholic says it, even the pope," he says. Raised in New Canaan, Conn., the son of a wealthy international businessman, Bremer studied history at Yale and later, like the president, went to Harvard Business School. Unsure about entering business or government, he heeded his father's invocation of noblesse oblige. He argued "you ought to give something back in public service," Bremer says, adding almost apologetically, "It sounds trite these days ..." Bremer joined the State Department, fell into Kissinger's orbit, and then it was 23 years and a couple of ambassadorships before "I came to my senses," he says, and went into business. Since then he's kept mostly a low profile, but in 2000 Bremer coauthored a now widely cited report that predicted terrorist attacks on America, earning him his stripes as a post-9/11 hawk.
Bremer doesn't seem to care about the political storms back in Washington. Asked if he's a neocon like his old friend Paul Wolfowitz, he notes he's a lifelong Republican and says with a smile, "I'm a con-con." Bremer, his aides say, simply doesn't read most of the raging Beltway commentary on Iraq. Questioned about what the commentariat widely considers his biggest mistake, the demobilization of the Army, Bremer insists that the media have erred in reporting that he did not hand out stipends. "The two most popular things I've done since I've been here are the de-Baathification decree--which stands head and shoulders above everything else--and the disbanding of the Army." Perhaps some of the vast number of gun-toting ex-soldiers set adrift did join the insurgency. But he insists the move also reassured disaffected Shiites and Kurds that they will never again suffer from Saddam's Baathists. The Iraqis' belief that "the new Iraqi Army is designed not to interfere in internal affairs" might even help to avert civil war, he says.
To his credit, Bremer has evolved. He has a "legalistic mind-set," says one Iraqi Governing Council member, who, while frustrated at Bremer's stubbornness, admires him. As recently as a month ago Bremer was still insisting on caucuses, rigidly hewing to the Nov. 15 agreement. But "in the Arab world the agreement is not the agreement. We keep changing as we go along," says the Council member. "Welcome to Iraq." Now he's willing to finesse the issue, broadening the caucus idea in favor of something that might be more like a local referendum or a partial election. The book that sits closest to his desk is the Qur'an. He studies Arabic in every spare moment, flipping through flashcards on transport planes, quoting the Prophet Muhammad reverently in speeches with the proper invocation, "Peace be upon him." Ultimately he recognizes that he is already entering a kind of lame-duck period, as Sistani has made clear. "Bremer wants to glue the Iraqis together, but his glue is not very strong right now," notes IGC member Mahmoud Othman.
Bremer thinks he can still make things stick together by the time he departs. His overriding goal is to leave behind so many new institutions by June 30 that the forces of integration overtake the chaos. He's trying to create facts on the ground that will engender a powerful demand for sovereignty, outflanking Sistani's power bid. Hence his intense push to hold town-hall meetings and local caucuses, even though officially his caucus idea is suspended pending the United Nations' finding on whether elections are feasible. Now Bremer must fight a rear-guard action as well: jittery suggestions back in Washington that America skip selection of a new transitional assembly altogether and simply hand off to the IGC. But that would almost certainly not be accepted as a legitimate government--the Bremer-appointed IGC is widely seen as a collection of U.S. stooges. Still, Bush is so intent on that date (coming as it does before the GOP convention) that Bremer cannot dismiss the idea of a handover to the Governing Council.
Meanwhile Bremer is nurturing Iraqi civil society with an accumulation of small steps: he's forming professional and trade associations in major cities, on the theory that this way doctors will identify themselves as doctors and not as Kurds or Shiites. Soon to be announced is that Iraq will field seven teams in the 2004 Olympics. The restoration of symbols of a return to the community of nations--a national soccer team, the Iraqi symphony, new Iraqi Fulbright scholars--is a big Bremer theme, his way of trying to fend off the sense of societal doom many Iraqis feel as they flirt with civil war. Last week another Bremer pet project, a new Commission of Public Integrity to battle endemic corruption, was handed off to Governing Council member Adnan Pachachi to announce.
Bremer is never short of new ideas. Surely one of the strangest conversations to take place in an Army Black Hawk helicopter occurred last week between Bremer and the outgoing commander of the 101st Airborne in the north, Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, who is rotating out this week. Bremer launched into his latest passion: Iraqi Court TV. He's already nationalizing Petraeus's "Mosul's Most Wanted" TV show to get locals to call in with tips on insurgents. Even U.S. TV host John Walsh is helping. "If we have that, we might as well follow it with 'Court TV'," said Bremer, only half-joking. "Maybe we can have a perp walk." No idea seems too small or too silly to the man who holds Iraq's future in his hands but must soon yield it up to an unready nation. Not when he has so little time left.
? 2004 Newsweek, Inc.
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Isra?l appelle au retrait des forces syriennes du Liban, menace Cheikh Yassine
01.02.2004 - 17h27
Photo : Menahem Kahana - (AFP)
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Isra?l a appel? dimanche la communaut? internationale ? mettre fin ? "l'occupation syrienne" du Liban et lanc? de nouvelles menaces contre Ahmad Yassine apr?s que le leader du Hamas eut annonc? que son mouvement planifiait l'enl?vement de soldats isra?liens.
En Cisjordanie, un activiste arm?, membre des Brigades des martyrs d'Al-Aqsa, a ?t? tu? par l'arm?e isra?lienne et cinq autres Palestiniens ont ?t? bless?s lors d'une incursion ? J?richo.
"Depuis 1976, la Syrie occupe le Liban, vole ses ressources et il est temps que le monde lui ordonne d'en sortir", a d?clar? le chef de la diplomatie isra?lienne Sylvan Shalom lors de la r?union hebdomadaire du cabinet.
Il a appel? les "pays du monde libre ? enclencher une campagne diplomatique" pour forcer le retrait des troupes syriennes et indiqu? en avoir parl? notamment avec le secr?taire g?n?ral de l'Onu Kofi Annan.
"C'est absurde que la Syrie continue ? ?tre une puissance occupante au Liban qu'elle prend litt?ralement en otage", a d?clar? ? la radio militaire un conseiller du ministre, Ron Prosdor.
Il a soulign? que la r?solution 520 du Conseil de s?curit? de l'Onu, du 17 septembre 1982, appelle au "retrait du Liban de toutes les forces non libanaises et au respect de la souverainet? libanaise".
La Syrie maintient quelque 20.000 soldats au Liban, o? elle exerce une influence sans partage, alors que l'arm?e isra?lienne s'est retir?e en mai 2000 du Liban sud, sauf du secteur contest? des fermes de Chebaa, aux confins de la syrie et du Liban.
Photo : David Silverman - (AFP/Pool)
Le Premier ministre Ariel Sharon avait pratiquement ?cart? il y a deux semaines toute reprise des n?gociations avec Damas compte tenu du fait qu'un accord de paix impliquerait le retrait isra?lien du plateau syrien du Golan occup? depuis 1967 et annex? depuis 1981.
Par ailleurs, le ministre isra?lien de la D?fense Shaoul Mofaz a r?affirm? qu'Isra?l aurait une r?action "tr?s dure", si le Hezbollah libanais, soutenu par la Syrie et l'Iran, avait recours ? de nouveaux enl?vements d'Isra?liens, apr?s un ?change de prisonniers entre l'Etat h?breu et ce mouvement int?griste chiite.
Il a ?galement prof?r? de nouvelles menaces ? l'encontre du fondateur et chef spirituel du mouvement radical palestinien Hamas, Ahmad Yassine.
"Notre politique reste inchang?e: aucun leader terroriste ne peut b?n?ficier de l'immunit?", a-t-il d?clar? en r?f?rence au cheikh Yassine, sans plus de pr?cisions.
Cheikh Yassine avait annonc? vendredi que la branche arm?e du Hamas "planifiait" d'enlever des soldats isra?liens pour obtenir la lib?ration des d?tenus palestiniens.
Le chef d'?tat-major isra?lien, le g?n?ral Mosh? Yaalon, avait d?j? affirm? le 19 janvier que cheikh Yassine constituait "une cible pour une op?ration de liquidation".
Photo : Mohammed Abed - (AFP/Archives)
Cheikh Yassine avait ?t? l?g?rement bless? le 6 septembre dernier par un raid a?rien visant un b?timent o? il se trouvait avec d'autres dirigeants du Hamas ? Gaza.
Depuis lors, Isra?l s'?tait abstenu de frapper des dirigeants politiques du Hamas ou d'autres mouvements palestiniens, tout en s'attaquant ? des responsables militaires, lors de raids cibl?s.
Sur le front diplomatique, Isra?l estimait dimanche que le soutien de 33 pays, dont les Etats-Unis et la plupart des Etats de l'Union europ?enne, pourrait convaincre la Cour internationale de justice de La Haye de renoncer ? statuer sur la l?galit? de la ligne de s?paration controvers?e construite en Cisjordanie occup?e, cette question ?tant d'ordre politique.
Le pr?sident de l'Autorit? palestinienne Yasser Arafat a d?clar? en revanche ? la presse qu'il ?tait convaincu que la cour d?ciderait qu'elle est comp?tente.
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? Le Temps, tous droits de reproduction et de diffusion r?serv?s.
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La justice fran?aise met Alain Jupp? hors jeu
Alain Jupp?. / Photo: Keystone
L'ancien premier ministre a ?t? condamn? ? dix-huit mois de prison avec sursis, vendredi, dans l'affaire des emplois fictifs du RPR. Cette condamnation entra?ne de facto son in?ligibilit? pour dix ans. Alain Jupp? se retirera-t-il pour autant de la vie politique, comme il l'avait affirm?? Hier, il a d?cid? de faire appel.
B?atrice Houchard, Paris
Samedi 31 janvier 2004
De nombreux magistrats en avaient r?v?. Les juges du tribunal de Nanterre l'ont fait: ils se sont ?pay?? un homme politique. En condamnant vendredi l'ancien premier ministre Alain Jupp? ? dix-huit mois de prison avec sursis pour ?prise ill?gale d'int?r?ts? dans l'affaire des emplois fictifs du RPR, ils ont eu la main lourde. Tr?s lourde. Plus lourde que ce qu'avait demand? le procureur de la R?publique. En requ?rant en d?cembre huit mois de prison avec sursis, celui-ci avait pr?cis? que la question de l'in?ligibilit? n'?tait pas du ressort de la justice, mais des ?lecteurs.
Les trois juges de Nanterre ont dit le contraire, en sachant que la condamnation entra?nerait automatiquement une in?ligibilit? de dix ans et une radiation des listes ?lectorales de cinq ans. Cette disposition, dont Alain Jupp? est la premi?re personnalit? ? faire les frais, avait ?t? vot?e par la droite en 1995, avec la b?n?diction du premier ministre de l'?poque, Edouard Balladur. Ironie du sort: Alain Jupp?, aux Affaires ?trang?res, faisait alors partie du gouvernement...
Les attendus du jugement sont plus s?v?res que la condamnation elle-m?me. Les juges pr?cisent qu'il n'?tait pas question de ne pas inscrire la condamnation au casier judiciaire. Une non-inscription aurait pu partiellement sauver le soldat Jupp?. Et pour ceux qui ne l'auraient pas compris, ils expliquent: ?La nature des faits commis est insupportable au corps social.? Ils notent qu'Alain Jupp? a ?tudi? dans les grandes ?coles de la R?publique (Normale sup?rieure, ENA) et qu'il ne pouvait donc pas ignorer le syst?me d'emplois fictifs mis en place ? la mairie de Paris au profit d'un financement occulte du RPR. A l'?poque, Jacques Chirac ?tait maire de Paris et pr?sident du RPR. Alain Jupp?, adjoint au maire de Paris, charg? des finances de la capitale et secr?taire g?n?ral du RPR. Conclusion des juges: ?Alain Jupp? a tromp? la confiance du peuple souverain.?
L'int?ress? ne s'attendait certes pas ? ?tre relax?. Mais il n'avait pas envisag? une condamnation aussi s?v?re. Il est sorti du tribunal choqu?, ?an?anti? selon le mot d'un de ses proches, Patrick Stefanini, condamn? lui aussi avec trois autres anciens responsables du RPR et treize chefs d'entreprise. Du coup, apr?s avoir affirm? qu'il ne ferait pas appel, il
a chang? d'avis et son avocat, Me Francis Spizner, a d?nonc? ?une d?cision critiquable et injuste?.
Il faudra attendre quelques jours, peut-?tre mardi, pour conna?tre les intentions d'Alain Jupp?. Hier, il n'a pas prononc? une parole et apr?s avoir quitt? le tribunal par une porte d?rob?e, il est parti, au volant de sa voiture, vers une destination tenue secr?te.
Il avait annonc?, au moins ? deux reprises, qu'en cas de condamnation jug?e par lui ?infamante?, il mettrait fin ? sa carri?re politique. L'appel devant la Cour de Versailles ?tant suspensif, il peut, sur un plan strictement juridique, rester maire de Bordeaux, d?put? de la Gironde et bien s?r pr?sident de l'UMP, le grand parti de droite qui a remplac? le RPR en 2002. Mais politiquement, ? une semaine du congr?s de son parti et ? deux mois d'?lections cantonales et r?gionales qui s'annoncent difficiles pour la majorit? au pouvoir, le peut-il?
Parmi les cadres de l'UMP, hier apr?s-midi, beaucoup assuraient qu'ils ?ne voyaient pas Jupp? lancer la campagne ?lectorale dimanche prochain devant 15 000 personnes?. Certains ne seraient pas ?tonn?s qu'il ?jette l'?ponge?. Le premier ministre, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a beau affirmer que cette d?cision de justice est ?provisoire?, toute la droite ?tait, hier, sous le choc, s'interrogeant sur l'avenir de son ?patron?.
Dans un livre intitul? La tentation de Venise, Alain Jupp? confiait en 1993 qu'il pourrait un jour abandonner la vie politique pour la vie tout court. Mais il ?crivait aussi, en d?non?ant l'opprobre dont sont victimes les hommes politiques: ?Qu'il y ait parmi eux des moutons noirs, c'est entendu. Comme il y a des avocats marrons ou des chefs d'entreprise v?reux. Englobe-t-on pour cela toute une corporation dans la honte que m?ritent quelques-uns de ses membres?? On comprend qu'il puisse juger ?infamante? la condamnation que lui ont inflig?e hier les trois juges de Nanterre.
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Derri?re ?le meilleur d'entre nous?, c'est Chirac qui est touch?
B?atrice Houchard, Paris
La Chiraquie est frapp?e au c?ur. Pas en la personne du pr?sident de la R?publique, prot?g? par son immunit? tant qu'il est ? l'Elys?e. Mais c'est tout comme. Car Alain Jupp? ?tait la pi?ce ma?tresse du dispositif politique de Jacques Chirac, qui l'avait un jour qualifi? de ?meilleur d'entre nous?. On l'imaginait d?j? revenir au gouvernement pour contrebalancer l'influence de Nicolas Sarkozy. Alain Jupp?, c'?tait le dauphin pour la pr?sidentielle de 2007.
Patatras! Tout est ? refaire. Premi?re hypoth?se: Alain Jupp? d?cide, dans quelques jours, d'abandonner la vie politique. L'?quilibre de la droite s'effondre, Nicolas Sarkozy triomphe et Jean-Pierre Raffarin se trouve contraint d'endosser les habits de pr?sident de l'UMP pour barrer la route ? son ministre de l'Int?rieur.
Seconde hypoth?se: Alain Jupp? reste maire de Bordeaux, d?put? et pr?sident de l'UMP en attendant le jugement de la Cour d'appel, dans huit ? douze mois. Pour la majorit?, c'est pire encore. Car elle part alors ? la bataille ?lectorale avec un leader affaibli, un Sarkozy ? l'aff?t, des centristes qui rient sous cape, une gauche requinqu?e et un Front national qui entonne ? nouveau le refrain du ?tous pourris?.
Mais, dans les deux cas, il y a plus grave que les p?rip?ties politiciennes: au-del? de la personne d'Alain Jupp?, c'est un syst?me qui a ?t? condamn?, celui du financement occulte du RPR. Et si l'ancien premier ministre a jou?, avec une fid?lit? peu commune, le r?le du fusible, l'opinion n'est pas dupe: le vrai responsable se trouve ? l'Elys?e. Il s'appelle Jacques Chirac. Pour la d?mocratie fran?aise d?j? malade, ce n'est pas une bonne nouvelle.
? Le Temps, 2004 . Droits de reproduction et de diffusion r?serv?s.

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D?clar? in?ligible pour dix ans, Alain Jupp? fait appel de sa condamnation
LEMONDE.FR | 30.01.04 | 16h06 * MIS A JOUR LE 30.01.04 | 16h13
Alain Jupp?, pr?sent? comme un candidat potentiel ? l'?lection pr?sidentielle de 2007, avait d?clar? le 13 janvier, lors de ses v?ux ? la presse, qu'il quitterait la politique s'il ?tait d?clar? in?ligible, sans pr?ciser alors s'il ferait appel ou non.
Le pr?sident de l'UMP, Alain Jupp?, a ?t? condamn? vendredi 30 janvier ? 18 mois de prison avec sursis et dix ans d'in?ligibilit? pour "prise ill?gale d'int?r?t" par le tribunal correctionnel de Nanterre, dans les Hauts-de-Seine, dans l'affaire des emplois fictifs du RPR. Le tribunal, dans son jugement ?crit, a estim? qu'Alain Jupp? avait "tromp? la confiance du peuple souverain".
L'avocat de M. Jupp?, Me Francis Szpiner, a aussit?t d?clar? que la condamnation du pr?sident de l'UMP ?tait "critiquable et injuste", s'en prenant ? la justice, qui veut se "mettre au-dessus de la politique". "M. Alain Jupp? fera conna?tre son sentiment dans les prochains jours. Naturellement, nous allons faire appel de ce jugement, critiquable en droit et injuste", a d?clar? l'avocat. "Le tribunal a voulu ?carter M. Jupp? de la vie politique. C'est une d?cision de la justice qui veut se mettre au-dessus de la politique sur la base d'un dossier dont les ?l?ments sont contestables", a-t-il ajout?.
Me Francis Szpiner a ?galement annonc? son intention de faire appel, ce qui suspend l'ex?cution de la condamnation et permet ? l'ancien premier ministre de conserver ses mandats de d?put? et de maire de Bordeaux. "S'il existe des cours d'appel, c'est qu'il arrive aux tribunaux de se tromper. Nous soumettrons ? la cour d'appel le jugement qui vient d'?tre rendu", a dit ? la presse Me Szpiner. L'affaire sera donc rejug?e par la cour d'appel de Versailles. Le d?lai habituel pour organiser l'audience est de six mois ? un an.
UN SYST?ME "CONNU DE TOUS"
Alain Jupp?, pr?sent? comme un candidat potentiel ? l'?lection pr?sidentielle de 2007, avait d?clar?, le 13 janvier, lors de ses v?ux ? la presse, qu'il quitterait la politique s'il ?tait d?clar? in?ligible, sans pr?ciser alors s'il ferait appel ou non. Le tribunal a explicitement d?clar? dans son jugement que la sanction serait inscrite au casier judiciaire, contrairement ? ce qu'avaient demand? les avocats d'Alain Jupp? afin de lui ?viter justement l'in?ligibilit?. A la lecture de la d?cision, le maire de Bordeaux, livide, a l?g?rement titub? puis a quitt? le tribunal sans faire de d?claration, en ?vitant les journalistes.
Ag? de 58 ans, Alain Jupp? ?tait poursuivi pour la prise en charge frauduleuse par la Ville de Paris des salaires de sept cadres du RPR entre 1988 et 1995. Le parquet avait requis, le 10 octobre, huit mois de prison avec sursis contre l'ancien secr?taire g?n?ral du RPR, tout en demandant aux juges de lui ?pargner l'in?ligibilit?.
Il ?tait reproch? ? Alain Jupp? la r?mun?ration par la Ville de Paris, o? il ?tait adjoint aux finances de Jacques Chirac de 1983 ? 1995, de sept proches collaborateurs ou conseillers au secr?tariat g?n?ral du RPR, qu'il a dirig? de 1988 ? 1993. L'examen des faits a montr? que les sept personnes au c?ur des poursuites ne disposaient pour la plupart d'aucun bureau ? la Ville de Paris et que leurs noms ne figuraient pas dans l'annuaire des services.
L'audience a m?me mis en lumi?re des ?l?ments ? charge contre Alain Jupp? sur un autre volet o? il avait pourtant b?n?fici? d'un non-lieu : la prise en charge par des soci?t?s priv?es des salaires de permanents du RPR. L'ex-directeur de cabinet d'Alain Jupp? au secr?tariat g?n?ral, Yves Cabana, a expliqu? que ce syst?me ?tait "connu de tous" au parti chiraquien et l'ex-"banqui?re occulte" Louise-Yvonne Casetta a dit l'avoir organis? sur les ordres de la "hi?rarchie" du RPR.
Confront? ? ces ?l?ments, Alain Jupp? avait ni? ? l'audience avoir eu connaissance des faits. "J'avais beaucoup d'autres soucis. Si j'ai faut? par manque de vigilance, j'en prends la responsabilit?", avait-il dit ? la barre.
Le tribunal a condamn? deux ex-tr?soriers du RPR, Robert Galley et Jacques Boyon, ? 14 mois de prison avec sursis, de m?me que Louise-Yvonne Casetta. L'ex-bras droit d'Alain Jupp? et actuel patron de l'UMP parisienne, Patrick Stefanini, a ?t? condamn? ? 12 mois avec sursis, l'ancien directeur administratif du RPR Jacques Rigault ? 7 mois avec sursis. Antoine Joly, ancien secr?taire national du RPR, ?cope de 11 mois avec sursis. Sur les 20 chefs d'entreprise poursuivis, six relaxes ont ?t? prononc?es, ainsi que 14 condamnations, toutes ? six mois avec sursis. Le parquet avait demand? contre eux des peines allant de trois mois de prison avec sursis ? cinq mois avec sursis.
"UNE SANCTION PROPORTIONNELLE ? LA FAUTE"
Le ministre d?l?gu? ? l'enseignement scolaire, Xavier Darcos, a d?clar? que le jugement ?tait "extr?mement cruel pour Alain Jupp?, dont toute la vie a ?t? consacr?e au bien public". "L'affection, l'admiration, l'estime et la fid?lit? que j'ai pour Alain Jupp? ne sortent que renforc?es de l'?preuve qui lui est ici impos?e", a dit M. Darcos apr?s avoir soulign? que "la d?cision de justice n'?tait pas d?finitive" et qu'il fallait "attendre ce que dira la cour d'appel". M. Darcos, qui est t?te de liste UMP pour les r?gionales en Aquitaine, a ?galement estim? que la condamnation du pr?sident de l'UMP n'aurait pas d'impact sur le scrutin des 21 et 28 mars prochains.
Autre son de cloche chez les Verts, qui se sont f?licit?s, dans un communiqu?, de la condamnation du pr?sident de l'UMP, affirmant n?anmoins que "cela ne peut faire oublier la v?ritable responsabilit?" du pr?sident Chirac, "pour le compte duquel tout cela ?tait organis?". "Les Verts se f?licitent que la justice ait r?sist? ? la pression politique des plus hautes autorit?s de l'Etat en pronon?ant la condamnation d'Alain Jupp? et, au-del?, du syst?me RPR", a d?clar? Yves Contassot, porte-parole des Verts. "Les Verts demandent la poursuite des autres proc?dures et notamment l'acc?l?ration de la proc?dure engag?e pour fraude ?lectorale ? Paris, bloqu?e depuis plus de 18 mois par le parquet", a ajout? M. Contassot. Le Parti socialiste a estim? vendredi que "la sanction" prononc?e par le tribunal correctionnel de Nanterre ? l'encontre de M. Jupp? ?tait "proportionnelle ? la faute".
Avec AFP et Reuters

The Nuclear Noose Around Pakistan's Neck
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
Sunday, February 1, 2004; Page B04
Thirty years ago, fearful of India's newly acquired nuclear weapons, Pakistan set out on its own quest to become a nuclear weapons state. Lacking a strong technological base, it secretly searched the world's industrialized countries for what was needed. Few could have imagined then that the move from buyer to seller of the world's deadliest technology would be so swift.
But spectacular revelations beginning late last year by Iran, and later Libya, have forced Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, to launch an investigation of Pakistani involvement in secret transfers of vital nuclear weapons information and equipment to Iran, North Korea and Libya. Musharraf has conceded the existence of "an underworld of people" in Pakistan who, out of "personal greed," could have sold nuclear secrets.
The figure at the center of the crisis is Dr. A.Q. Khan, Pakistan's most celebrated bomb maker and a national hero, who was fired on Saturday from his job as science adviser to Pakistan's prime minister. In his heyday, Khan was accustomed to adulation and worship. His procurement, by whatever means, of secret centrifuge designs from a Dutch consortium in the mid-1970s was critical to Pakistan's successful nuclearization. With unlimited government resources at his disposal, and free of auditing restrictions, Khan, a metallurgist who is often wrongly referred to as a nuclear scientist, managed to purchase restricted items, which companies in Europe and the United States were willing to sell for the right price, no questions asked. In the process, Khan became a wealthy man.
Today, he and several close associates find that the laws of powerful nations cannot be spurned as easily as those of the state they have claimed to defend. Forced by the international community (read: the United States), Pakistan has put Khan and his cohorts on notice. Inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed centrifuges and traces of highly enriched uranium, and Iran pinpointed Pakistan as the source. A British expert who recently accompanied agency inspectors into Iran identified Iranian centrifuges as being identical to the Dutch design that Khan secretly obtained.
And yet it is unlikely that Khan will be convicted in a Pakistani court, because that would involve a head-on collision with the country's religious parties and with a public that has been led to believe that Khan's development of the bomb guaranteed Pakistan's security.
While the IAEA and U.S. intelligence may claim credit for having discovered the fountain of nuclear proliferation, Khan widely and openly advertised his wares over the past decade. Every year -- including 2003, when the proliferation controversy was already hot -- Islamabad was festooned with colorful banners advertising international workshops on "Vibrations In Rapidly Rotating Machinery" and "Advanced Materials," sponsored by the Dr. A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories (also known as the Kahuta Laboratories), Pakistan's key uranium enrichment facility.
Over the years, Khan and his collaborators also published a number of papers on issues regarding the technical means for enabling centrifuge rotors to spin at supersonic speeds without disintegrating, which is essential for making bomb-grade uranium. They could scarcely have been more blatant. But to make absolutely certain, Kahuta issued glossy brochures that were aimed at classified organizations but were easily obtained on the Kahuta Web site.
But Khan's nuclear bravado was of little concern to any of Pakistan's governments, civil or military. Indeed, since May 1998, when the country conducted several underground nuclear tests, Pakistan has flaunted its nuclear status in a manner wholly different from the world's other nuclear-armed countries. Nuclear nationalism was the order of the day as governments vigorously promoted the bomb as the symbol of Pakistan's high scientific achievement, national determination and self-respect, and as the harbinger of a new Muslim era. Publicly funded nuclear shrines still litter the country. One, a fiberglass model of the nuclear-blasted Chaghai mountain, stands at the entrance to Islamabad, bathed at night in a garish, orange light. Pakistan's political parties, secular and Islamic, rushed to claim ownership after the nuclear tests; elites and the masses all saw in the bomb a sign that Pakistan could succeed at something. With great pomp and ceremony, the bomb makers were turned into national heroes.
With international outrage over its proliferation growing, the bomb threatens to become a noose around Pakistan's neck. For Musharraf's government, Khan's mega-ton ego and his escapades over the past decade and a half are now a nightmare. Even as the Iranian revelation catapulted Pakistan to the forefront of the world's attention, Khan threw down the gauntlet last month by declaring in a television interview: "Who made the atom bomb? I made it. Who made the missiles? I made them for you." Responding to calls by the Islamic parties to defend the bomb makers, thousands have taken to the streets of Pakistani cities in the past week to protest investigations into the activities of Khan and others. Qazi Hussain Ahmad, leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, has called for Khan's exoneration even if he "has made millions of dollars, because he has saved Pakistan."
The investigation is likely to raise more issues than it settles. While Musharraf has said that "There is no such evidence that any government personality or military personality was involved," this attempt to ascribe all wrongdoing to a few greedy individual scientists will find few takers. Nor should it.
Since its inception, Pakistan's nuclear program has been squarely under army supervision. A multi-tiered security system was headed by a lieutenant general (now, two) with all nuclear installations and personnel kept under the tightest possible surveillance. Diplomatic immunity was insufficient to prevent a physical roughing up of the French ambassador to Pakistan some years ago when he journeyed to a point several miles from the enrichment facility. Kahuta was considered sensitive to the point that Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, claims that even while in office she could not receive clearance to visit the labs. In such an extreme security environment, it would be amazing to miss the travel abroad of senior scientists, engineers and administrators, their meetings with foreign nationals, and the transport and transfer of classified technical documents and components, if not whole centrifuges.
While individual gain may have been part of the motivation, the substantial cause lies elsewhere. From the inception of the bomb program, Pakistan's establishment has sought to turn its nuclear ambitions and success into larger gains. For one, it wanted (and gained) the support of hundreds of millions of Muslims the world over by claiming to provide a Muslim success story. (That this involved replicating a 60-year-old technology for mass destruction is a sad commentary on the state of the Muslim world.) For another, it enabled Pakistan to enjoy considerable financial and political benefits from oil-rich Arab countries. Among others, Libya reportedly bankrolled Pakistan and may even have supplied raw uranium. After Pakistan's nuclear tests six years ago, the Saudi government gave an unannounced gift of $4 billion worth of oil spread over five years to tide Pakistan over during its difficulties caused by international sanctions.
The transfers to North Korea are more prosaic. Having developed the bomb, Pakistan needed missiles to deliver them. North Korea was willing to supply them, for a price. Like the Dutch centrifuges, all Kahuta had to do was put them together and stick a star and crescent on them.
These deals and transfers of technology apparently took place from about 1987 until 1995. Musharraf is reported to have given Secretary of State Colin L. Powell his "four hundred percent assurance" that no such interchange is taking place now. This may be enough for now, given Musharraf's solid support for U.S. moves against al Qaeda.
Whether moved by money or faith, Pakistan's bomb makers, like the bomb itself, have seriously compromised the country's international standing and security. Two years ago, it was scientists from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission who, in a fit of Islamic solidarity, went to Afghanistan and met with Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. It is hard to believe they were the only ones so inclined.
Pakistan will have to put its nuclear house in order. Anything less than strict and complete accountability, regardless of rank or reputation, will leave the door open for those who may wish to try their luck, or in whom the fire of faith burns brighter. My country's loose nukes underscore a global danger that may already be out of control.
Nuclear secrets will keep leaking as long as the bomb has value as a currency of power and prestige. Humanity's best chance of survival lies in creating taboos against nuclear weapons, much as those that already exist for chemical and biological weapons, and to work rapidly toward their global elimination. To do away with the bomb, bomb technology and the menace of their proliferation will require the United States, as the world's only superpower, to take the lead by reducing its own nuclear arsenal, as well as dealing with all proliferators, including its ally Israel, at the same level.
Author's e-mail:
hoodbhoy@isb.pol.com.pk
Pervez Hoodbhoy is professor of nuclear physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan.

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One more Pakistani voice added to AQ Khan's media trial
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: Yet one more voice has been added - this time that of Pakistani physicist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy - to those denouncing Dr AQ Khan in the American media.
In an article contributed to the Washington Post on Sunday, Dr Hoodbhoy writes, "Few could have imagined then that the move from buyer to seller of the world's deadliest technology would be so swift." According to him "spectacular" claim beginning late last year by Iran, and later Libya, have forced President Gen Pervez Musharraf to launch an investigation of Pakistani involvement in secret transfers of vital nuclear weapons information and equipment to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
The figure at the centre of the crisis is Dr AQ Khan, was accustomed to adulation and worship. "His procurement, by whatever means, of secret centrifuge designs from a Dutch consortium in the mid-1970s was critical to Pakistan's successful nuclearisation. With unlimited government resources at his disposal, and free of auditing restrictions, AQ Khan, a metallurgist who is often wrongly referred to as a nuclear scientist, managed to purchase restricted items, which companies in Europe and the United States were willing to sell for the right price, no questions asked. In the process, AQ Khan became a wealthy man," Dr Hoodbhoy writes
According to the writer, "Today, he and several close associates find that the laws of powerful nations cannot be spurned as easily as those of the state they have claimed to defend. Forced by the international community (read: the United States), Pakistan has put AQ Khan and his cohorts on notice. And yet it is unlikely that AQ Khan will be convicted in a Pakistani court, because that would involve a head-on collision with the country's religious parties and with a public that has been led to believe that AQ Khan's development of the bomb guaranteed Pakistan's security. While the IAEA and US intelligence may claim credit for having discovered the fountain of nuclear proliferation, AQ Khan widely and openly advertised his wares over the past decade. Every year, including 2003, when the proliferation controversy was already hot, Islamabad was festooned with colourful banners advertising international workshops on "Vibrations In Rapidly Rotating Machinery" and "Advanced Materials," sponsored by the Dr AQ Khan Research Laboratories."
Dr Hoodbhoy points out that over the years, Dr AQ Khan and his collaborators also published a number of papers on issues regarding the technical means for enabling centrifuge rotors to spin at supersonic speeds without disintegrating, which is essential for making bomb-grade uranium. "They could scarcely have been more blatant. But to make absolutely certain, Kahuta issued glossy brochures that were aimed at classified organisations but were easily obtained on the Kahuta Web site. But AQ Khan's nuclear bravado was of little concern to any of Pakistan's governments, civil or military. Indeed, since May 1998, when the country conducted several underground nuclear tests, Pakistan has flaunted its nuclear status in a manner wholly different from the world's other nuclear-armed countries. Nuclear nationalism was the order of the day as governments vigorously promoted the bomb as the symbol of Pakistan's high scientific achievement, national determination and self-respect, and as the harbinger of a new Muslim era."
He notes that publicly funded "nuclear shrines" still "litter" the country. One, a fibreglass model of the nuclear-blasted Chaghai Mountain, stands at the entrance to Islamabad, bathed at night in a garish, orange light. Pakistan's political parties, secular and Islamic, rushed to claim ownership after the nuclear tests; elites and the masses all saw in the bomb a sign that Pakistan could succeed at something. "With great pomp and ceremony, the bomb makers were turned into national heroes. With international outrage over its proliferation growing, the bomb threatens to become a noose around Pakistan's neck. For Musharraf's government, AQ Khan's mega-tonne ego and his escapades over the past decade and a half are now a nightmare. Even as the Iranian revelation catapulted Pakistan to the forefront of the world's attention, AQ Khan threw down the gauntlet last month by declaring in a television interview: "Who made the atom bomb? I made it. Who made the missiles? I made them for you."
Dr Hoodbhoy believes that the investigation is likely to raise more issues than it settles.
While Musharraf has said that, "This attempt to ascribe all wrongdoing to a few greedy individual scientists will find few takers. Nor should it. Since its inception, Pakistan's nuclear programme has been squarely under army supervision. A multi-tiered security system was headed by a Lieutenant General (now two) with all nuclear installations and personnel kept under the tightest possible surveillance. Kahuta was considered sensitive to the point that Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister, claims that even while in office she could not receive clearance to visit the labs. In such an extreme security environment, it would be amazing to miss the travel abroad of senior scientists, engineers and administrators, their meetings with foreign nationals, and the transport and transfer of classified technical documents and components, if not whole centrifuges."
He believes that while individual gain may have been part of the motivation, the "substantial cause lies elsewhere." From the inception of the bomb programme, Pakistan's establishment has sought to turn its nuclear ambitions and success into larger gains. For one, it wanted (and gained) the support of hundreds of millions of Muslims the world over by claiming to provide a Muslim success story. For another, it enabled Pakistan to enjoy considerable financial and political benefits from oil-rich Arab countries. Among others, Libya reportedly bankrolled Pakistan and may even have supplied raw uranium. After Pakistan's nuclear tests six years ago, the Saudi government gave an unannounced gift of $4 billion worth of oil spread over five years to tide Pakistan over during its difficulties caused by international sanctions.
Dr Hoodbhoy considers the transfers to North Korea are "more prosaic". Having developed the bomb, Pakistan needed missiles to deliver them. North Korea was willing to supply them, for a price. "Like the Dutch centrifuges, all Kahuta had to do was put them together and stick a star and crescent on them," he adds. He argues that all deals and transfers of technology apparently took place from about 1987 until 1995. Gen Musharraf is reported to have given Secretary of State Colin Powell his "four hundred percent assurance" that no such interchange is taking place now. "Whether moved by money or faith, Pakistan's bomb makers, like the bomb itself, have seriously compromised the country's international standing and security. Two years ago, it was scientists from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission who, in a fit of Islamic solidarity, went to Afghanistan and met with Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. It is hard to believe they were the only ones so inclined."
Dr Hoodbhoy maintains that Pakistan will have to "put its nuclear house in order" and anything less than strict and complete accountability, regardless of rank or reputation, will leave the door open for those who may wish to try their luck, or in whom the fire of faith burns brighter. He writes, "My country's loose nukes underscore a global danger that may already be out of control. Nuclear secrets will keep leaking as long as the bomb has value as a currency of power and prestige. Humanity's best chance of survival lies in creating taboos against nuclear weapons, much as those that already exist for chemical and biological weapons, and to work rapidly toward their global elimination. To do away with the bomb, bomb technology and the menace of their proliferation will require the United States, as the world's only superpower, to take the lead by reducing its own nuclear arsenal, as well as dealing with all proliferators, including its ally Israel, at the same level."

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Powell asked Musharraf to arrest Dr AQ Khan
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Colin Powell is said to have asked Gen Pervez Musharraf to arrest Dr AQ Khan when he visited Islamabad in the summer of 2002.
A report in the Guardian newspaper, London, that has been reproduced here, claims that Mr Powell told the Pakistani leader that AQ Khan needed to be questioned over the alleged secret trading of Pakistan's nuclear technology to North Korea and he had evidence. An American spy satellite had recorded images of a Pakistani transport plane being loaded with missile parts in North Korea, a report said. It was, the US believed, part of a barter deal trading Pakistani nuclear know-how for missiles.
The report filed from Vienna quoted sources in Washington as saying that Mr Powell offered Gen Musharraf assistance for an inquiry into AQ Khan's activities. Money, equipment and lie detectors for interrogations would be made available, he was told. Gen Musharraf is said to have rejected the overture but the "case against AQ Khan has been building up inexorably since".
The newspaper reported, "The UN's nuclear detectives, acting on names and contacts supplied by Tehran plus information gleaned in Iran, found evidence which pointed to Pakistan as the source for Iran's uranium enrichment technology. But in an interview with a Pakistani satellite channel last month AQ Khan denied any involvement with Iran. `I am being accused for nothing, I never visited Iran, I don't know any Iranian, nor do I know any Iranian scientist. I will be targeted naturally because I made the nuclear bomb, I made the missile.' "
The Guardian quoted the German newsweekly Der Spiegel to say that a German intelligence report found in the mid-1990s that "there is said to be cooperation between Iran's atomic energy organisation and Pakistan's Khan laboratories". According to diplomats tracking the investigations, Tehran named some six individuals and several firms as being involved in the black market trade. This led to the questioning of AQ Khan and his associates, but investigators suspect this is the "tip of the iceberg". Another diplomatic source told the newspaper, "But there's a whole bunch of other suspects and sources. There has been a very active market in this stuff and this thing is widening." Those suspected of involvement include an unnamed British businessman in Dubai and middlemen in Sri Lanka and the Middle East.

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AQ Khan confesses N-proliferation
By Rana Qaisar
ISLAMABAD: Father of Pakistan's nuclear programme Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has confessed that he proliferated nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, official sources confirmed on Sunday.
"We have completed our probe and the information provided to Pakistan by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Libya and Iran has matched the findings of our investigation," sources said. They said Dr AQ Khan was in debriefing sessions for eight hours over the last couple of months and he admitted to having cooperated with Iran, Libya and North Korea.
However, sources said, the government had not decided what action to take against Dr Khan. "Maybe it will be of administrative nature or the government may decide on a trial," the officials said. They said that besides a dozen scientists, engineers and security staff, General (r) Aslam Beg, General (r) Jehangir Karamat and Lt Gen Zulfikar Ali Khan had also been questioned during investigations.
But the officials refrained from sharing any details of the interviews with these generals. "Dr Khan named the retired generals or deceased people for having pressured him to proliferate," the officials said.
The officials admitted that it was complete intelligence failure that machines, drawings and other equipment found their way out of Pakistan. "We have traced a network that Dr Khan had outside KRL and abroad."
They said these acts of proliferation took place from 1991 to 1997. "We have also traced the entire route of this proliferation and Dr Khan's connections with the nuclear black marketers."
The officials said around four people, who were already in custody, had collaborated with Dr Khan and action would be taken against them too.
In administrative action, Dr Khan was sacked on Saturday from the office of Adviser to the Prime Minister on Strategic Programmes.
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3 LT activists arrested
Staff Report
HYDERABAD: Police on Sunday arrested three activists of the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT) from outside its office in Tilak Incline area. Police charged the activists with collecting donations and said they had recovered a donation box from them that contained the name of LT and was full of currency notes.
The suspects were identified as Siaful Nadeem alias Abu Abdullah, Abdul Rasheed Ansari alias Abu Zubair and Muhammad Ameen. Police said the three were booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997. The police said that an accomplice of the suspects, Haji Imran, escaped.
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Much work on police reforms to be done
By Khawaja Naseer
LAHORE: The Punjab government has much work to do if it is to meet the August 14 deadline for the implementation of the police reforms set by President Pervez Musharraf.
The delay in the implementation of the Police Ordinance of 2002 has called into question the willingness of the Punjab government. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat was recently reported as saying the Punjab government did not wish to implement the order because it would mean losing control of the police. Others have said the Punjab Home Department and Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD), and the civil services group of which most of the departments top officials are drawn, the District Management Group, are unwilling to relinquish the power to transfer senior police officers.
Under the Police Ordinance of 2002, meant to replace the Police Act of 1861, the inspector general (IG) of police in each province will have the powers of an administrative secretary and be in charge of postings and transfers of all police officers in his department. Also under the ordinance, there are public safety commissions (PSCs), including the Punjab Public Safety Commission, and citizen-police liaison committees (CLPCs) to be set up.
The separation of police from the Home Department, according to the National Reconstruction Bureau that drafted the ordinance, is meant to de-politicise law-enforcement, to ensure the force is not subject to the whims of politicians. The PSCs and CLPCs are meant to give the district governments a say in the police, act as a check on police excesses and give the public a forum to register complaints.
Punjab Law and Local Government Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja rejected that the government and bureaucracy of the Punjab were unwilling to reform the police. "There is no administrative clash between government departments over the police reforms," he said.
So far, PSCs have been set up in 11 of the province's 34 districts. Mr Raja said the setting up of PSCs and CPLCs was the responsibility of the district governments.
The PSCs have representation from the district government and are meant to act as a police monitor. The CLPCs consist of members of the general public and can hear public complaints against police. Both can make recommendations in police officers' annual confidential reports.
The greatest entanglement, however, is over postings and transfers. Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi chaired a meeting on January 16 last year at which it was decided that a board consisting of the chief secretary, Home secretary and S&GAD secretary would approve transfers of senior police officers, to be recommended by the IG. The transfers of junior policemen were left up to their superiors in the police, eg, superintendents of police transfer assistant sub inspectors and district police officers transfer deputy superintendents of police (DSPs).
Mr Raja said the chief minister currently approved the transfers of DPOs and SPs and DSPs were to be posted by the Home Department and IG.
This arrangement means non-police bureaucracy still has a powerful role in the police, though less so than before. Previously, the transfer of senior officers was up to the Home Department and Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD).
A committee headed by the additional IG has been empowered to sack policemen found guilty of corruption or misbehaviour up to the rank of DSP, a privilege previously of the Home Department.
The prisons, civil defence and intelligence remain with the Home Department.
Speaking to Daily Times, a senior official of the Home Department said the "maximum administrative powers" had been delegated to the IG office. "The power to transfer only the senior police officials remains with the Home Department," he added.
Mr Raja said the Home, S&GAD and Police departments had been asked to present briefings on the implementation of the reforms and propose amendments to the ordinance. The government, he said, would finalise a strategy for the implementation of the ordinance after receiving the input.
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US officials claim to be behind Khan's removal
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: The New York Times on Sunday quoted unidentified American officials as claiming that they pressed Gen Pervez Musharraf to remove Dr AQ Khan "whom they have long suspected of sharing nuclear technology with other countries".
In a report from Islamabad, the newspaper also quoted Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, a security analyst, as saying the army feared that if AQ Khan were arrested he would identify senior military officials who allegedly approved the transfers. "The military-led government has thus far taken the position that any sales of technology were an unsanctioned act, perhaps by AQ Khan and a handful of close aides and low-level military officials," the report added.
"AQ Khan will lead to more names," Dr Siddiqa told the New York Times. "That is what they are weighing."
However Dr Rasul Baksh Rais of the Lahore University of Management Sciences was quoted as arguing that the Saturday actions were a signal that AQ Khan had committed a serious offence. He said he expected the government to move against AQ Khan, if clear evidence against him existed. "It suggests that there is something serious against him," Dr Rais said.
"That AQ Khan is no longer in the same esteem and respect of the Pakistani government and that he has done something really serious against the interests of Pakistan."
The Washington Post Sunday, besides publishing a long report from its Islamabad-based correspondent John Lancaster and Karachi stringer Kamran Khan, also carried a picture of what was said to be AQ Khan's home at Banni Gala, a suburb of Islamabad. The photo was credited to Mr Lancaster.
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123 Iranian MPs resign, call hardliners `Taliban'
TEHRAN: A group of 123 Iranian reformist MPs resigned on Sunday in protest at the mass barring of candidates from forthcoming elections, plunging the Islamic republic into one of its worst-ever crises amid what were supposed to be 25th anniversary celebrations.
In a damning statement read out during a stormy Majlis session carried live on national radio, the deputies accused powerful hardliners of seeking to impose a Taliban-style religious dictatorship. "We cannot continue to be present in a parliament that is not capable of defending the rights of the people and which is unable to prevent elections in which the people cannot choose their representatives," they said.
The statement, read out by prominent reformist MPs Mohsen Mirdamadi and Rajab-Ali Mazroui, accused conservatives of "installing an Islam comparable to that of the Taliban" -- a cutting jibe given Shiite Muslim Iran's hatred of the ousted Sunni fundamentalist Afghan militia..
The hardliners behind the mass barring of election candidates from the February 20 polls were also labelled as "traitors".
"We will not participate in this election," the deputies wrote in their statement. Parliamentary sources said 123 deputies had submitted signed copies of the letter.
In a symbolic move, the resignations coincided with the hour and day of the return from exile 25 years ago of Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Iran is currently gearing up for official celebrations marking the 1979 revolution.
After being swamped with resignation letters, pro-reform Majlis speaker Mehdi Karubi admitted the three-week-old crisis had hit a dead-end and appealed for the Islamic republic's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to step in. "We are in a deadlock," Karubi said. "The Supreme Guide must intervene to solve this problem."
Khamenei has the final say on all matters of state, and he directly or indirectly appoints all 12 members of the Guardians Council, the political vetting body that has disqualified large numbers of reformists from standing in the Majlis elections. The supreme leader had already intervened in the bitter crisis, by telling the Guardians Council -- a body fiercely opposed to the reformists' bid to shake up the way Iran is run -- to be less stringent. --Agencies
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REGION: Reformist leader warns hardliners not to force February 20 elections
* Reza Khatami says opportunity now lost for free and fair elections
TEHRAN: The head of Iran's main reformist party and brother of the president warned powerful conservatives on Sunday not to force the holding of parliament elections on February 20, saying such a step would be tantamount to a "coup d'etat".
"If the conservatives want to organise an election with the backing of the military, this would not be an election," Mohammad Reza Khatami, who heads the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), told reporters.
"This would be a coup d'etat, with the purpose of eradicating the republic. Nowhere in the world can the military organise free and fair elections," warned the younger brother of President Mohammad Khatami. It was not clear what sparked the warning of military involvement in the polls, which came after the IIPF leader and close to 120 other reformist MPs resigned from the Majlis in protest over the mass barring of pro-reform candidates from the crucial polls.
Iran's reformist government has already refused to organise the elections, but the Guardians Council - the powerful conservative-run political watchdog behind the disqualifications - has refused to postpone the polls.
"The Guardians Council has lost a golden opportunity," the IIPF leader said. "Even if they wanted to now approve all the candidates they had disqualified, the opportunity for a fair and competitive election has been lost." "Therefore organising an election in due time is not possible," he said. --AFP
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Speaker urges Khamenei to intervene
TEHRAN: The president of the Iranian parliament on Sunday appealed for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to intervene in the country's political crisis after reformist MPs resigned in protest over the mass disqualification of candidates from forthcoming elections. "We are in a deadlock," Majlis speaker Mehdi Karubi said during a stormy parliament session carried live on state radio after he was handed resignations from 109 deputies. "The Supreme Guide must intervene to solve this problem," he added, saying he "still has hope" and that a "path is still open" to resolve the worsening political crisis. --AFP
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Tehran summit: Mubarak declines Iran's invitation
TEHRAN: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has declined an Iranian invitation to attend an economic summit in Tehran later this month, a visit that was supposed to have heralded a resumption of diplomatic ties between Iran and Egypt, the Iranian foreign minister said on Sunday. "Mr Hosni Mubarak is not going to participate himself, but a high-ranking delegation is going to be sent," Kamal Kharazi told reporters. "Iran-Egyptian relations are in the reconstruction phase and need time," he added. "There should be a natural and definite course for relations to be resumed in the near future." "What is important is that both sides have decided on this and are working on it," he added. Iran had invited Mubarak to a summit of the Islamic group of eight due to be held in Tehran from February 19-20. The group was set up in 1998 on Turkey's initiative. It comprises Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. --AFP

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33 countries object to ICJ ruling on West Bank barrier: Israel
JERUSALEM: Thirty-three countries believe the International Court of Justice (ICJ) does not have the jurisdiction to rule on the legality of the controversial separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank, a foreign ministry official said Sunday. According to Ron Prosor, chief political adviser to Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, a total of 33 nations formally expressed their objections to the ICJ's authority to rule on the issue at a hearing scheduled for February 23. The court's deadline for written arguments was Friday. Among the countries submitting an objection were the United States, the majority of EU member states including France, Germany and Britain, Russia, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Senegal, Cameroun, Poland and Hungary. "These countries believe the issue of the security fence is a political issue which the court in The Hague is not supposed to debate," Prosor told army radio. Israel on Friday formally submitted a written challenge to the court's right to rule on the barrier, which is currently under construction. The Jewish state is hoping the court will decline to debate the legality of the barrier on grounds that it is not the appropriate forum in which to discuss what is an essentially political issue. The matter was referred to the ICJ by the UN General Assembly, which asked the court to pronounced on the issue following an Arab resolution. The opinion is non-binding and only advisory but could cause great embarrassment to Israel. Seventeen countries, most of them Arab or Muslim, believe the world court does have the right to rule on the issue. Palestinians says the route of the barrier, which at points juts deep into their territory, proves it is little more than a bid to pre-empt the borders of their promised state and grab some of its most fertile land. --AFP

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US credibility on North Korea on the line after Iraq intelligence fiasco
WASHINGTON: If the United States did get it "all wrong" on Iraq's non-existent arsenal, why should the world trust its intelligence on North Korea's nuclear drive which sparked a diplomatic meltdown with Pyongyang?
That's a question American diplomats may already be facing from Asian powers like China and South Korea, after Iraq weapons hunter David Kay delivered a damning post-mortem on intelligence used to justify the Iraq war.
"We were almost all wrong" Kay told a Senate committee last week, setting off a political time bomb for the Bush administration. His admission also raised questions about the quality of intelligence used to back up another US claim -- that North Korea had a covert programme to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, which set off the crisis in 2002..
A State Department official denied the Iraq debacle had "anything to do" with North Korea, but some US proliferation experts are not so sure.
"The fact that we got it so wrong on Iraq is having an impact on North Korea", said John Wolfstahl, of the non-proliferation project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. China, trying to broker new six-way crisis talks on the crisis, recently told Japan it did not believe Pyongyang had a enriched uranium programme, the Washington Post reported this month. And South Korea has privately expressed similar doubts, sources in Washington said. But US officials are defending their accusations.
"The United States has not changed its view that North Korea has a highly enriched uranium programme," said the State Department official on condition of anonymity.
And a former US envoy to talks with North Korea, part of an unofficial American delegation to Pyongyang in January, is also convinced US data on Iraq's alleged highly enriched uranium programme is accurate.
"I was not sceptical of the intelligence", said former State Department official Jack Pritchard, at a Brookings Institution briefing two weeks ago.
"I believe it was accurate".
Doubts over the quality of US intelligence were fanned by a controversy exposed by Pritchard's trip, which also included a US academic and nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker.
Senior North Korean officials used the meetings to deny US claims that they admitted in October 2002 to US envoy James Kelly, to having a highly enriched uranium programme.
In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Hecker quoted North Korean Vice Minister Kim Gye Gwan as saying, "We have no programme, we have no equipment, and we have no technical expertise for enriching uranium".
North Korean officials said their translation of the Kelly meeting did not support the claim that they had owned up.
But Kelly said last week he remained "convinced by that conversation that a uranium enrichment programme was admitted". "This is information that we're very strongly convinced about".
The United States has never publicly divulged data on which it based its assessment. But sources here said the intelligence centred on North Korean attempts to procure technology typical of a highly enriched uranium programme, and contacts made by Pyongyang's agents.
But by October 2002, there apparently was no proof that North Korea had established a specific facility to enrich uranium.
Some analysts fear the controversy over highly enriched uranium could become a sideshow when six-nation talks, originally pencilled in for December finally take place, possibly next month.
Washington could thwart North Korean attempts to inflame the issue by sharing the intelligence with its allies, said Wolfstahl.
"The United States has not at this point even complied with South Korean requests to share our intelligence on why we are convinced there is an highly enriched programme in North Korea", he said. "We have doubts and we have those doubts reinforced by our unwillingness to share our information".
US accusations that North Korea had embarked on a programme to enrich uranium, in violation of several anti-nuclear pacts pitched the Cold War rivals into their worst crises in years.
North Korea kicked out international arms inspectors and unfroze a previous nuclear programme based on plutonium, which had been mothballed in a 1994 anti-nuclear deal with the United States, and pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United States cut off fuel shipments mandated by the 1994 deal and warned it would not reward the Stalinist state for "bad behaviour". --AFP



James Kelly hopes for new round of Korean nuclear talks
WASHINGTON: US envoy James Kelly said Sunday he was optimistic about holding a new round of talks this month on ending the North Korean nuclear crisis.
The countries concerned "may be able to have another round of six-party talks before very long. Perhaps even this month of February," Kelly said after he arrived at Incheon Airport for talks with South Korean officials.
He said he was "mildly optimistic" that the talks would go ahead this month.
Kelly later met his South Korean counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Su-Hyuck.
He will meet Foreign Minster Ban Ki-Moon and Unification Minister Jeong Se-Hyun Monday before going to Japan, where the envoy will link up with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage for a US-Japan strategic dialogue.
The United States confers closely with Japan and South Korea on North Korea policy, as part of cooperation which has tightened since the nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002.
The first round of six-nation talks, also including North Korea, Russia and China, made little headway in Beijing in August.
The United States wants verifiable pledges by North Korea to eliminate its alleged uranium enrichment programme, plutonium reprocessing and existing atomic weapons. Pyongyang showed an unofficial US delegation in early January what it said was plutonium but rejected US accounts of a 2002 meeting in which North Korea admitted to a uranium programme.
It offered recently to freeze its nuclear drive in return for concessions, including an end to US sanctions and a resumption of energy assistance. Pyongyang also wants a legally binding security guarantee from Washington.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban, however, described the offer as "not appropriate" and urged North Korea to dismantle "all its nuclear programmes including high enrichment of uranium, completely, verifiably and irreversibly." "It is not appropriate at the current stage for North Korea to demand such concessions as a precondition," he told Yonhap news agency in Manila.
"A nuclear freeze is the first step in a nuclear dismantlement. A verification means an inspection so nuclear inspections should follow."
US and South Korean officials say North Korea has fallen short of meeting international calls for a resolution to the crisis. --AFP
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>> HAPPY EID...

Disasters Over the Years at Saudi Hajj
By The Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) - The annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, known as the hajj, has been plagued by disaster in recent years.
Thousands of people, most of them pilgrims involved in one of the world's greatest religious rituals, have died in tragedies linked to Islam's holiest shrines.
Some of these were the result of political and religious disputes.
The worst disasters were:
- Feb. 1, 2004: 244 pilgrims killed and a similar number injured, some critically, in a stampede during the devil-stoning ritual.
- March 5, 2001: 35 killed in stampede during stoning of the devil ritual in Mina.
- April 9, 1998: About 180 pilgrims were trampled to death when panic erupted after several fell off an overpass during the stoning of the devil ritual in Mina.
- April 15, 1997: Fires driven by high winds tear through a sprawling, overcrowded tent city at Mina, trapping and killing more than 340 pilgrims and injuring 1,500. Aid workers and diplomats said the death toll was at least 500.
- May 23, 1994: 270 pilgrims, most of them Indonesian, killed in stampede in Mecca as worshippers surge toward cavern for symbolic ritual of "stoning the devil."
- July 2, 1990: 1,426 pilgrims, many of them Malaysians, Indonesian and Pakistanis, killed in Mecca stampede in overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites. It was worst hajj tragedy of modern times.
- July 9, 1989: Two bombs explode in Mecca, killing one pilgrim, wounding 16. Saudi authorities blame Iranian-inspired terrorists and later behead 16 Kuwaiti Shiite Muslims for bombings. Iran denied involvement.
- July 31, 1987: 402 people, mostly Iranian pilgrims, killed and 649 wounded in Mecca when security forces clash with Iranian staging illegal anti-U.S. demonstration.

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Pakistan bars banned groups from collecting hides
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has put police on high alert and barred banned outfits from collecting hides of sacrificial animals during Eidul Azha to prevent them from raising funds, officials said.
Several religious parties, jihadi outfits and charities used to collect thousands of hides, which were sold to leather traders and had been a good source of income to fund their operations.
But last year, president Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war against terrorism, banned six radical groups, froze their bank accounts and barred them from raising funds.
"Collection of hides also comes under fund-raising activity, that is why the government has restricted the banned outfits under the country's anti-terrorism law," an official requesting anonymity said.
Other organisations and charities would have to seek government permission for collection of hides, he said. People usually donate hides to charities, mosques and seminaries after slaughtering goats, sheep, bulls and camels.
Lahore City Nazim Mian Amir Mehmood said no banned organisation would be allowed to collect hides. "We cannot allow extremist organisations and persons involved in anti-state activities setting camps for hides' collection. If anybody violated the law, they shall be dealt with an iron hand," he said.
Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil told AFP: "No banned organisations whether jihadi or welfare trust, would be allowed to collect hides on Eid days. "Even those organisations which have not been banned have also been told to seek prior permission from the government for hide collection." Sarfraz Ahmed, the spokesman for Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), said: "We earned millions of rupees from hides sales which we spent on our welfare programme." The JI collected around 30,000 hides from Karachi in 2003, he said. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) has appealed to the people to donate hides to seminaries. "Madrassas (seminaries) need funds and people should give hides to them," JUI spokesman Qari Usman said. --AFP
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Hide collection spots in city
Religious and welfare bodies have set up hide collection centres in various areas of the provincial metropolis. Following are the areas:
Lytton Road, Chauburji, Chungi Amarsadhu, Dubai Chowk, Allama Iqbal Town, Multan Chungi, Wahdat Road ground, Township Main Market, Green Town Market, Pindi Stop Liaquatabad, Model Town, Awan Town, Samanabad, Amir Road Shadbagh, Mustafabad, Main Bazaar Ichhra, Jauhar Town, Lohari Gate, Naulakha, Old Anarkali, RA Bazaar, North Cant, Gulberg.
Idara Minhajul Quran Township, M-Block Model Town, Bagrian Chowk, Kahna, Wapda Town, Jauhar Town, Bhati Gate, Urdu Bazaar, Mustafabad and Gari Shahu, Yateemkhana Chowk, Sodiwal, Colony Saidan Shah, Darbar Mian Mir Sahib, Sadar Bazaar, Ghaziabad, Rehmanpura, Garden Town, Mozang Chungi, Shahdara Town, Shafiqabad, Ravi Road and Sabzimandi.
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2,000 workers to remove animal waste from capital
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has divided Islamabad into three zones to clean the city on the eve of Eidul Azha and has appointed over 2,000 workers to remove the animal waste.
CDA Sanitation Director Syed Mustafian Kazmi told Daily Times that the holidays of sanitation department employees were cancelled to ensure the cleanliness of the city after slaughtering the animals.
"Over 2,000 sanitary workers and supervisors equipped with over 100 vehicles will work round the clock in three shifts during the Eid days and will clean the filth from streets, markets and mosques," said Mr Kazmi.
He said that the authority had divided the city into A, B and C zones. Zones A and B will include all the residential areas of Islamabad city while zone C consists of the model villages and native towns of capital.
He said the CDA had prepared four deep ditches in Sector H-12 to dump the animal waste. "We have instructed all workers strictly to completely clean the city before, during and after Eid and I hope citizens will not face any problem. I will be available for any complaints from the public," he said.
Mr Kazmi said the CDA workers were already busy in cleaning streets, markets, trade centers, mosques and Eidgahs on Saturday and Sunday to provide citizens a clean atmosphere to celebrate the Eid festival.
The Rawalpindi Municipal Committee and Cantonment Board Rawalpindi have also made arrangements to clean the city.
More than 100 teams would work in the Rawalpindi city during the Eid days and will dispose of the garbage quickly. The authorities have directed officials to work swiftly in the major areas of the city including residential and trade areas.
Rawalpindi District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiyani will make surprise visit to check the cleaning work.
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Security agencies fear terror attacks on Eid: Security tightened in southern Punjab
* Police officials' leave cancelled
* Two terrorists arrested, says DPO
Staff Report
MULTAN: Following reports by security agencies in South Punjab, security has been tightened on the eve of Eidul Azha.
"All holidays of police officials have been cancelled and they have been asked to remain on duty on account of Eidul Azha," said Multan District Police Officer Hamid Mukhtar Gondal.
Mr Gondal said that police would be deployed at religious sites and other important places, adding that special mobile teams would also patrol the outskirts of the city to keep watch on miscreants.
"Two wanted killers of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Qari Muhammad Ramzan and Qari Abdul Ghaffar, involved in terrorist activities, were arrested from Riwaz Garden by the Sanda Police, Mr Gondal said, adding that they were later taken to Multan for interrogation.
Meanwhile, security arrangements have been finalised in Bahawalnagar district to avert any untoward incident on the eve of Eidul Azha, reports APP.
District Police Officer Sheikh Muhammad Umer said on Sunday that 20 deputy superintendents of police, 28 inspectors, 66 sub-inspector, 54 assistance sub-inspectors, 544 head constables and 200 volunteers had been ordered to step up security in eidgahs and mosques.
"A control room has also been set up to function round the clock," he added.
In Kasur, the district government decided to make special security arrangements on the eve of Eidul Azha with various security teams of police and other law-enforcment agencies, reports APP.
In a meeting, chaired by District Nazim Rana Imtiaz Ahmed Khan, held on Sunday. He said security officials had been deputed in all public places, including main markets, bus stands, whereas police officials would also perform duty in mosques and eidgahs.
He said patrols were also increased. He ordered the Police Department to implement the security plan. District Police Officer Kasur Ghulam Muhammad Kalyar and police officials attended the meeting.
Girl in brothel escapes clutches of human traffickers: Fazeelat Bibi, 17, of Burewala Chak-327, who escaped from human traffickers, said many women's dens are operating with the collusion of Karachi's law enforcement agencies.
Talking to reporters in Multan on Sunday, Fazeelat said she was 11 years old when her father Muhammad Iqbal and mother Bashiran died. Then her uncle Taj Muhammad and maternal uncle Asif forced her to serve as a prostitute. "I refused and ran away to the Burewala General Bus Stand," she said, adding that a rickshaw driver met her and calling her his daughter, took her to his home where he raped her.
"Later, he took me to Karachi and sold me to a woman who ran a brothel," Fazeelat said, adding that she saw a number of young and pretty girls belonging to Vehari, Burewala, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sukkur and other cities.
Fazeelat said the owner of the brothel kept the new girls in shackles so that they would not escape. She said if any girl refused to do what the owner wanted she was beaten up and mortally threatened. Later she was caught with a man during a surprise raid by the police and was sent to Darul Aman, she added.
She said that in Darul Aman another woman forcefully sold her to another group of women traffickers in Mian Channu. "However, I managed to escape when I was being taken to Multan from Mian Chunnu by a driver," she said.
Ms Fazeelat appealed to President General Pervez Musharraf and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to arrest the human traffickers involved in selling her.
PM-QA president arrested: The Yazman Police has arrested a homeopathic doctor and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-QA) President Abdul Majid Shah along with 1,000 bottles of alcohol and registered two cases against him.
Additional Suprintendent of Police Irfan Ali Baluch said, "The police has arrested homeopathic doctor Abdul Majid Shah who is allegedly involved in supplying liquor." He said the police confiscated 1,000 bottles of liquor from his clinic.
However, Mr Shah said that because he was a homeopathic doctor he was authorised to keep alcohol for making medicines, adding that he was arrested by police for being the PML-QA's president.
PIA employee arrested for drug trafficking: The Anti-narcotics Force (ANF) has arrested a technician of the Pakistan International airlines (PIA) and confiscated 20 kilogrammes of hashish.
ANF spokesman said that they had information that an inter-provincial gang of drug traffickers was engaged in smuggling hashish to the Gulf states and PIA's employee Liaquat Ali was playing a key role in transporting it. The ANF team kept Mr Ali's movement under observation, spokesman added. The spokesman said that on Saturday, Mr Ali got a consignment of 20 kilogrammes of hashish to smuggle to Dubai on Sunday by PIA's direct flight. When Mr Ali came out of his hiding with the hashish, the ANF team arrested him, spokesman said, adding that during interrogation Mr Ali confessed to his crime. However, ANF team failed to arrest the other members of the gang.
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Eid prayer timings in Lahore...

>> ALBANY WATCH...

Court unanimously rules to discard $80,000 lights
Albany -- Chandeliers used in $37M renovation didn't fit with building, officials say
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, January 31, 2004
The end of a two-year, $37 million state Court of Appeals building renovation could have prompted a celebratory swing from any one of 35 new chandeliers -- if any had been left hanging.
The pendant bowl lamps described as "upside-down umbrellas" were slated to be installed prominently around the 157-year-old Eagle Street building's first and second floors -- until they arrived.
Then came a resounding thumbs-down from officials all the way up to Chief Judge Judith Kaye, who was concerned about preserving the historic integrity of the elegant Greek Revival building.
"It wasn't just Judge Kaye," attested her spokesman, Gary Spencer. "She didn't like them. Neither did I. Neither did the clerk of the court. Neither did anyone."
The milked-glass globes with brass rims were supposed to mirror existing fixtures installed during the courthouse's 1959 renovation, said Ronald P. Younkins, director of court facilities for the state Office of Court Administration.
But they didn't.
"A bunch of us went around and said, 'it's not quite right,' " Younkins said. "It was a feeling you couldn't duplicate, given the nature of a historic building."
"I think in 30 years they'll say we did the right thing," Younkins added.
Said Spencer: "It was like putting a baseball cap on Abe Lincoln."
So while pricey custom-made replacements will be made by posh Manhattan fixture manufacturer Rambusch, which specializes in historic preservation projects, the $80,000 castoffs will be passed to the new Albany County Justice and Family Court buildings.
But one person's trash is another's treasure.
"They're beautiful light fixtures, and we're delighted to have them," said County Court facilities director Jay Quackenbush. "In fact, we're thrilled to death it worked out. And so are they. We're not getting anybody's rejects. These are perfect for courtrooms."
And since the pendant lights have essentially no resale value, "if nothing else, we're getting them deeply discounted," he said, unsure of the final price.
The renovation project, coordinated by the state Dormitory Authority, has updated the historic court building's infrastructure -- including heating, air conditioning, plumbing and lighting -- while bringing it into compliance with Americans With Disabilities Act and safety codes.
It added about 25,000 square feet to the existing 67,000 square feet, including two new wings and a multiple-level parking garage.
Work has come in at about $1 million under budget, Younkins said.
The Court of Appeals project will be considered complete once a design for the new lights is approved by Kaye and others, said Dormitory Authority spokeswoman Claudia Sutton.
Until that time, the cost for the new lights is unknown, she said: "But there's room within the budget to get it done."
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State weighs doggie bags for unfinished wine
Lawmakers say restaurant patrons would drink less, and be safer drivers, if allowed to take a bottle home
By KIRSTAN CONLEY, Associated Press
First published: Saturday, January 31, 2004
ALBANY -- A nice bottle of merlot would go perfectly with the gourmet restaurant meal but there's a drive home to consider, so the diner orders a single glass.
Worse, the patron buys the bottle, finishes it and then gets behind the wheel.
Two legislators in New York are proposing a law allowing diners to take home the unfinished bottle -- corked, of course. They say their measure would pump up wine sales at the same time it cuts down on drunken driving.
"If they know they can take the opened bottle of wine home, then they probably will, instead of trying to finish it in the restaurant," said Assemblyman Bill Magee who, along with Sen. Stephen Saland, introduced the legislation.
If the bill passes, New York would be one of at least a half-dozen states that allow take-out wine. California, Oregon, Maine, Hawaii and Connecticut all have "doggie bag" laws. New York is the nation's second biggest wine producer, behind only California.
Rick Sampson, president of the New York State Restaurant Association, said his organization hasn't taken a position on the legislation.
"I can certainly understand it from a consumer standpoint," Sampson said. "If someone is going to spend $25, $50 or $75 on a bottle of wine, they're certainly going to want to finish it."
New York is home to more than 170 wineries -- from Long Island Sound to the Finger Lakes and Lake Erie -- that produce 100 million bottles a year and $85 million in local and state revenue, Magee said.
Magee, a Madison County Democrat who chairs the Assembly Agriculture Committee, said the bill also makes it more likely for diners to order more than one variety of wine, helping restaurant owners' bottom lines.
Spokesmen for the State Police and the New York Sheriff's Association did not return calls for comment.
Representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Driving said they just learned of the legislation and won't take a position until they determine if it would weaken New York's open container laws and increase drunken driving.
Sampson and Magee predicted some opposition from police and groups that try to reduce drinking and driving, but Magee said his bill addresses the open container issue by requiring a secure seal.
And Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, said the bill would require people to buy a full meal when buying a bottle of wine, preventing them from buying bottles after wine shops and liquor stores are closed.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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N.Y. Bill Would Classify Dogs As Weapons
By MICHAEL HILL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Shotgun. Switchblade. Blackjack. Dog?
A dangerous canine would be defined as a "deadly weapon" under a bill before the New York Legislature.
"Some of these dogs are killing machines," said Assemblyman Patrick Manning, whose proposal also would allow towns to ban certain breeds.
The bill is among a pack of legislative solutions being offered nationwide to address the problem of vicious dogs, which Manning said are becoming "the weapon of choice for drug dealers or gangbangers."
The legislation doesn't single out any particular breed, but frequent targets in other states are pit bulls and Rottweilers, which have been involved in highly publicized attacks on people.
Manning's bill is called "Elijah's Law," after a 3-year-old mauled by a Rottweiler last fall in New York City.
Animal advocates said the proposal to characterize dangerous dogs as deadly weapons is novel, although cities including Denver and Cincinnati already have passed bans on pit bulls. And an Ohio law requires owners of vicious dogs to carry at least $100,000 worth of liability insurance.
Stephanie Shain of The Humane Society of the United States said she was not aware of any statewide bans on breeds.
Some communities with pit bull bans have reported fewer attacks, but many animal advocates believe bans are overly simplistic, sweeping away good dogs along with the bad.
Prince George's County, Md., is considering repealing its pit bull ban because of the number of family pets being destroyed.
"There are perfectly wonderful, safe pit bulls living with families and there are Labrador retrievers that are dangerous," Shain said.
The society advocates looking at the problem dog by dog, rather than breed by breed. Shain said local animal control officers should be empowered to restrict free-roaming or menacing dogs before they cause serious injury.
Also before the New York Legislature is a bill that would allow the destruction of dogs that unjustifiably attack a cat or another dog. Another bill would bar convicted drug dealers and other felons from owning pit bulls, Rottweilers or any vicious dog over 10 pounds.
Manning said he wants to let communities create registries of dangerous dogs to help police and emergency workers.
"Every newspaper article about another attack only reinforces that we have to do something," he said.

-- -----------------------------------------------------------------
Once a Capitol golden boy, he's now a ghost in its halls
Albany-- Dan Barr, who was a top press aide to Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, depends on the kindness of statehouse old-timers
By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, February 1, 2004
"Every goddamned lobbyist in the state's here today," Dan Barr grumbled in a low, raspy voice.
He waited in the visitors' line at the Washington Avenue entrance of the Capitol. State troopers made him empty the pockets of his rumpled khakis and ran his old black parka through an X-ray machine before Barr was allowed to pass a metal detector.
It was two hours before Gov. George Pataki would deliver his State of the State Message in the Assembly chamber.
"They made me take off my shoes yesterday," Barr, 79, muttered as he shuffled down the marble corridor toward the cafeteria on creaky legs slowed by a stroke two years ago.
Meanwhile, legislative staffers with employee badges and VIPs such as former Gov. Hugh Carey and Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings waltzed through security with no more than a friendly wave.
What the troopers didn't know was that Barr -- who has the tattered look, glassy eyes and bloodshot face of a street person -- was once Mr. Somebody at the Capitol.
He was a press secretary to Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller from 1962-71 and one of Rocky's golden boys. He was a frequent flier on the private plane to the sprawling Rockefeller ranch in Venezuela; to the family estate in Pocantico Hills; to the summer retreat in Seal Harbor, Maine. He grew close to the extended family and had the entree of a favored uncle.
At the top of the Capitol food chain, Barr possessed something as good as gold: the governor's ear.
That was four decades ago.
Now, here he was, back in his old haunt. Mr. Nobody.
The new generation of politicos and lobbyists with juice surging from the tips of their Gucci loafers to the ends of their $50 haircuts looked right through Barr as if he were a ghost. Ears glued to their cellphones, they had no clue that Barr was once like them: a man in full.
Those who shot Barr sideways glances reserved for winos and panhandlers knew nothing about the rising star who was dragged down by tragedy and demons and the drink, yet keeps coming back to the Capitol -- hobbling on a survivor's ragged nobility.
The life of Dan Barr is a cautionary tale of excess and a long fall after a brush with the flame of power. It also is a reminder that behind the cold, granite facade of the Capitol and the impersonal bureaucracy of state government, a warm heart still beats, and something that might be called a soul resides.
"I've known Dan in his heyday and in his decline, and it can be tough seeing him now. What do you say?" asked Gerald McLaughlin, 67, who met Barr in 1965, when McLaughlin was a reporter at the Capitol, and later when he was Sen. John Marchi's press secretary.
"A lot of us see Dan and have that uncomfortable feeling, 'There but for the grace of God go I.' "
Daniel F. Barr was born in 1924 in Oshkosh, Wis., and grew up on a dairy farm. His father fought in the trenches during World War I, came home troubled and left his family for good when Dan was 4 or 5. His mother was shattered. An only child, Barr was raised by a grandmother. The Depression and tough times spurred his grandmother to move with him to New York state, where she had relatives.
"I was a half-orphan, I guess," Barr said. He hunched his shoulders and stared into a coffee cup.
He and his grandmother settled in Catskill, where Barr attended school. In 1942, at 18, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces.
Barr became a B-17 bombardier-gunner in the 8th Air Force. He flew more than 30 combat missions over Europe, up in the naked glass nose of the bomber. On a clear day, he had a perfect view of deadly incoming fire.
Re-living his World War II experience, Barr balled his hand into a tight fist and said that was the size of his stomach on a bombing run.
"Every time I flew I was scared," he said. "I'd see another plane hit, peel off and fall away and I'd say a prayer: 'Oh, God. Not me today.' "
Barr returned to Catskill physically unscathed. He attended the University of California at Berkeley on the GI Bill, transferred to St. Lawrence University and earned a bachelor's degree in biology. Faculty advisers wanted him to apply to medical school, but he returned to Catskill to be a newspaperman.
He rose up the masthead of the Catskill Daily Mail, from reporter to managing editor. In 1958, he was hired by the Times Union, where he covered politics and wrote a column, "Barr None." He won journalism awards and is widely credited with breaking the story of Rockefeller's plan to build the South Mall.
Barr's career scoop came at the governor's 1961 holiday reception for reporters in the Executive Mansion. There was a boozy camaraderie between the almost all-male press corps and their sources in those days.
Rockefeller was drinking his usual, red wine. Barr preferred Dewar's on the rocks. Drinks in hand, the governor invited Barr upstairs while other reporters mingled in the mansion's foyer.
"He liked me and I got along with him," Barr said of the governor.
Rockefeller drew the 37-year-old newspaperman to a window overlooking the city's Gut, a hardscrabble core rife with gin mills, prostitutes and derelict houses.
"I'm going to get rid of all that," Rockefeller said with a sweep of his hand.
Barr asked him how.
"You'll see," the governor replied mischievously, his trial balloon aloft.
Barr worked his sources and a few days later published the first public pronouncement on what would become the largest and most expensive state government complex ever. The Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza remains a controversial monument to one man's legacy.
Rocky soon plucked Barr from the Times Union, nearly doubling his salary, to $17,176 -- big money in 1962. Rockefeller gave Barr an expense account. His salary climbed above $30,000. He lived with his wife and children in a nice Colonial on Euclid Avenue. Life was sweet.
"Dan was a very gifted press spokesman for Rockefeller," said Bill Stevens, 74, who worked as a Capitol reporter for the Associated Press in 1963. "He was a great source, even after he left the governor's staff. He knew a lot of people in government and they liked him. They told him things, and he told us."
Barr was at the center of a Capitol culture in the '60s that had the feel of a private men's club: arrogant, insular and hard-drinking, with a nightly poker game that typically ran into the wee hours of the morning.
To this day, the press room of the Legislative Correspondents Association on the third floor of the Capitol -- with its soaring stone arches, patina of cigar smoke and rakish charm -- is a throwback to "The Front Page" era of rewrite desks, green eyeshades and copy boys long before a button-down corporate culture took hold.
On a mezzanine level of the LCA press room known as "the shelf," a battered pool table shares space with an ancient upright piano where President Harry Truman once tickled the ivories. A small brass plate on a nearby card table bears Dan Barr's name, but its stained felt rarely sees action anymore.
There was a time when Barr held court there and was the heart of a long-running, after-hours party. "He was a likable guy who liked to joke and have a good time," said Bob Fusco, 81, a Capitol reporter for the Troy Record starting in the early '60s. He later worked as supervisor of the LCA press room for 18 years before retiring from state service in 1989.
Barr was flying high in the Rockefeller era, and it wasn't just from the copious quantities of booze at the card table and the bar at the Ambassador, an Elk Street watering hole for pols and the press.
"Dan was a very dapper dresser, had a biting wit, knew everybody in town and had a generous side," McLaughlin said. He recalled Barr loaning money to guys who needed a touch to tide them over to payday. He leaked scoops to reporters who'd hit a rough patch with an editor.
At the peak of his power, Barr's three sons died. They succumbed -- each at about age 3, one after another in a five-year span in the late 1960s -- from infantile muscular dystrophy.
"They were healthy, happy boys. All of a sudden, their heads went wobbly and started flopping over," Barr said. "They lost all muscle control."
With Rockefeller's intervention, the three boys were seen by top specialists at Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts General Hospital and elsewhere. His oldest child, a daughter,did not contract the disease.
Brian, Quentin and Terry Barr are buried at Our Lady of Angels Cemetery in Colonie.
After his wife left him, Barr turned to drink and fell into a long slide.
He was let go from the governor's staff and returned briefly to newspaper work, followed by another short stint in state service -- long enough to give him a small state pension. He lost his later low-wage jobs.
Barr lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment off Western Avenue. It's just a couple of blocks from the big house on Euclid Avenue he owned when his family and life were intact.
Kay Shatraw, office manager for The New York Times bureau in the LCA press room for the past 35 years, is a longtime friend of Barr's and acts as his guardian. She buys him bus passes, arranges his haircuts, helps him get on his feet after hospitalizations.
"Dan's like part of my family," said Shatraw, whose late husband, children and grandchildren befriended Barr. "I don't know why I've always liked him. He's funny and makes me laugh."
Shatraw and other old-timers at the Capitol who help Barr are proof the place isn't heartless. A worker slides some bills into Barr's hand in the cafeteria for lunch. Senate nurses tend to his aches and pains. Legislators and aides give him rides.
"The people who remember Dan when he worked here and still watch out for him are the ones who give the Capitol its soul," said Assemblyman Jack McEneny, who occasionally drives Barr to the Capitol. "Dan's a fixture around here, like a piece of the furniture."
For others, Barr wore out his welcome. He is persona non grata in the LCA press room, prohibited after he had taken to sleeping there.
"He's earned the ignoble position of being banned by his conduct," said Fred Dicker, Capitol correspondent for the New York Post, who's known Barr since 1977 and was once friendly with him.
"I see him as a pathetic figure who had difficulties in his life and became a troubled person who blew a lot of opportunities," Dicker said. "I consider him a phantom of the Capitol."
Barr has planted himself in the first-floor public cafeteria.
He comes almost daily at about 11 a.m. and takes his spot at a corner table in the back, settling in with several papers and a cup of coffee. Most of the customers ignore him. A trickle of veteran Capitol employees stop and chat.
Shatraw comes down at noon and they play a few hands of rummy for fun. It's a faded echo of those years of all-night poker games when Barr raked in $40 pots as the smoke and the booze and the power washed over him.
Rocky's golden boy is tarnished by bitter experience. He's the rust that never sleeps. He'll keep coming around as long as he draws breath.
"It's his life," Stevens said. "The Capitol is where he belongs. It's home."
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Translator needed for this speech
First published: Monday, January 26, 2004
Republicans in the state Senate majority rarely pay attention to their counterparts in the Democratic minority, but the whole chamber took note last week when Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Manhattan, started speaking Chinese.
Schneiderman's comments came Wednesday while the Senate was considering a resolution in honor of the Chinese New Year the next day. Schneiderman rose to speak in favor of the resolution, and surprised his colleagues by delivering his remarks in Mandarin, which he studied as an undergraduate at Amherst College and also during a year as a student at a university outside Hong Kong.
The performance impressed Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, not typically considered a big fan of Schneiderman, given his penchant for outspokenness and agitation.
Several senators said Bruno told Schneiderman, "That's very good," to which Schneiderman said he replied: "If you had redistricted me into Chinatown, Joe, I would have been fine."
Bruno laughed, and, according to Schneiderman, shot back: "Just wait a few years."
In the last redistricting, the Senate majority rejiggered Schneiderman's Upper West Side district to include much of the Hispanic-dominated Washington Heights in what was widely considered an attempt to get rid of the trouble-making Democrat. He dedicated himself to learning both Spanish and his new district and easily won re-election.
One individual not so taken with Schneiderman's linguistic gymnastics was the Senate stenographer, who later asked for a written version of his remarks.
Happy to oblige, Schneiderman started writing down Chinese characters. The stenographer told him: "Oh, forget it."
New York Racing Association Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Barry K. Schwartz last week took a possibly ill-timed slap at Gov. George Pataki, who has been loyal to Schwartz throughout what the administration has gently described as NYRA's "legal entanglements."
Schwartz told the New York Daily News Pataki's budget plan for 2004-2005 is "ridiculous" in trying to balance the budget with revenues from video lottery terminals. With NYRA looking to open VLT parlors at racetracks, Schwartz isn't keen on the potential competition from outfits including Off-Track Betting corporations.
"Why stop at just the OTBs?" Schwartz said. "Why don't they put them in the bus stop shelters, too. They can probably fit three or four in each one." (Critics of VLT gambling contend poor schools will be funded with lottery dollars that come from poor people who ride the buses.)
Pataki has gone to bat for NYRA numerous times, including sending a former top aide to talk up NYRA's importance to the New York economy to federal investigators while they were considering a criminal indictment of the association on tax fraud conspiracy.
NYRA soon may need state legislation to help it pay a $3 million criminal fine and gain an extension on its exclusive state franchise to operate the Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga thoroughbred tracks. Without the extension, the association might not be able to secure the financing to finish its racino.
Contributors: Capitol bureau reporters Elizabeth Benjamin and James M. Odato. Got a tip? Call 454-5424 or e-mail jjochnowitz@timesunion.com.
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Fiscal plan balances on a bet
Gambling tops initiatives for added revenue
By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau
First published: Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Gov. George Pataki on Tuesday promised to steer New York on the path of long-term fiscal stability as he delivered a nearly $100 billion state budget that raises spending $1.5 billion.
Lawmakers, however, immediately saw problems with the plan. Pataki relied heavily on speculative gambling revenues from American Indian casinos and a dramatic expansion of video lottery gambling projects. All have proven hard to get off the ground.
His budget also includes $600 million in new borrowing atop the state's $40 billion debt load to pay for two new economic development initiatives, including one Pataki said would help Albany's Harriman Campus redevelopment and a proposed Albany convention center.
The plan fails to answer how Pataki will fill multibillion-dollar budget gaps in the years ahead, and could have trouble getting through the Legislature without an increase in spending this year.
"The goal is to strike a balance," Pataki said as he discussed a budget that raises spending by 1.5 percent above the 2003-04 plan he called a "fiscal train wreck" last year when the Legislature overrode his vetoes. The plan is 3.5 percent bigger if adjustments are made for one-time spending this year.
Senate and Assembly leaders were unwilling to embrace Pataki's addition of just $147 million to raise education spending to $14.6 billion, indicating more will be needed just so schools can maintain current programs.
But many remarked that the governor's relatively nonconfrontational tone and his decision to avoid deep cuts to programs could lead to the first on-time budget since 1984.
"It bodes well," said Assembly Insurance Committee Chairman Alexander B. Grannis, D-Manhattan, who added that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's criticisms of Pataki's plan lacked the sharp attacks of past years.
Indeed, the governor said more can be achieved through cooperation. In that vein, he called for postponing for a year the Legislature's controversial requirement that sales and excise taxes be collected in March from Indian retailers to avoid a fight with tribes.
Instead, he asked for a chance to work out deals that would result in tribal stores charging the same level of taxes as off-reservation merchants.
Pataki's budget puts off any firm commitment to additional education spending, despite a Court of Appeals decision that calls for fixing the state aid formula to assure New York City students gain a sound, basic education. Instead, Pataki wants to set up a special fund for education, fueled with dollars from VLT parlors that open at horse tracks or at any of eight new locations that would be granted to winning bidders.
Assembly leaders called such a plan risky.
"That's a very bad bet," said Assembly Education Committee Chairman Steve Sanders. "You cannot establish a long-term, reliable, stable education plan based on gambling habits of individuals."
Pataki said he expects at least three track racinos to open by March in Saratoga Springs, Buffalo and the Finger Lakes Race Track, which would pump $325 million into the education fund that could be used to honor the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court order. Five more track VLT facilities and up to eight more allowed through competitive bidding could help boost the account with more than $2 billion, and probably $2.5 billion a year, the governor said.
Those sums, however, would be well short of the billions needed, Sanders said.
"The governor presented a really strong beginning to the whole budget process," said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick. He added that he isn't sure Pataki's proposals would meet school needs because of "built in" growth in costs.
Suggesting that Senate Republicans are uncomfortable with some of Pataki's plans, he said his conference will search for revenue-raising "alternatives."
Pataki would close what he says is a $5.1 billion budget gap this year partly by ending a permanent sales tax exemption on clothing and shoe purchases that was supposed to return in June. Instead, he would allow only four tax-free shopping weeks. The plan would add $400 million this year.
The sales tax plan was among the first to be rejected by Silver, who said many consumers would be driven out-of-state. He also faulted Pataki for not setting up the money needed to fund future education obligations in New York City.
The governor also proposed delaying $440 million in pension fund payments under a "reform" plan that would further save local governments $800 million this year. However, Comptroller Alan Hevesi called the proposal unconstitutional.
Pataki promised to avoid layoffs of government workers but pledged to continue a hiring freeze and to take measures that reduce agency costs.
Calling it a "sick tax," Silver said he could not tolerate Pataki's proposed assessments on hospitals, nursing homes and home care providers that the governor expects would raise $323 million. He also said Pataki's education plan would deny schools $240 million that would normally be provided under current formulas.
The governor said he intends to pump $84 million into the state rainy day fund, bringing the reserve to $794 million. The money is available thanks to about $1 billion in additional, one-time federal dollars that helped balance this year's $98.2 billion budget and provided a small surplus, Pataki said.
General fund spending, which relies on taxes, would fall 0.4 percent under the 2004-05 budget plan to $41.88 billion.
The governor called for controlling Medicaid costs to save $425 million. He also proposed the state assume the local share of Medicaid-provided long-term care in a phased-in approach that would save counties and New York City $220 million this year.
He promised to stick by a schedule that will shave $500 million in taxes over time, and added a new, potential tax-cut called "STAR Plus." The initiative would allow homeowners to receive their entire school taxes back if their school districts cap spending.
Public unions and independent analysts said the budget proposal seemed like a fair starting point for the negotiations. Diana Fortuna, director of the Citizen's Budget Commission, however, noted that the governor relies on $1.5 billion in one-time revenues -- "one-shots" -- to balance the budget, and worried about the $2.8 billion gap predicted by Pataki for 2005-06 and $4.34 billion gap for 2006-07. E.J. McMahon, an analyst with the conservative Manhattan Institute, faulted Pataki for doing nothing to ease the income tax and spending increases passed by the Legislature.
The executive budget, however, sets the stage for speedy legislative approval, he said.

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>> INDIAN COUNTRY WATCH...DEMOCRACY?

Tribe Seeks to Oust Members in Money Fight
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEMECULA, Calif. (AP) - Members of a Southern California tribe are fighting an attempt to remove them from the tribe's ranks in a dispute over who is entitled to a share of millions of dollars in casino revenue.
Leaders of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians argue that the key ancestor of the group they want to evict - 10 percent of the current membership - cut her ties with the reservation 80 years ago.
If ousted, the 130 people affected could lose their $10,000 a month, plus their reservation homes, health care and senior benefits, tribal jobs and education money.
The members are seeking a federal court order barring the tribe's enrollment committee from dumping them. Tribal leaders maintain that neither state nor federal courts have the right to intervene.
A call to tribal chairman Mark Macarro's office was not answered Saturday, and tribal councilman Russell "Butch" Murphy did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Around the nation, the Pechanga tribe isn't the only one struggling to define its membership as profits accrue from tribal casinos. The federal government gives tribes wide discretion in defining their members. Some require one-fourth, one-eighth or 1/32nd blood; others have less precise descendancy standards.
Individual tribes are not compelled to disclose how much money their casinos produce, but the total revenue generated by California's 53 casino-owning tribes is estimated at about $5 billion a year.
In the Pechanga tribe, the people whose membership is in dispute claim descent from Manuela Miranda, granddaughter of Pablo Apish, who received a 2,223-acre land grant in 1845.
Attorney Jon Velie, who represents the group facing ouster from the tribe, said the enrollment committee claims his clients don't have sufficient documentation to prove their descent and that their enrollment should never have been approved.
He said the enrollment committee also maintains that Manuela Miranda moved off the reservation and cut her ties to the tribe.
On the Net:
Pechanga: http://www.pechanga.com/
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>> NYC WATCH...WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?

Mapping Software Jolts City Governments
By BRIAN BERGSTEIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) - The bureaucratic, pothole-plagued world of big-city government is making creative use of sleek, innovative technology.
Specialized mapping software helped New York plot the addresses of people who had called to complain about having lost their heat during a recent cold snap. That helped determine precisely where the city should set up "heating centers" for New Yorkers to huddle in.
In fact, officials can make a few mouse clicks to see any number of trends swirling in the city of 8 million people: which neighborhoods are low on fire trucks, where the West Nile virus has appeared, or which streets were recently paved and should be off limits to digging.
Other cities too are increasingly using the technology to infuse efficiency and clarity into what would otherwise be simple civic drudgery.
The system, known as the Citywide Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Utility, combines aerial photography, census figures, crime statistics and other information submitted by city agencies and local utilities. Any or all of it can be overlaid on an interactive map that is so detailed it shows curb lines, trees, wires, traffic rules and vehicle height restrictions.
Cities and insurance companies have long produced minutely detailed maps of their realms. And in recent decades, individual agencies in many cities fired up mapping software to track their specific regulatory matters.
But until recently, city agencies and contractors have shared their information in any number of time-consuming ways, including just calling each other by phone.
Newer mapping systems, in contrast, use improvements in computer processing power to blend many different kinds of information from disparate agencies, vastly aiding urban planning.
In New York, for example, fire engine dispatchers generally heard about street closures in an ad hoc fashion - from firefighters who noticed roadblocks while on a grocery run or even while rushing to blazes. Now dispatchers can see street closures directly, by checking what transportation officials have added to the map database on their end.
GIS also has become a powerful homeland security tool.
New York's system, which has cost about $20 million to develop over the past decade, helped coordinate emergency responders on Sept. 11, 2001. And in the aftermath, the underlying map was combined with thermal data detected by low-flying planes to show where fires and dangerously hot steam lurked in the World Trade Center rubble.
Now, the GIS system is aiding security plans for this summer's Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden.
Previously, such plans relied heavily on "paper maps that showed no more than a thin line representing a street," said Lawrence Knafo, deputy commissioner of the city's information-technology department.
While that helped determine which streets should be closed, or where to position police officers, the new system lets authorities do much more.
For example, GIS can measure streets and sidewalks to determine how many people will fit in a given space. Or building floor plans can be overlaid on the map, giving emergency agencies a wider perspective on how to plan for problems - and react to them if necessary.
"By assessing the location of something and then combining it with what's around it, you're able to make a decision you were never able to make before," said Erich Seamon, GIS manager for San Francisco, where City Hall uses mapping software to monitor resources and police tap it to track crimes by location.
In fact, GIS is so good at changing how things get done that some resistance is inevitable.
In a test on Staten Island, New York City officials used the system's knowledge of building sizes at each address to estimate the amount of garbage that certain streets ought to produce. The data helped plot the most efficient routes for trash pickup.
But officials in the technology department said they feared that expanding the mapping function to garbage pickup elsewhere in the city could rankle the sanitation workers' union.
Harry Nespoli, president of the union, said he was unaware of the GIS test, but expressed doubt that trash service could be improved by software.
"We are not computers, you know. We are human beings," he said. "Does a computer get lunch time? Does a computer sprain his ankle? Does a computer die like one of my members did the other day? We have very, very efficient managers on this job. They came up through the ranks. They know the best way to pick up the garbage."
Overall, however, not much about these systems is controversial. Their most sensitive data are walled off from the public on secure servers.
However, some morsels are plugged into public Web sites in New York and San Francisco, for example, that combine aerial images, zoning records and information about local schools, government representatives or cultural attractions.
New Zealand uses spatial software to make sure tectonic shifts are reflected in property records. In California's vineyard-rich Sonoma County, agricultural commissioners rely on GIS to decide whether to grant pesticide-spraying permits, because they can check within minutes what schools, homes and medical facilities lie near the fields in question.
"It's still an emerging technology, but it's come a long way in the last couple of years," said Paul Buzanski, Sonoma County's GIS manager. "It's almost endless what we can do with it."

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>> DISEASE WATCH...

Mystery Affliction in Sudan Baffles Experts
By EMMA ROSS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KACNGUAN, Sudan (AP) - Martha Halim, stricken with mysterious seizures, lives in fear. She is terrified of the moon's phases, afraid of eating and fearful of fires, rivers and ponds.
Her parents have tried everything. She's been to a hospital, she's seen a Western doctor and she's taken anti-epileptic drugs.
The 13-year-old has even been to witch doctors. She followed the advice of one, crawling through a termite mound while her parents slit the throat of a goat.
She gives a grim description of what it's like when her disease overpowers her.
"When it comes, it looks like a black cloud but in the shape of a human," said Martha. "That's all I know. At the end, I find myself on the floor."
Martha suffers from a strange affliction called "nodding syndrome," apparently unique to southern Sudan. Its young victims tend to nod vigorously at the sight of food. The condition often progresses to severe seizures, mental retardation and death.
Martha fell into a fire last year when she had a seizure while cooking. Her right leg is disfigured by a severe burn from knee to foot; she protected it with a soiled beige rag.
Her father, Neen Majak, says he has nearly given up hope. Anti-epileptic drugs haven't helped and neither have the remedies of witch doctors.
The affliction, which has been found in about 300 children so far, baffles experts. The World Health Organization began investigating it about two years ago, around a year after Martha's symptom first appeared.
Peter Spencer, an American neurotoxicologist who has investigated the condition for WHO, encountered another 13-year-old girl with a bizarre variation of the illness.
"I was able to demonstrate with her that she was a regular nodder with local food and by contrast she did not nod when eating a variety of American food - candy bars or whatever. It was absolutely staggering," he said.
As she sits on a sisal mat with her parents under the shade of a tree beside their mud huts, Martha says no treatment has helped her.
One traditional healer claimed that Martha's aunt, who was killed by lightning a few years ago, had bewitched the girl. Following his advice, the family held a ceremony attended by the entire village and sacrificed a sheep.
Recently, another traditional healer told the family to take the girl into the forest to wash the bad spirit away.
"He told us to bring a black goat and a red hen and make a tunnel in a termite hill," Majak said. "She crawled through the hole back and forth three times. Then we had to kill the goat and the hen in sacrifice."
"You can consider her a dead person, because she is not going to marry and she is going to die of this disease," her father says. "If this treatment doesn't work, then all I can do is wait to let the child die."
Experts say a few children recover. Doctors with WHO think the disease may be related to a disorder seen in Uganda called Nakalanga syndrome, which also has symptoms of convulsions, stunted growth and sometimes nodding.
Spencer's investigation has found no obvious environmental causes. He wouldn't rule out a food connection, but said it is unlikely.
"What was striking is that the majority of the population that is affected by this disease in southern Sudan has a different lifestyle from the itinerant Dinka people, who are sort of herders. They are not affected by this disease," he said.
Spencer said one theory that cannot be ruled out, although it is not a leading suspicion, is the disease could have come from eating monkeys. Ebola can be spread to humans by chimpanzees. AIDS also made its way from primates to humans.
Spencer and other investigators believe nodding syndrome could be connected to river blindness, a disease transmitted by the blackfly, which is particularly widespread in southern Sudan. Martha and several other members of her family are afflicted.
Unraveling the mystery of nodding syndrome is a question of money and time, Spencer said.
"If we're smart, we will unravel it. We won't let it burn on like we did HIV," he said. "You just cannot imagine a greater disaster for a community than their children being hit in this way."
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GAO Calls for CDC Management Revision
By JEFFREY McMURRAY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal agency that steered the country through anthrax and SARS should consider changes in its management structure so programs don't suffer when public health emergencies arise, congressional investigators said Friday.
While it praised improvements the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made to its response capabilities, the report by the General Accounting Office depicted an agency where assignments are sometimes duplicated and the chain of command is often unclear.
CDC officials acknowledged the concerns but said the review was launched prior to Julie Gerberding's confirmation as director. Gerberding has begun a top-to-bottom examination of the agency, its structure and mission.
"It's not that anything is broken, but this initiative is really an opportunity to examine priorities, systems and practices right now to ensure we have success down the road," said Tom Skinner, CDC's spokesman.
The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, noted that Gerberding has direct authority over the 11 centers across the country that perform the bulk of CDC's public health work. When an emergency occurs, such as anthrax or SARS, her attention - and that of other top CDC officials - is often diverted, "leaving little time for focusing on non-emergency public health work and agency operations," the GAO said.
The agency recommended that those centers report to someone other than the director, perhaps in a newly created position.
Skinner said Gerberding has begun meeting regularly with the directors of all the centers, enabling them to get information from one another.
The agency also recently established a chief operating officer, who is responsible for financial management and information technology. The GAO praised the addition.
Still, problems remain, it found. For example, the deputy director for Science and Public Health has duties that often duplicate those of the deputy director for Public Health Service. The former is listed as being in charge of agency reports, guidelines and outbreak investigations, while the latter focuses on specific issues such as HIV policies, violence prevention and occupational safety.
The congressional investigators cited an internal CDC document from October 2001 that concluded the agency was running four separate emergency operation centers, presenting an "uncoordinated command and control environment."
A top official in Gerberding's office told GAO investigators that during the anthrax incidents, there weren't formal leadership protocols in place for crisis management decisions.
Gerberding has often said that anthrax helped direct the focus of the agency and improve its response time. CDC created a media center to get the latest information out fast - even if the information had to be altered or expanded later.
SARS, the deadly respiratory disease first detected in China, gave the agency its first real test of a new state-of-the-art emergency operations center.
Skinner said CDC now knows better how to communicate with the general public about emergencies - an improvement he expects will spill into non-emergency work.
"We are closely examining the many lessons learned in our response to those imminent threats," he said. "We'll take the best practices from those experiences and institute those into our other public health domain."
On the Net:
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/
GAO: http://www.gao.gov/

Sir Bill and his dragons--past, present and future
Jan 29th 2004
From The Economist print edition
Having survived a gruelling battle with America's trustbusters, Microsoft now faces a showdown in Europe. Meanwhile, another battle looms on the horizon
Get article background
THE announcement this week that Microsoft's founder, Bill Gates, is to receive an honorary knighthood from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II seems fitting. For Bill Gates KBE (only British citizens can take the honorific "Sir") combines knightly philanthropy on an unprecedented scale with a long and impressive combat record. Over the years he has seen off numerous competitors, parrying attacks from all sides and always, somehow, emerging victorious. Microsoft's most notable success--its establishment, with its Windows software, of a monopoly in desktop operating systems--has led to its fiercest battles of all, as antitrust regulators have accused it of abusing its dominant position.
The story of the company's epic legal battle with America's Justice Department and 18 states has passed into legend. In 2000, Microsoft was found guilty of illegally exploiting the dominance of Windows (which is installed on over 95% of PCs worldwide) to gain market share for its web browser over Netscape's rival product. The company was ordered to be broken up. But the decision was reversed on appeal and a far milder punishment, in the form of restrictions on Microsoft's behaviour, was applied instead. The case still produces occasional rumbles, like the death-rattle of a mortally wounded dragon, but it no longer poses a threat to the company's survival.
Now Microsoft is heading for a showdown in Europe where, once again, the company is accused of exploiting its Windows monopoly to take control of adjacent markets, this time in media-player and server software. Intensive negotiations with the European Commission have been under way since the end of last year in an attempt to reach a settlement, though so far without success. A draft ruling against the company, believed to call for the imposition of a $300m-500m fine, along with other remedies, is now said to be circulating within the commission. "The time has come for the commission to reach a conclusion," says Amelia Torres, a spokeswoman at the competition directorate. "This investigation has been going on for a very long time."

The European case is particularly important because it concentrates on Microsoft's behaviour since the imposition of the American settlement, which is widely perceived to have had little effect. At stake, therefore, is the question of whether Microsoft will once again face remedies that treat only narrow instances of past misbehaviour, or if regulators will insist on sanctions that try to eliminate the potential for anti-competitive practices in future.
Both sides are well aware that the outcome could affect the way in which software is developed and sold, as well as the way in which consumers use it. The decision will certainly influence the way in which future antitrust complaints are judged. As it happens, this week Microsoft fired the first arrow in a battle that is widely seen as just such a future antitrust action: its fight with Google over control of the internet-search business.
Objections, your honour
The commission's case against Microsoft is detailed in a confidential document, known as the "Statement of Objections", the most recent version of which has been seen by The Economist. The document, drawn up last August, builds on two previous statements (in 2000 and 2001) which accused Microsoft of behaving anti-competitively in two areas.
First, the commission alleged that Microsoft was trying to extend its desktop monopoly into the market for workgroup servers (file, print, mail and web servers) by keeping secret the communications protocols that enable its desktop and server products to talk to each other. "Without such information, alternative server software would be denied a level playing field, as it would be artificially deprived of the opportunity to compete with Microsoft's products on technical merits alone," the commission warned in 2001.
Second, Microsoft was accused of trying to extend its monopoly into the media-player market, by incorporating its Windows Media Player (WMP) software into Windows, so ensuring that it would be installed on over 95% of new PCs. Rival products, the commission observed, did not have this advantage; nor could WMP be uninstalled. "The result is a weakening of effective competition in the market...and less innovation," it concluded.
The latest document bolsters these claims. It uses new evidence from updated market shares to illustrate how Microsoft's server and media-player have advanced at the expense of rivals. Compared with the drama of the American antitrust action, which included an infamous videotaped deposition from Mr Gates and evidence culled from internal Microsoft e-mails, this is dull stuff. But it does confirm that Microsoft is exploiting its desktop dominance in workgroup server software; and that, by "tying" WMP to Windows, it has overtaken its chief rival in the media-player market, RealNetworks.
Particularly damning are the comments from providers of media content. They say that the cost of supporting different media formats (when providing video clips on a website, for example) leads to a "winner takes all" market which it is difficult for a new media-player, no matter how innovative, to enter. The argument that the efficiencies derived from incorporating WMP into Windows outweigh the anti-competitive effects is dismissed. The commission tellingly observes that the incorporation of WMP in Windows "sends signals which deter innovation" in any technologies which Microsoft could conceivably tie with Windows in the future.
Accordingly, a number of remedies are proposed. The simplest is a fine that reflects the "gravity and duration" of the infringement. European antitrust law allows violators to be fined as much as 10% of their annual worldwide revenues--a fine of more than $3 billion in Microsoft's case. In addition, Microsoft would be required to license its server-communications protocols to rivals on a "reasonable and non-discriminatory" basis. This is consistent with the settlement that Microsoft reached in America, which also requires it to license some of its protocols.
Following a review of the progress of the American settlement, on January 23rd Microsoft agreed to simplify and extend its licensing programme to encourage wider use. Critics had complained that its previous licensing terms were so complicated that only 11 companies had signed up for them. After the announcement, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who is overseeing the American settlement, declared herself satisfied with the company's efforts to comply with the settlement.
Far more controversial, however, is the remedy proposed by the commission to address the tying of WMP to Windows. It suggests two alternatives: one forcing Microsoft to "untie" the two products and produce a version of Windows without WMP; the other a "must-carry" approach, which would require Microsoft to include its leading rivals' media-player software with every copy of Windows.
Untying the Gordian knot
The crux of the matter is, can Microsoft lawfully integrate other pieces of software into Windows? This was also, of course, at the heart of the American action. In that case it was the web browser, rather than the media player, that was under consideration, and Microsoft was found guilty of illegally exploiting its monopoly by tying its web browser to Windows. It was to prevent similar behaviour in future that the original judge, Thomas Penfield Jackson, ordered the company to be split in two. One company would control Windows, and the other the application software (such as web browsers, media players and office-productivity software). Microsoft would thus be deprived of the ability, conferred on it by its Windows monopoly, to dominate new markets.
However, the break-up remedy was overturned on appeal, and the final settlement declared that "the software code that comprises a Windows Operating System product shall be determined by Microsoft in its sole discretion." Moreover, it did not require Microsoft to remove its web browser from Windows, freeing the company to add other software elements to its operating system.
By adding WMP to Windows, Microsoft is doing exactly that. But is it legal? The company argues that support for the playing of audio and video is part of the core functionality of Windows. Furthermore, it points out that PC-makers are, in the wake of the American settlement, entitled to install media players made by other firms alongside WMP. Hewlett-Packard, for example, recently struck a deal to include Apple's iTunes music software on its new PCs. But such deals are the exception, not the rule. In December, RealNetworks filed its own $1 billion antitrust suit against Microsoft, complaining that tying WMP to Windows was squeezing it out of the media-player market, just as Netscape was squeezed out of the web-browser market.
Short of a break-up, however, there is no effective antidote to tying. Forcing Microsoft to produce a Europe-specific version of Windows without WMP (or any other specific features) would, in effect, impose an inferior product on European consumers. It is difficult to argue that this would be in their interests. And it would, in any case, probably result in a grey market as the full version of Windows was imported from elsewhere. There are also problems with the must-carry approach: which other media players would be included? Presumably those with the greatest market share. But that would itself be anti-competitive, since it would entrench the positions of the existing players. Furthermore, WMP would still be ubiquitous.
Outwardly, the gulf between Microsoft and the commission in their argument over whether the inclusion of WMP in Windows constitutes illegal tying seems unbridgeable. Last November, three days of closed hearings held in Brussels served only to entrench the two sides' positions further, according to people familiar with the case.
But both sides would now probably prefer to settle. Microsoft would like to establish a consistent regulatory framework in order to prevent an endless succession of legal battles as it adds more and more new features to Windows. "We want to find a solution that we can apply to future situations, that can be generalised in other situations," says John Frank, Microsoft's deputy general counsel.
The commission also seems keen to settle things quickly, having stepped up the legal pace considerably since last August. The number of commissioners will increase from 20 to 30 in May, when ten new member states join the EU; one theory is that the new commissioners will have a more pro-American bent and will be less willing to endorse an anti-Microsoft decision. In any case, the commission has previously expressed a desire to conclude the case before the naming of a new commission president in June.
Reading between the lines, it is just possible to discern the kind of settlement that might now be under discussion: a far wider licensing programme, perhaps one that confers special privileges on companies (such as RealNetworks and Apple) that develop software which competes with parts of Windows. But the devil would be in the details: such a deal might prove to be no more than a grand gesture, allowing the commission to declare victory and then retreat. Microsoft has, after all, shown itself to be a master at running rings around regulators. That said, the commission's Statement of Objections pre-emptively disallows a number of ways in which Microsoft could evade the proposed tying remedies--which suggests that the commission has learned from past regulatory experiences.
If no agreement is reached, however, and the expected negative ruling is issued, probably in March, Microsoft will appeal. The case will go first to the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg and then (assuming Microsoft loses again) it would move to the European Court of Justice. But all that would take years. Microsoft's enthusiasm for some kind of early settlement to insulate it from further antitrust action is influenced by the appearance of a third dragon on its horizon. For the firm is currently gearing up for a battle with a new and vigorous competitor: Google.
Here we Google again
Google dominates the internet-search business, much as Netscape once ruled in web browsers and RealNetworks did in media players. Begun as a research project by two graduate students in 1998, Google today carries out more than 200m searches a day and is estimated to have had revenues of $1 billion last year, mainly from advertising revenue.
It is the most visited search site, accounting for 35% of search-engine visits--compared with 28% for Yahoo!, 16% for AOL and 15% for Microsoft's MSN, according to comScore Networks, a market-research company. But that masks its true influence. Google's technology is used to power searches on other sites, such as Yahoo! and AOL (though Yahoo! plans to use its own technology soon). Taking this into account makes Google responsible for around 80% of all internet searches. The company is now preparing for a stockmarket flotation in the next few months.
Google's power makes it just the sort of company that Microsoft typically tries to squash. At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Mr Gates admitted that Google's search technology was "way better" than Microsoft's, and identified internet search as a key focus for his company. Microsoft already offers searches through MSN, its web portal. But until this week it had yet to play its trump card: exploiting its dominance of the web-browser and operating-system markets to extend the reach of its search service. That changed on January 26th when it launched a "toolbar" plug-in for its Internet Explorer browser, enabling instant searches (via MSN) from any web page. It is an imitation of Google's toolbar, which has helped to contribute to the search engine's success: on a computer screen, as with real estate, location is everything.
Initially, the MSN toolbar is a free optional download, as Microsoft's web browser and media player once were. The next step, inevitably, will be to integrate such search functions into Windows, on the grounds that it constitutes a core technology that should be part of the operating system. In his keynote speech at last November's Comdex show in Las Vegas, Mr Gates demonstrated a prototype technology called "Stuff I've Seen" which does just that. It allows computer users to search for context-specific words in e-mails and in recently visited web pages, as well as in documents on their computers.
In other words, Microsoft is preparing to use its dominance in web-browser and operating-system software to promote itself in yet another separate market--search engines this time--at the expense of competitors. Is that tying? It is entirely possible that, in a few years, the same arguments heard in the American and European cases will again be raging, unresolved. Microsoft will insist that it has done nothing wrong, as competitors cry foul and wizened regulators launch further investigations.
Indeed, the European competition authorities are not the end of the line. Regulators in Brazil and Israel are sharpening their pencils, and Microsoft also faces several outstanding civil lawsuits. The accusation, in each case, is abuse of its Windows monopoly. Will it never end?
Death by a thousand cuts
Microsoft's transatlantic legal woes began a decade ago. In July 1994, America's Justice Department and the European Commission issued rulings in tandem. They were designed to prevent Microsoft from abusing its dominant market position by licensing Windows to PC-makers on terms that discouraged them from selling PCs with rival operating systems. (Microsoft's contracts with PC-makers required them to pay it for a copy of Windows for each PC sold, even for PCs that were sold with other operating systems, or with no operating system at all.)
There were arduous negotiations. But the remedies, which narrowly addressed the results of the anti-competitive behaviour, ignored treating the underlying cause: the monopoly. Then, as now, regulators stopped short of imposing serious behavioural or structural remedies. So the legal battles have continued ever since.
Ten years on, Microsoft has come to a critical juncture. It can choose to continue its war of attrition with regulators, constantly testing the legal limits and, when it crosses them, treating the consequences as the cost of doing business. Or the company could throw off its monopoly mindset and decide to compete, like most other firms are forced to do, solely on the merits of its products.
One approach would be to hand some of its Windows protocols over to an independent standards body. This seems unlikely at the moment, particularly given the lucrative nature of the Windows monopoly--Microsoft has just reported record quarterly revenues of over $10 billion (see chart), and much of that is due to Windows. But the company, which already licenses certain protocols to rivals to build inter-operable products, could choose to act as a "common carrier" and license its technology to produce a new revenue stream. Indeed, Microsoft's actions in complying with the American settlement arguably point in just this direction. A European settlement might push it even further that way.
Another factor that might tip the balance is the rise of the open-source operating system, Linux. This is not much of a threat to Microsoft's desktop monopoly, which currently seems secure. Rather, its menace comes from the fact that governments in particular have been early adopters of the open-source system. It is difficult for Microsoft to argue that it is a responsible partner and supplier to governments on the one hand, while doing battle with regulators on the other. So the advance of open-source software in government could have a disproportionate impact.
In other words, Microsoft may some day conclude that the costs of constant regulatory battles--legal costs, fines, bad publicity, and bad relationships with governments--exceed the benefits of its Windows monopoly. This seems unimaginable now. But unless governments find the political will and legal arguments needed to break the firm up, it may be the only way its legal battles will ever end.

Copyright ? 2004 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.

Surprise Witness Throws Trial of 9/11 Suspect Into Turmoil
By Geir Moulson
The Associated Press
Friday, January 30, 2004; 4:25 PM
HAMBURG, Germany -- A surprise witness Friday countered evidence used in the trial of a Moroccan man accused of helping the Sept. 11 hijackers.
The last-minute witness, who claimed to be a former Iranian intelligence agent who also worked for the CIA, told the court that Abdelghani Mzoudi not only helped but was directly involved in the plot.
German intelligence, however, delivered a scathing assessment of the credibility of the witness.
Mzoudi faces more than 3,000 counts of being an accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization for allegedly helping suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah.
In December, the Hamburg state court released Mzoudi for the duration of his trial based on evidence that suggested he knew nothing of his friends' plans to attack the United States.
But Friday's witness, who would only identify himself by the alias Hamid Reza Zakeri, testified that Mzoudi, 31, was behind the logistical planning of the attacks.
"I know from my source that in the Sept. 11 incident he was al Qaeda's middleman for receiving codes," Zakeri said during three hours of rambling and sometimes evasive testimony.
Zakeri said Mzoudi spent three months in 1997 learning codes at an al Qaeda camp in Iran. He said he first learned of Mzoudi in an e-mail from his source in October.
Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, however, cast serious doubt on Zakeri's credibility.
While Zakeri probably is a former Iranian agent, "the value of his information is very low," the agency said in a statement read by the judge.
The agency, which received "unsubstantiated information" from Zakeri on other issues in 2002 and 2003, has "the impression that he presents himself as a witness on any theme which can bring him benefit," it added.
Presiding Judge Klaus Ruehle repeatedly pressed Zakeri for information on his source.
But the bearded man with dark, curly hair and glasses who spoke quietly through an interpreter would only say the source was a "very prominent" person in Iran.
Zakeri said he agreed to work for the CIA in 1992. He left Iran in July 2001 when, he said, he tried to warn U.S. authorities that something was planned against the United States or Israel for Sept. 10. He said he was not taken seriously. He alleged there had been two meetings in early 2001 between senior al Qaeda figures and Iranian leaders.
Zakeri's testimony prompted the court to delay a verdict until Thursday. It was originally scheduled for last week.
Mzoudi's attorneys renewed their call for his acquittal, with defense lawyer Guel Pinar saying "the witness was telling fairy tales."
Chief prosecutor Walter Hemberger conceded Zakeri was a flawed witness, but told the court that "if you believe as we do that the defendant is guilty, some things he said fit into the picture."
He called for the maximum 15-year sentence -- the same given nearly a year ago to Mzoudi's friend, Mounir el Motassadeq, on identical charges.
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Supply-Side Swiss
By Joshua Livestro Published 01/27/2004
TCS
In a recent contribution to National Review Online, Jerry Bowyer attacked the Bush tax cuts package for not doing enough to lower the tax burden of the rich. If the reality of the tax cuts had lived up to the rhetoric of its opponents, Bowyer explains, the economic recovery would have taken off much quicker and much more strongly than it did: "It wasn't until May of last year, when 'the rich' were dealt into the game, that the weak recovery strengthened."
Articles like that are bound to get on the nerves of those who share the sentiments of the 1970s British Labour Party Chancellor Denis Healy, who famously claimed that the purpose of any income tax system should be to "squeeze the rich till the pips squeak." But if this is enough to get them worked up, what would they make of the recently implemented reform of personal income tax in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen? Because towards the end of last year, the local Parliament there decided to introduce a new income tax that has as its cornerstone the principle of regression. In other words: the more money you make, the less tax you pay. As of the first of January 2004, in the canton of Schaffhausen, it actually pays to get rich.
Instead of flying into a Howard Dean-like rage, though, tax addicts would do well to consider the merits of the Schaffhausen measures before rejecting them in a knee-jerk fashion. No sane person, after all, could oppose a system of taxation that is morally sound and economically efficient -- which is precisely what these measures are all about. The morality of it is easy enough to explain. It is after all fairly widely accepted that working hard and saving for a rainy day both constitute morally good behavior. Any tax system that claims to have its basis in morality would therefore have to encourage precisely those activities. Whatever else they might like to say about it, the taxaholics would have to admit that the Schaffhausen income tax does exactly that -- and does it in spades. Who wouldn't want to go out and work, work, work, if every extra Swiss Franc earned will be taxed less than the previous one?
The economic case for a regressive system of income tax is linked to the moral case for it. It is a case first made by the American economist Arthur Laffer. Laffer shot to fame in the early 1980s, when, as a member of President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board, his Laffer Curve theory (developed in the early 1970s) provided the public justification of the Reagan tax cuts. The basis of his theory was that a high tax rate might in fact lead to lower government revenues than a lower tax rate because of a flight of capital and labor into the black economy. Whereas punitive rates of taxation encourage tax evasion, substantially lower rates could actually have the opposite effect of tempting people back into the official economy. Ironically (or as libertarians might say, perversely) lower rates could thus lead to an increase in government revenues. According to Laffer's theory, a sufficiently large tax cut would almost certainly be self-financing.
Laffer was proved right in spectacular fashion in the 1980s when Reagan's radical tax-cutting measures led to one of the longest sustained economic booms in American history, with rising private and corporate incomes also leading to higher tax receipts. That didn't stop left-wing academics from castigating Laffer's ideas, claiming they were anything from ridiculous to immoral. The mere fact that they were actually right didn't seem to bother them much. But as Bruce Bartlett observed in a recent column on Townhall.com, academia has gradually come round to Laffer's position, in turn convincing policy makers in institutions like the IMF and the World Bank that supply-side tax policies might hold the key to the economic development of the world's poorest nations.
And what works in Pakistan or Southern Africa will certainly work in Schaffhausen. The local administrators in Schaffhausen are not just optimistic about this, they're banking on it. Unafraid to count their chickens before they are hatched, they are confidently predicting that the new income tax will lead to new streams of revenue for the canton. They have even gone so far as to express the hope that high earners would be tempted to relocate to Schaffhausen. So if you're traveling through Switzerland this summer, don't be surprised if you come across a road sign saying "You are entering Schaffhausen. Millionaires welcome here."

Delay Sought in Anthrax Widow Suit
Posted by Ross on Friday January 30, 2004 at 8:08 pm MST [ Send Story to Friend ]
Link to story: http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com
The federal government is seeking to delay a lawsuit from the widow of Robert Stevens, the man killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks, on the grounds of national security. The Department of Justice is doing the same in the case of the civil claim by Dr. Steve Hatfill.
Attorney Richard Schuler, the attorney for Mrs. Stevens, has said he believed DNA tests on anthrax found at Stevens' office would prove it matched the anthrax at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., which does unclassified anthrax vaccine research. But given that the strain was at a number of other locations, that is the beginning, not the end of the inquiry.
The Ames strain came from a cow in Texas in 1980. Texas veterinarian Mike Vickers sent a sample from a carcass in south Texas to the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab ("TVMDL"). Someone at that lab isolated it from a carcass and forwarded it to Ft. Detrick using a label coincidentally from Ames, Iowa. This resulted in the names "Ames" and some initial confusion among outside experts as to the history of the strain. It was forwarded pursuant to a request by Dr. Knudsen of Ft. Detrick who had sought field strains of anthrax. Dr. Knudsen at Ft. Detrick still had the correspondence from the time, to include even the misprinted mailing label.
A preliminary question is: Did the Texas lab that first isolated it, keep a sample? One scientist from the Veterinary School advises:
"Generally we think of anthrax as so closely related that strain differences are really unimportant as it has to do with killing animals. Support for this is that the Sterne strain vaccine used in livestock is very effective to prevent anthrax in cattle sheep, goats, horses no matter what strain variation they are exposed to. In summary veterinary practitioners just think of anthrax as really one strain. There are other bacterial disease that strain difference is important and vaccines have to have the specific strains to work against that strain -- not so with anthrax and naturally occurring cases in US. ***
Most diagnostic labs have so high a volume of samples that they are forced to properly destroy them after a couples of weeks (not enough storage space or funding for extra storage)."
Thus, as a general rule they would not have kept a copy, and thus not have been in a position to share it. A Dr. Whitford was the person at the Texas lab who isolated it and forwarded it. Now retired to Montana, in response to a telephone inquiry, he reports he may have sent it elsewhere.
It may have been chosen to be sent to Ft. Detrick out of other possible strains because the notes by the veterinarian, Dr. Vickers, indicate that it was particularly virulent, killing 30 cattle in a short time. He gave the example of one cow that had been healthy in the morning and then dead a few hours later. This -- or the fact it was sent to USAMRIID at Ft. Detrick -- may have made it seem unique enough to keep a copy of.
As for the testing of lab isolates where the strain is known to be (and a copy of the strain can be obtained for testing), the genetic analysis of Dr. Keim, from Northern Arizona, had potentially promised to remove all doubt as to the source of the anthrax. Hope has long since faded according to press reports. Timothy D. Read, whose work at the Institute for Genetic Research in Rockville, Md. provided the FBI with its first genetic roadmap for anthrax, has said that the differences identified by his team could not pinpoint the source.
The research is reported in "Science." The analysis is directed to showing the similarity between various samples of Ames. The institutions known to have fully virulent B. anthracis Ames, for example, include USAMRIID, Dugway in Utah, CDC, CAMR-Porton Downs in Great Britian, Battelle Memorial Institute in Ohio, University of Northern Arizona (Dr. Keim), Louisiana State University (Dr. Hugh-Jones), and University of Scranton (Dr. DelVecchio). Dr. Kenneth Alibek, the former head of the Russian anthrax production program, says Russia had Ames (and had spies at Ft. Detrick).
The anthrax that was destroyed at Iowa in early Fall 2001 had first been isolated as early as 1928. There is no reason presently to think Iowa had the Ames from Texas. That is, there is no evidence they had the pertinent Ames. The use of the phrase "virulent Ames" in the literature would have referred to the "virulent Ames" existing decades before --separate and genetically distinguishable from the isolate taken from the cow in Texas. This is good news, or bad news, depending on the weight one wants to be given the Reid and Keim genetic analysis.
Dr. Barbara Hatch-Rosenberg provides a longer list on-line but it does not distinguish from the "Ames" at Iowa for decades and the "Ames" from the cow in Texas. Nor does it distinguish between virulent and avirulent strains.
There was no requirement to document transfers prior to 1997. One former USAMRIID-sponsored vaccine researcher at UMass, Dr. Curtis Thorne, whose research on virulence of genetically altered anthrax strains is being built upon at the University of Texas (Houston) by a grant from the CIA, reports that samples used to be sent by ordinary mail. The Ames strain, along with other strains, would be distributed not for nefarious purposes, but for veterinary and other research, to include use in challenging vaccines in development.
As a disturbing example, reports and documents obtained by Congressman Markey indicate that the Los Alamos Nuclear Lab had received a shipment of virulent anthrax from Northern Arizona University on October 26, 2001, even though LANL was not authorized to receive such shipments. Los Alamos is managed by the University of California. Los Alamos did not report the incident for almost a month, and during that time, informed the community that it did not possess or intend to work on materials such as virulent anthrax until it constructed a new, higher security facility.
The "Science" article reporting the Keim and Reid genetic analysis does not address the testing done with respect to isolates from the vast majority of labs where Ames was known to be. 15 lab isolates remained to be tested. (Note that the date of the lab isolate presumed by some to be Ft. Detrick was not disclosed in the article. (Anthrax was determined to be missing in a 1992 audit.)
One expert, Dr. C.J. Peters, summarizes:
"Knowing that this strain was originally isolated in the U.S. has absolutely nothing to do with where the weapon may have been prepared because, as I tried to make the point, these strains move around. A post doc in somebody's laboratory could have taken this strain to another lab and it could have been taken overseas and it could have ended up absolutely anywhere. Tiny quantities of anthrax that you couldn't see, that you couldn't detect in an inventory can be used to propagate as much as you want. So that's just not, in fact, very helpful."
It is naive to think that Al Qaeda could not have obtained Ames just because it tended to be in labs associated with the US military. US Army Al Qaeda operative Sgt. Ali Mohammed accompanied Zawahiri in his travels in the US. The reality is that any number of lab technicians or others similarly situated might simply have walked out of some lab that had it if they could locate it in a refrigerator. (The labeling typically just consists of numbers).
A HVAC technician who used to work at Lawrence Livermore, another lab run by the University of California, is being deported from the Philippines, after meeting with officials of an organation thought to be connected to Al Qaeda.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency began anthrax research at Lawrence LIvermore in 1998 in response to the Bin Laden anthrax threat. While one source confirms presently the lab works with live anthrax, no one at the lab has responded to inquiries as to whether the lab had virulent, live "Ames" in March 2002, when the HVAC technician, who had a high level security clearance, was last there.
Ft. Detrick sent its Ames strain to places like Porton Down in Great Britain and Suffield in Canada. We can reasonably assume that Ft. Detrick did not send it directly to any supplier in North Korea or Libya or Iran. Ken Alibek, former head of Russia's program, reports that Russia had spies at Ft. Detrick. Did North Korea?
The strain referenced in documents on Khalid Mohammed's computer was not, in fact, Ames. Working on the assumption that the anthrax purchased from the North Korea supplier was not Ames, then the question relevant to an Al Qaeda theory is what access to the US Army strain might have been accomplished by someone with 1) a multi millionaire (Bin Laden) backing his play, and 2) a lot of Muslims who believe in his Islamist cause (for example, toppling the Egyptian and Saudi regimes). The possible sources include Russia (or former Soviet bloc country), Iraq, Iran, the US Army, or a facility that obtained Ames from the US Army or other researcher who had it. (Iran has been added to the list due to new reports that they have weaponized anthrax; and that they have recruited Russian scientists.)
This was the instinct of the Administration from early on, according to Woodward's "Bush at War":
"They turned to the hot topic of anthrax. The powder in the letter mailed to Senator Daschle's office had been found to be potent, prompting officials to suggest its source was likely an expert capable of producing the bacteria in huge amounts. Tenet said, 'I think it's AQ -- meaning Al Qaeda.'
'I think there's a state sponsor involved. It's too well thought-out, the powder's too well refined. It might be Iraq, it might be Russia, it might be a renegade scientist, perhaps from Iraq or Russia.'
'I'm not going to talk about a state sponsor,' Tenet assured them."
And he didn't.

-------------------------------------------

Lynne Stewart Trial: "Rise Up From Your Deep Slumber"
Posted by Ross on Friday January 30, 2004 at 9:31 am MST [ Send Story to Friend ]
Link to story: http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com
Lynne Stewart never taught millions how to host a party. The 62-year-old grandmother, however, is associated with a mass movement far more compelling to some than what flower arrangement to use. She is scheduled to go on trial this Spring on charges that she helped Egyptian Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the blind sheik, communicate with a terrorism network.
She was first charged by the government a half year after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Rahman was convicted in 1995 of seditious conspiracy, bombing conspiracy, soliciting an attack on an U.S. military installation, and soliciting the murder of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. His followers were indicted for plotting to bomb bridges, tunnels and landmarks in New York. Rahman allegedly had given his blessings.
A quarter-century ago, he was acquitted in the trial relating to the assassination of Anwar Sadat. He said at the time:
"We reject Camp David and we regret the normalization of relations with Israel. We also reject all the commitments that were made by the traitor Sadat, who deviated from Islam. As long as the Camp David Agreement stands, this conflict between us and the government will continue."
She and her two co-defendants are accused of helping relay messages from the cleric to a radical terrorist group based in Egypt.
"They know very well I'm no terrorist. They know very well I've never crossed the line. This is just their need to bring some kind of terrorist case to keep the lawyers in line."
Last year, the judge dismissed two of the most serious terrorism counts on the grounds that they were unconstitutionally vague. In December, the government brought new charges accusing her of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Michael Tigar, her attorney, has called her case "a vindictive effort to chill courageous advocacy by all lawyers."
Stewart recently has traveled across the country, making more than 100 speeches to generate support. "They need the preaching and I need the choir because it invigorates me to know there are people that care that they're really backing me."
Associated Press quotes her as saying: "My only uneasiness with Martha Stewart's case is because I do feel that there's a lot of boys out there who did worse than Martha and they're not indicted. And there was a sense of mine that she was in her position because she was a successful woman and had a high profile, sort of not unlike myself."
Authorities take the issue of aiding the sheik to communicate with his followers seriously. His words in the past have resulted, according to authorities, in acts of terrorism.
The release of the blind sheik has remained a central aim of the Egyptian militant islamists. In what would prove a public relations debacle for the islamists, on or about November 17, 1997, six terrorists shot and stabbed a group of tourists visiting an archaelogical site in Luxor, Egypt. Fifty-eight tourists were killed along with four Egyptians. The terrorists left leaflets explaining their support for the Islamic Group and calling for the blind sheik's release. The torso of one was slit and a leaflet inserted.
In 1998, the blind sheik issued a fatwa directing that Americans be killed to avenge his imprisonment. During the trial relating to bombing the U.S. embassies in Africa, one witness testified that Abdel Rahman smuggled a flier from prison calling on Muslims to avenge indignities he sustained as a prisoner. "Oh people, oh men of Allah, rise up from your deep slumber. ... Rise up and see justice done," the sheik wrote in a letter smuggled out of prison.
On September 21, 2000, an Arabic television station, Al Jazeera, televised an interview with Usama Bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri, and Islamic leader Abu Yasser (of the Islamic Group and Al Qaeda), and Mohammed Abdel Rahman (the blind sheik's son), during which they pledged jihad to free Abdel Rahman. They urged that his followers avenge the "insult" paid him by his imprisonment for conspiracy to commit murder. To add to the perceived outrage, according to the government's indictment of Attorney Stewart, his followers were told that he was being denied his insulin for his diabetes when actually he was just refusing to take it. (The alleged mistreatment concerned, at its core, restrictions on his ability to issue further communications ordering that Americans be killed).
The Cole bombing, reportedly masterminded by Khalid Mohammed, was also motivated at least in part to free the blind sheik. One government affidavit in the prosecution of Stewart for violating prison regulations, explained: "YOUSRY told SHEIKH ABDEL RAHMAN that "some people spoke to [SATTAR] on the phone and said that they did this operation for Omar Abdel Rahman so he could be released from prison and they asked SATTAR to do some negotiations with the American government and tell them 'if [Rahman is] not released we'll execute another operation. SHEIKH ABDEL RAHMAN responded that SATTAR had to take himself out of this and that a lawyer should handle any negotiations."
In the Fall of 2001, Zawahiri wrote:
"Regarding the shaykh's change of mind and his withdrawal of support for the [non-violence in Egypt] initiative that was made by the brothers in Egypt three years ago, the shaykh reached this conclusion because he received information that tens of thousands of detainees were still held in jail and tortured."
Zawahiri's wrote in "Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet" that he agreed with the supporter of "blind sheik" who said:
"the Egyptian Government is guilty of a major shortcoming by not intervening to safeguard the shaykh, guarantee his humanitarian rights inside his US jail, and find a solution to his case because, in the final count, he is an Egyptian national, a Muslim scholar, and a professor at Al-Azhar university. Finally he is a blind and sick old man. His continued detention and the inhuman way in which he is treated will continue to be a source of tension on all levels."
Ahmed and Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, two of the Egyptian sheikh's 13 children, were named as co-conspirators in the Sep 11 attacks. Ahmed Abdel Rahman helped run a terrorist training camp in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
The blind sheik's plight was also of concern to alleged Al Qaeda operatives in the US. According to an August 2002 federal indictment, members of an alleged Detroit, Ohio terror cell had an angry conversation in June 2001 about Abdel Rahman's imprisonment. Similarly, the Government's Indictment of the Buffalo defendants explained that one of the reasons motivating the terrorists actions was that "al Qaeda opposed the United States Government because of the arrest, conviction and imprisonment of persons belonging to Al Qaeda or its affiliated terrorist groups or those with whom it worked."
Attorney Stewart has said previously that she thinks the Egyptian government eventually will negotiate with the militant islamists. Indeed, 1000 imprisoned islamists were released this past year.
That appears, however, not to be the case with respect to the United States of America.

>> EAST AFRICA WATCH...

Moi's Pension: Bill Now Allows Politics
By FRED OLUOCH
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
A CONTROVERSIAL clause in Kenya's Presidential Retirement Benefits Bill barring retired presidents from engaging in political activities if they are to earn their pension has been removed, paving the way for former president Daniel arap Moi to participate in the affairs of the official opposition party Kanu.
But questions still remained last week, barely a month after President Mwai Kibaki assented to the amended Bill on December 31, as to whether the government was reacting to pressure from Kanu, or whether it was seeking some accommodation with the party in view of the infighting within the ruling National Rainbow Coalition.
Pointing at clause 6 (1) of the Bill, which stated, "A retired president shall neither hold office in nor actively participate in the activities of any political party," while part (2) of the same clause stated, "A retired president shall be expected to play a non-partisan, consultative and advisory role to the government of Kenya", the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Kiraitu Murungi, had insisted that Mr Moi would have to stay out of politics or lose his benefits.
The EastAfrican has, however, established that the clauses were amended during the committee stage, leaving the clause open to interpretation and probably giving the former president a leeway to participate in political activities.
According to William Ruto, the Kanu director of elections and a close associate of Mr Moi, the provision was bound to give room to the government to use flimsy reasons to get back at the former president since it is difficult to pinpoint what constitutes political action.
"A former head of state is experienced and mature enough to restrain himself in such circumstances. But this cannot be legally enforced, given that even voting is a political action. You cannot run away from the reality that Mr Moi was a politician for a long time and had developed a Kenyan constituency in those 24 years," he said.
The amendment, however, had more to it than sheer persistence by Kanu. It had the full blessing of some faction in the ruling party who, it is understood, had realised that the former president could serve as a stabilising force at a time when the survival of the NARC coalition is increasingly in doubt. However, he is still not allowed to hold an elective party post.
The development, strongly opposed by those who would rather see the retired president account for some of the shortcomings of his 24-year rule, is bound to raise doubts as to whether part of the Narc leadership - some of whom cut their political teeth under Mr Moi - is capable of making a complete break with the past. It is also debatable whether Mr Moi will ever face any prosecutions for any alleged past misdeeds.
Kanu's Shadow Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Mr Moi's personal lawyer, Mutula Kilonzo, who fiercely fought for the repeal of the restrictive clause, maintained last week that the provision was likely to interfere with the former president's right to association just like any other citizen as enshrined in the constitution.
"The man has served the country for a long time and we cannot afford to put in place discriminatory clauses that isolate him from the rest of the country. It is not possible for anybody to play non-partisan politics and NARC ought not to be frightened by the former president because he means well," he said.
But despite Mr Kilonzo's brave talk, it is now emerging that some National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) leaders have realised that the former president, who still wields enormous influence, could come in handy when it comes to future alliances.
NAK leaders, according to sources, intend to use the former president to continue influencing the politics of the expansive Rift Valley that was on the verge of falling into the hands of youthful MPs, who have little time for NARC.
With a record 48 years in politics, including 24 years as president, Mr Moi will have a great influence in Kenyan politics as long as he lives.
It is an open secret that the former president continues to call the shots in Kanu despite having officially relinquished the party chairmanship in September last year. A case in point is his key role in the recent formation of the Coalition of National Unity (CNU), that brought together Kanu and Ford-People.
Notably, during the parliamentary debate on the Bill in October, Mr Murungi, who had come to epitomise the "Moi-bashing" brigade, was a changed man.
As he put it, "We want to send out the message that there is dignified life after a president retires. There is no president who will not make a mistake here and there. Human errors can always be forgiven," said Murungi, who appealed to Kenyans to show tolerance, understanding and treat elder statesmen with respect for the sake of development and peace.
Apparently, Kenyans were surprised when the former president, who had been shunned since he handed over power on December 30 last year, attended the October 20 Kenyatta Day festivities at Nyayo stadium and was later invited to a State House party where he was warmly welcomed by President Mwai Kibaki, besides exchanging pleasantries with his hitherto "predators."
But more surprising were media reports that Mr Moi had, on the following day, a hushed one-hour private meeting with President Kibaki, where the two are reported to have discussed the recently-established Moi African Foundation and the possible role the former president could play in regional peace-making.
Yet, that does not take away the lingering apprehension within NARC that the former president still retains tremendous clout and capacity to interfere with the government of the day, even though he has continuously insisted that he cannot undermine an African government and has always wished President Kibaki well.
This perception came to the fore during the 2002 elections, where Mr Moi, by fronting the relatively inexperienced Uhuru Kenyatta at the expense of more seasoned politicians in Kanu, was seen to be seeking to maintain a tab on the affairs of the country even in retirement, just like the former Tanzanian president, the late Julius Nyerere.
Nyerere, despite his retirement in 1985, continued to play an active role in that country's politics, where he not only handpicked his successors - Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Benjamin Mkapa - but openly campaigned for his party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM)
According to the Minister for Co-operative Development, Njeru Ndwiga, Mr Moi should strive to be non-partisan at all times, even as he is free to comment on political issues. "A retired president is a key figure in the country's politics and should be accorded respect by all Kenyans. But this respect can only be achieved by him staying away from partisan politics," he argued.
Also not happy with the development is the Safina leader, Paul Muite, who argued that the decision to give Mr Moi his retirement benefits without linking it to transitional justice sets a bad precedent.
"While restricting his political activities could have meant gagging an individual and denying him his human rights, it is not proper for one to destroy the country and then enjoy the benefits," he argued.
"You can only have democracy if you have the courage to confront the past. It is wrong to begin to pay him pension without making him account for past misdeeds, such as the ethnic clashes and destruction of the economy," he said.
Mr Muite, however, insisted that he is not vindictive, arguing, "If we don't address past looting of the economy, the current regime will do the same, since people will be taking office with the aim to loot, knowing that they will not be called to account for their actions."
Mr Kilonzo, on the other hand, maintained that there is need to differentiate between political and legal crimes. According to him, Mr Moi was politically punished when he witnessed his party being voted out of power as a result of his mistake to nominate Mr Kenyatta as the party presidential candidate. "But mistakes of a criminal nature have their place in the courts of law and I am ready for anybody who has one."
He argued that the decision to give the former president his benefits without conditions is for the future benefit of the country, since it will put a stop to the urge by politicians to amass wealth at any cost out of fear that they will be turned into paupers.
"Eighty per cent of the sitting president's salary is reasonable to convince anybody not to steal and plunder, knowing very well that they will be comfortable in retirement." he said.
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Saudi Charity Plotted to Bomb Zanzibar Hotels, US Charges
By KEVIN J. KELLEY
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
MEMBERS OF the Tanzanian branch of a Saudi charity plotted last year to attack several hotels in Zanzibar, the US charged last week.
"The scheduled attacks did not take place due to increased security by local authorities, but planning for the attacks remained active," US officials added.
The charges came as the US Treasury Department called for international financial sanctions against the Tanzanian and Kenyan branches of the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation. The two East African organisations, along with Al Haramain affiliates in Indonesia and Pakistan, are involved in terrorist activity, the US said.
The Kenyan and Tanzanian groups are specifically linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, according to American officials. The two branches are also said to have ties to an organisation in Somalia that the US says is involved in terrorism.
Acting jointly with the government of Saudi Arabia, US officials last week asked the United Nations to order its member states to freeze assets belonging to the al Haramain groups in the four named countries. Al Haramain has denied any connection to terrorism.
Individuals associated with the Kenyan and Tanzanian branches are said to have been involved in the plots to destroy the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998.
An unnamed former director of the Tanzanian branch of Al Haramain assisted the advance team that plotted the bombings, which killed a total of 212 Africans and 12 Americans.
The US Treasury Department also revealed that an Al Haramain employee had indicated how the Nairobi embassy would be attacked a full year before the bombing actually took place. This source disclosed in August 1997 that a suicide bomber would crash a vehicle into the embassy's gate. And that is indeed how the bombing was carried out 12 months later. The allegation of the terrorist plot comes five months after the US State Department issued a travel advisory on Tanzania, which included warnings of threats in Zanzibar.
Attempts by The EastAfrican to raise the issue with the government and Bakwata - Tanzania Muslims apex organisation were unsuccessful.
A few months ago, however, two Al Haramain leaders were declared prohibited immigrants - one for cheating in his real citizenship papers. It could not be established immediately why the second one was deported.

>> ZARQAWI FILE...

U.S. Links Zarqawi to Attacks in Iraq
By KATHERINE PFLEGER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials say they have mounting evidence to suggest al-Qaida operative Abu Musab Zarqawi has had a hand in multiple attacks in Iraq, including those on a mosque in Najaf, the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and Italy's paramilitary police station in Nasiriyah.
Another al-Qaida member, Hassan Ghul, was arrested this month while entering northern Iraq and is believed to have met with Zarqawi to plan attacks against U.S. and coalition forces, said a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Now in U.S. custody, Ghul is believed to be cooperating with interrogators. He known as a facilitator who can move people and money around and is the highest ranking member of al-Qaida to be arrested in Iraq.
The official said Ghul has also worked closely with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, purported mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Coalition forces are dealing with both Iraqi opposition and foreign insurgents, like Zarqawi. He has been described as a key link between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein, but has managed to avoid capture.
The official wouldn't comment on Zarqawi's suspected location.
In August, a truck bomb struck hit U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 23 people, and a car bomb exploded outside mosque in Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf, killing more than 85. In November, a suicide truck bomber attacked Italy's paramilitary police headquarters in southern city of Nasiriyah, killing more than 30.
The United States has "strong suspicions" that Zarqawi was involved in all three, the official said.