Sep 14, 2002
Marine biologists measure a giant squid captured by Spanish fisherman off the northern coast of Spain near Gijon Saturday, Sept 14, 2002. The squid, measuring 6 meters (19 feet 10 inches) and weighing 50 kilograms (110 pounds) is another example of the rare marine animal that scientists are efforting to learn more about. (AP Photo/EFE)
Tue Sep 17,2002
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - In an astonishing concession, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted Tuesday that North Korean spies abducted about a dozen Japanese decades ago and said at least four were still alive.
The turnaround — after years of angry denials — opened the door for the two estranged neighbors to reopen talks to establish diplomatic ties, and could signal a change in North Korea 's often hostile approach to relations with the outside world.
But the news was shattering for those who learned their sons and daughters were lost to them forever.
"Never in my dreams did I imagine this would be the result," said Kayoko Arimoto, whose daughter Keiko vanished in 1983 at age 23 while studying in Europe and is now dead.
Kim made the revelation during a landmark summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at which he promised North Korea would continue to freeze missile-test firings and asked Tokyo to relay to the United States a willingness for dialogue, including accepting inspections of suspected nuclear weapons programs.
For his part, Koizumi expressed remorse over the suffering his nation caused the Korean people before and during World War II and promised to discuss economic aid in the normalization talks, set to start next month.
Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 and forced thousands of Koreans to work in Japanese mines and shipyards and serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers. North Korea's demand for compensation for the atrocities had been another sticking point in talks between the two nations. Japan has ruled out such compensation and offered aid instead.
But the issue of the abductions was the one most closely watched by the Japanese public at the summit. Japan and North Korea have never had diplomatic relations, and normalization talks that began in 1991 fell apart two years ago, primarily over the kidnappings.
Displaying an openness previously unseen from the isolated communist state, Kim admitted that North Korean agents had kidnapped the Japanese in the late 1970s and early 1980s to train the North's spies in Japanese language and culture and to allow spies to assume their identities.
Kim said at least four of the 11 kidnapping victims listed by the Japanese police were still alive and his nation was prepared to let them return to Japan. Six of the 11 and two other abducted Japanese were confirmed dead.
"This will never happen again," Kim was quoted as saying by a Japanese Foreign Ministry official. "It is regrettable and I apologize sincerely."
In a statement, North Korea promised to help the survivors meet with their families, and take "necessary steps to let them return home or visit their hometowns if they wish."
Kim blamed misguided special agents for the abductions.
He also acknowledged North Korean agents were behind the spy ships that have periodically shown up in Japanese waters. He said he was surprised to learn of them through an internal investigation and had begun wiping out the "special forces" to make them "a relic of the past," said the Japanese Foreign Ministry official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
The beginning of a dialogue with North Korea is a big step toward bringing the secretive regime into the international community, said Junichi Kyogoku, honorary professor of politics at the University of Tokyo.
"It's a step forward if we weigh the possible consequences for regional peace," Kyogoku said from Tokyo. "That the contact has begun is a plus, but we must wait and see, rather than hurry to conclusions."
Signs have emerged lately that North Korea may be gradually softening its stance. Hit by food shortages and struggling to revive a hobbled economy, the communist nation needs monetary aid from Japan. As a U.S. ally, Japan could also provide a different sort of help.
North Korea has grown increasingly concerned about its tumultuous relationship with the United States since President Bush branded it part of an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and Iran, suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction.
News that most of the kidnapping victims are dead was greeted with anguish and bitterness from the victims' families and many Japanese, who said the announcement only raised more questions.
Hopes had been high that Koizumi would bring the kidnapping victims home and the Japanese leader said he was devastated when he learned so many were dead.
"When I think of the families, I am at a loss for words," Koizumi said at a news conference at a Pyongyang hotel. "I strongly protested the abductions."
But he also defended his decision to press ahead quickly with normalization talks to promote not only regional peace but world stability.
"Without talking, better relations are not possible," Koizumi said.
Japan has pressed North Korea to investigate the victims' deaths, which North Korean officials said were caused by illness and other natural disasters.
But many relatives questioned how their loved ones could have died so young. Half the victims would now be in their 40s or 50s.
"I was really looking forward to some good news," said Shigeru Yokota, whose 13-year-old daughter Megumi disappeared in 1977 as she was walking home from school badminton practice.
"But it was that she was dead," he told reporters in Tokyo, choking back tears. "I can't believe that she's dead."
Megumi had been believed alive because former agents had reported seeing her in North Korea. The Foreign Ministry official said North Korea told them Megumi had a daughter who was living in Pyongyang.
Sat Sep 14, 2002
LONDON (Reuters) - Flooding as a result of global warming ( news - web sites) threatens one in every 13 British homes and could even erode London's role as a international commercial center, the Independent newspaper said on Sunday.
Citing a new government report, it said buildings and land worth 222 billion pounds were under threat from global warming, which it describes as "the greatest threat facing the world community."
The report by the government's Energy Savings Trust, which was handed privately to ministers on Thursday, is one of the starkest official warnings yet of the cost of climate change.
"A long term policy aimed at slowing down and ultimately reducing car ownership, as well as use, will be necessary to have any real impact on transport emissions," the report said.
This month's marathon Earth Summit in Johannesburg was widely criticized by environmentalists and vulnerable Pacific nations for barely touching on the problem of global warming.
The United States was singled out for criticism. President Bush ( news - web sites) has pulled out of the 1997 Kyoto pact, under which developed nations agreed to rein in emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for warming the atmosphere.
About half of the 222 billion pounds of property under threat in Britain is in the Thames region around London, threatening the capital's future "as an international center for trade and commerce," the report said.
Some five million people living in 1.8 million homes risk being inundated by rising seas and increased rainfall, as does "61 percent of the total of grade one land in England and Wales."
Sun Sep 15,2002
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Derailed railroad cars leaked billowing fumes of highly corrosive sulfuric acid in a residential area Sunday, forcing the evacuation of about 100 homes within a mile of the site.
No serious injuries were reported, said Alan Lawson, deputy director of the Knoxville-Knox County Emergency Management Agency.
Some people exposed to the acid fumes complained of minor skin and lung irritation and a few were taken to a hospital, where they were treated and released, said Lt. Jeff Devlin of the Metro Special Hazards Team.
Nine cars of the 25-car train derailed on a Norfolk Southern track, rupturing one car that was carrying about 93,000 pounds of sulfuric acid, Devlin said.
None of the liquid acid spilled, but vapor spewed from the tank car. Concentrated sulfuric acid can dissolve many metals. Devlin said crews were preparing to neutralize the acid but first wanted to determine what other chemicals were on the train.
"We want to make sure all of our i's are dotted and our t's crossed before we start neutralizing," he said.
"All in all we feel we've got it well in hand," he added.
Devlin said he didn't know what caused the train to derail.
Residents probably would have to stay away from their homes at least overnight, he said.
(http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
9/16/02
Genes, and not religious conviction, explain why Jewish people typically have fewer drink problems than non-Jews.
Researchers in the US say a genetic mutation carried by at least a fifth of Jews appears to protect against alcoholism.
The same inherited trait is fairly common in Asian people, but is much rarer in white Europeans.
The findings could help explain why Israel has one of the lowest levels of alcoholism in the developed world.
The mutation, called ADH2*2, is involved in the way the body breaks down alcohol in the bloodstream.
Scientists are unsure exactly how it protects against alcoholism, but it is thought to increase levels of the toxic chemical acetaldehyde - a by-product of alcohol metabolism. At high levels, acetaldehyde causes headaches, nausea and flushing.
Almost all white Europeans lack the ADH2*2 variation and so produce less of the by-product. Thus drinking tends to be more pleasurable, increasing the risks of alcoholism.
The new study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, looked at the relationship between the gene variant and alcoholism among 75 Israeli Jews aged 22 to 65.
The study's author, Dr Deborah Hasin, from Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, said: "This finding adds to the growing body of evidence that this genetic variation has a protective effect against alcoholism among Jewish groups."
Tue Sep 17, 2002
AP
Bob Meisenheimer liked to sit in his back yard with friends on sultry summer nights, wearing a T-shirt and trying to solve the world's problems. The one that killed him — West Nile virus — has authorities scrambling for answers.
The mosquito-borne illness has hit Illinois harder than any other state this summer, with 399 cases so far, including 21 deaths. That is far worse than even hot, humid and swampy Louisiana, which has had 11 deaths.
The outbreak here is the deadliest in the nation since West Nile virus was first discovered in this country in New York City in 1999.
Experts are uncertain why the problem is so bad here, but their theories include bird migration patterns, a heavy concentration of mosquito-infested cemeteries, and Illinois residents' summertime habits.
"You've got a short warm season and everybody loves to be outside. To be told to cover up and wear repellent when you go outside, you're kind of messing up the party," said Kitty Loewy of the Cook County Public Health Department.
Bret Meisenheimer thinks that may explain his 76-year-old father's death Sept. 5 from West Nile encephalitis, or brain swelling. A World War II veteran and retired bricklayer, Bob Meisenheimer had battled leukemia but was feeling pretty good until he developed flu-like symptoms about three weeks ago.
His son figures Meisenheimer got bitten during his nightly routine, sitting out on the picnic table in Bethalto, north of St. Louis.
"I don't think he ever thought a mosquito would get to him," Bret Meisenheimer said of his father.
He doubts his dad wore insect repellent or protective clothing, which along with avoiding being outside at dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active are among precautions state officials have recommended.
While Illinoisans may not have curtailed summertime fun, many are worried, especially in Chicago's hard-hit suburbs.
"You go to a block party and a soccer game, and it's on everybody's minds," said Jay Terry, a health director in Evanston, where 26 people have been infected. "We had a block party two weeks ago and there was a table set up just for insect repellent."
As of Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 1,500 cases nationwide, including 71 deaths. That does not include the three deaths reported Tuesday in Illinois.
The Illinois victims have ranged from a 3-month-old baby girl from the Chicago area who survived a severe case to a 92-year-old suburban woman who did not. Most people bitten by an infected mosquito do not become ill, and most of those who do get sick have only mild symptoms.
One reason for the outbreak may be that Illinois is on a major bird migration route, the Mississippi Flyway. Birds can spread the disease.
In Cook County alone, which includes Chicago, there have been about 300 cases, including 15 deaths. And the Chicago-area geography includes lots of forest preserves and marshes, which are better mosquito breeding grounds than, say, the concrete jungles of New York, said Dr. Robert Craven of the CDC.
Entomologist Khian Liem of the South Cook County Mosquito Abatement District noted that the entire Chicago area is a former swamp, and that the southern suburbs have a high concentration of cemeteries, which are an ideal mosquito breeding ground. Mourners continually bring in flower containers, which collect rainwater, in which mosquitos breed.
The Archdiocese of Chicago has temporarily banned flowers from gravesites at Roman Catholic cemeteries.
Linn Haramis, an entomologist with the state Health Department, said Illinois' mild winter this year, followed by a hot and dry summer, was ideal for the common house mosquitoes that spread the virus.
As fall and cooler temperatures approach, mosquito activity is expected to decrease.
Sep 16, 2002
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A two-week-old baby in the Los Angeles area has already been exposed to more toxic air pollution than the U.S. government deems acceptable as a cancer risk over a lifetime, according to a report on Monday by an environmental campaign group.
The study of air pollution in California by the National Environmental Trust also said that even if a young child moved away from California, or if the air had been cleaned up by the time he or she reached adulthood, "the potential (cancer) risk that a child rapidly accumulates in California from simply breathing will not go away."
California, known to be the nation's smoggiest state, already has a potential cancer risk to adults that is hundreds of times above levels seen as acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency .
But the report said children were more vulnerable to pollutants than adults because, pound for pound, they breathe more air, drink more water, eat more food and play outdoors more than adults.
"A baby born in California will be exposed to such high levels of toxic air contaminants that the child will exceed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) lifetime acceptable exposure level for cancer at a very early age, and will exceed the lifetime acceptable exposure level by many multiples by age 18," the Washington D.C-based environmental campaign group said.
The "Toxic Beginnings" study divided California into five geographical areas. It concluded that in Los Angeles an infant would have reached the EPA's one chance in one million limit of contracting cancer from contaminants in 12 days, and in Sacramento it would take 23 days.
It said diesel exhaust -- from trucks and cars, school buses, and farm and construction equipment -- was still the worst source of air pollution. But it also took into account chemicals emitted by dry cleaners and factories as well as pesticides, adhesives and lubricant oils.
The National Environmental Trust urged federal and state policy makers to make cleaning up the air a priority.
"The overwhelming policy implication of these findings can be reduced to one word: URGENCY," it said.
It recommended that regional and local governments emphasize alternative technologies and fuels, replace diesel school buses and other municipal vehicles with cleaner alternative fuel models and enforce existing laws on fuel emissions.
www.thesundaymail.news.com.au
15sep02
OSAMA bin Laden's supporters say the al-Qaeda leader is dead.
Shahid Ayan, who was hiding in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains with bin Laden during United States air raids in December, said the terrorist chief died 10 months ago.
"Yes, Osama bin Laden is dead, but the jihad will continue until Judgment Day," he told United Arab Emirates newspaper Al Bayan.
Shahid said that late on December 10 – "the 24th night of Ramadan" – there were "some scary explosions" in the area where bin Laden's cave was located.
"The cave was completely erased from the ground and became nothing," he said.
"This was the only cave of the 15 that was destroyed by an enormous 52ft (16m) missile and there is no doubt that bin Laden died."
Shahid said bin Laden had taken refuge in the caves on November 15 with about 320 fighters.
US forces bombarded the area with laser-guided bombs and AGM-142s – television-guided missiles with earth-shattering warheads.
Pakistani intelligence sources last placed bin Laden in a 25-vehicle convoy travelling from Jalalabad in Afghanistan to Tora Bora in November.
Bin Laden then appeared on a video released in December, when he appeared ill and had trouble using his left arm – prompting speculation he had been wounded in the bombing.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, the subject of a recent al-Qaeda assassination attempt, was yesterday quoted as saying he believed bin Laden was dead.
"The more we do not hear or him or see any signal of his whereabouts or survival, (the more) we are likely to believe he is not alive," Mr Karzai said.
But US intelligence officers are sceptical of the reports, which were also carried on al-Jazeera television, which bin Laden frequently uses to address his followers.
The station yesterday carried a statement from Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar who pledged Islamic rule would return to Afghanistan.
"America won't enjoy Afghanistan or find comfort in it until it leaves ashamed," he said. "We reassure Muslims everywhere that we are abiding by the pledge and that victory is coming."
Washington Post
September 16, 2002
Milk from cloned cows and meat from the offspring of cloned cows and pigs could show up on grocery shelves as early as next year under the plans of livestock breeders who are already raising scores of clones on American farmsteads.
A recent report from the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's top scientific body, has given fresh impetus to the effort to turn cloning into a routine tool of U.S. agricultural production.
A special NAS panel that reviewed developments in animal biotechnology was alarmed by genetic manipulation of fish and insects that might escape and harm wild species, but it found cloning of farm animals less troublesome, since the technique involves copying adult animals without altering their genes. The committee called for a few additional studies but said the technique was unlikely to affect the safety of the food supply.
"I think our message was fairly loud and clear," said panel member Eric Hallerman, a biologist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg. "The concern about food safety, we thought, was just way overblown."
A few cloned cows scattered around the country are already producing milk. Farmers and companies have held off selling it only because of informal requests from the Food and Drug Administration, which is reviewing whether clones, their byproducts or their offspring should be allowed into the food supply.
The agency hopes for a decision by late this year. Absent compelling evidence of a problem, it's not clear the FDA or any other government agency would have the legal power to keep cloned animals out of the food supply.
The biggest lingering concern appears to be for the welfare of cloned animals and their surrogate mothers, with some groups saying the development of cloning on a large scale will lead to widespread animal suffering.
The number of cloned animals living on American farms today is small -- most estimates put it at fewer than 100. All are elite animals that cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce and are valued as breeding stock, not as meat.
For that reason, products made from clones are likely to be a mere trickle in the marketplace, at least at first, farmers said. But if the technique becomes established and the price of cloning falls, farmers envision a day when entire dairy herds may be stocked with nothing but clones of the most prolific cows.
The technique may never be cheap enough to produce animals for use directly as meat, but breeders said it's likely the first- or second-generation offspring of clones will wind up in the meat supply in large numbers.
The cloned food products that could hit the market in small quantities next year include milk from cloned Holstein dairy cows and, potentially, veal from their first-generation offspring. Pigs would likely not be far behind, with some first-generation offspring probably being butchered for food in 2004 or 2005, animal breeders said.
Other countries are moving in the same direction as the United States. A study published recently in Japan said cloned meat and milk are identical to the ordinary kind. That nation is now preparing to lift a ban.
A handful of American animal breeders plunged into cloning two years ago, mindful that no law or regulation said they couldn't, and they were caught off guard by the informal FDA moratorium that followed. They said they had been trying to honor the agency's ban, but economic pressures are mounting as the animals reach their prime reproductive years and they need to recoup investments that typically exceed $20,000 per clone.
"There is a certain level of anxiety out there, waiting for us to make a decision," said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, who is leading the agency's review.
An elite Holstein dairy cow typically proves her worth in the second and third years of life, when she bears a calf, begins lactating and establishes a record of milk production.
Once a champion establishes her résumé, her real value is in her embryos, which can sell for as much as $2,500 apiece for transfer into surrogate mothers. But the cloned Holsteins now reaching sexual maturity won't get to that point unless they are allowed to bear calves and start making milk.
Some cloning companies are already pouring out milk from clones. By this spring, farmers in scattered spots around the country will face the choice of selling milk from their clones or dumping it back on their fields. If the FDA will let them, they plan to sell it.
Greg Wiles, proprietor of a dairy farm in Williamsport, Md., knows the pressures firsthand. His family once owned the top-ranked Holstein in the country -- Con Acres HS Zita-ET, registered Holstein No. 14411844. Zita, worth as much as $150,000 in her prime, died last year -- but not before Wiles, with help from a company in Massachusetts, spent some $70,000 to create two clones, Genesis and Cyagra.
They are healthy animals who have reached sexual maturity, Wiles said, and he has already used embryos from the clones to produce seven new pregnancies by embryo transfer to recipient cows.
Wiles said he needs to establish pregnancies soon in the clones themselves. That will not only let them build milk-production records, it will also help them keep producing embryos at a high level in their mature years. The clones and their female offspring, if they are anything like Zita herself, should be fantastic milk producers, Wiles said.
"We are probably getting a little ahead of the FDA," Wiles said. "I have always stood behind the fact that we knew we weren't genetically altering anything with the cloning process. There was a lot of newness when the clones were born, but they've really become just like any other cow on the farm."
Even breeders who have not yet embraced cloning are preparing for the day it becomes routine, paying several hundred dollars to freeze cells from elite animals that could eventually be used to make clones. Some have learned the technology can salvage the genes of some animals that have already died.
Jon Fisher, owner of Prairie State Semen Inc. of Champaign, Ill., paid a then-record $43,000 in 1997 for a beautiful Hampshire boar at an auction in Texas. "I thought he was the best animal I had ever laid my eyes on," Fisher said.
It was a smart call: Fisher's business is selling semen from champion boars to breeders who produce the long, svelte pigs that dominate 4-H and Future Farmers of America livestock competitions. The new animal, much in demand, greatly elevated Fisher's reputation in the world of pig breeders. He named the boar 401-K, after the retirement account.
A year ago Fisher was getting ready to have 401-K cloned when the animal died suddenly of an intestinal blockage. The boar had been dead several hours by the time Fisher managed to salvage ear cells and ship them off to Infigen Inc. of DeForest, Wis., one of a handful of American companies offering cloning services to breeders. "It was like a bad Woody Allen movie, the way we were running around here," Fisher said.
But it worked: Fisher now has six clones of 401-K and one of The Man, another champion boar. "They look like a pig. They smell like a pig. They feel like a pig," Fisher said. "It's a pig."
The clones have now reached sexual maturity, and he has been taking orders for semen, held back from shipping only by the FDA's informal request. Boar semen doesn't store well, and Fisher said he's losing money for every week the agency's deliberations drag on.
"We've been caught off guard here," Fisher said. "For the good of the industry and the good of consumer confidence, I guess I'm not opposed to waiting. But if this drags on and there's [no prohibition] in writing, I'm going to sell semen."
Some pig-show contestants wind up as breeding stock themselves, but most are eventually butchered, so some offspring of Fisher's clones are likely to wind up in the food supply. Likewise, beef-cattle producers are expected to use clones to upgrade the genetics of their herds, with first- or second-generation offspring of clones eventually being sold for meat.
Sundlof, the FDA administrator, said his agency was working hard to produce a draft report by year-end. But he said that report would need to be reviewed at the upper echelons of the Bush administration, so the FDA can make no firm commitment to breeders about timing.
In theory, cloned animals, made by essentially the same technique that was used to produce Dolly the sheep in 1996, are close genetic copies of their adult progenitors, and in theory, eating them shouldn't pose any special concern to a person who would have eaten the original.
But it's fuzzier than that: Research indicates that cloning alters some genetic patterns, at least slightly, and there's a small scientific possibility that this could affect the resulting meat or milk. Preliminary comparisons have suggested there's little cause for worry, but the FDA is awaiting more definitive data.
Scientists said offspring present no risk because they are the product of natural sexual crosses. "The offspring of clones we're not concerned about at all," said Hallerman, the expert from Virginia Tech. "That's just a normal animal."
One concern for the FDA is that breeders going to the expense of cloning may also attempt genetic modification of the animals, perhaps to make them leaner or improve milk production. Such genetic manipulation poses far more potential problems than mere cloning does, and the FDA would likely require extensive proof that the gene-altered animals are safe to eat.
"Once you get into the cloning technology, it's very tempting to want to manipulate a few genes here and there, too," Sundlof said.
The commercial market for cloning remains unsettled. Infigen has returned some clones to American farms but had to destroy other animals to cope with financial problems. Cyagra Inc. of Worcester, Mass., continues to offer cloning services to breeders (it produced Greg Wiles's clones, which is why he named one Cyagra), and other companies are expected to jump into the market if the FDA clears the way.
The biggest remaining concern is animal welfare. Though clones that survive to adulthood typically seem healthy, they die in inordinate numbers in the womb or just after birth, and the pregnancies appear to be stressful for the surrogate mothers.
Concern about animal suffering is not confined to the most assertive animal-rights groups. The NAS panel raised it as a serious issue, and mainstream groups like the Humane Society of the United States are also alarmed.
"We are deeply disturbed by the idea of mass cloning by the industrial agriculture industry," said Wayne Pacelle, senior vice president of the Humane Society. "It will accelerate the drive toward factory farming, which is already becoming dominant."
Industry advocates respond that cloning is still in its early days, and they aim to reduce the failure rate -- and thus, the potential for suffering. They predict a gradual acceptance.
"This is so new and so revolutionary that the educational process is a huge task," said Ron Gillespie, vice president of marketing for Cyagra. "People still don't understand the technology, but we're finding more and more takers."
I guess this is one way to ensure every Macdonald's burger tastes the same.
National Geographic News
September 16, 2002
About 65 million years ago a space rock slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and scattered high-velocity debris around Earth, igniting wildfires in North America, the Indian subcontinent, and most of the equatorial part of the world.
However, northern Asia, Europe, Antarctica and possibly much of Australia may have been spared the inferno, according to a new computer simulation of how the wildfires spread around the world.
The wildfires are thought to be a key ingredient in the concoction of environmental changes that killed more than 75 percent of all plant and animal life on Earth, including the dinosaurs.
"Our calculations suggest fires may have been more intense in some parts of the world than in others and that some areas may have been spared fires altogether," said David Kring, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "However, other environmental effects would have affected the spared regions."
For example, dust and smoke from the impact and fires would have obscured sunlight causing global temperatures to plummet and acid rain to fall. Then, the increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and other pollutants in the air may have led to global warming.
The impact event, which created a 110 to 180 mile (180 to 300 kilometer) diameter crater in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, marks the transition of the Cretaceous Period to the Tertiary Period where mammals replaced dinosaurs as the dominant species on Earth.
Kring along with his colleague Daniel Durda at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, detail the spread of the wildfires in the September issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research—Planets.
Fire Model
The global wildfires sparked by the impact event that formed the Chicxulub crater were first modeled in 1990 by planetary scientist Jay Melosh at the University of Arizona and colleagues. Their calculation indicated that the fires spread around the world in a single pulse.
The model developed by Kring and Durda, which they say builds on the earlier research, shows that the fires were ignited in multiple pulses.
The impact was 10 billion times more energetic than the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in World War II, the scientists said.
Most of the material from the collision collected around the impact site, but according to the researchers' calculations, some 12 percent of the debris was launched beyond Earth's atmosphere.
"The computer simulation keeps track of the velocity of material being ejected from the crater," said Kring. "A small fraction of the material achieves escape velocities and, thus, escapes Earth."
The debris ejected from the crater and lofted far above Earth's atmosphere rained back down over a period of about four days, said Kring. As the debris rained down, it heated the atmosphere and surface temperatures so intensely that the ground vegetation spontaneously ignited.
This high energy debris concentrated both around the Chicxulub crater and on the opposite side of the Earth around India, the researchers report.
"The pileup of debris on the opposite of the Earth occurs because material is reaching that spot from all directions," said Kring. "Material launched from the crater in an easterly direction runs into material launched from the crater in a westerly direction."
As the Earth rotated, it turned beneath this returning plume of debris, causing the wildfires to migrate to the west, as illustrated by the researchers' computer simulation of the wildfire spread.
Modeling Assumptions
Some asteroid experts, including Melosh, question the pulsing results of the computer model. "The pulsing is probably the result of the assumed ejecta distribution that they choose, but there is no reason to think that what they do is, in fact, correct," he said.
Melosh believes that the proper way to determine the pattern of wildfire spread is to do numerical simulations of the full ejection process and then follow the velocity and direction of the ejected debris to determine the rain back pattern.
Kring and Durda based their computer simulation of the wildfire spread on models of the Chicxulub impact run by Elisabetta Pierazzo, a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, to determine how impact angle affects the results of impact events.
"We had to estimate what the range in those launch conditions could be for a range of plausible Chicxulub impact events," said Durda. Thus, he added, Melosh is correct to say that their results are only as good as the assumptions in the inputs to the model.
Durda and Kring are currently working on a way to get a direct hand-off of the results from Pierazzo's models of the impact itself to their model that follows the debris trajectories around the planet.
"That will allow us to more rigorously follow changes in our global fire distribution as a result of various impact conditions," said Durda.
Nevertheless, Kring and Durda said that they have run a broad range of possible ejecta launch conditions and certain aspects of the wildfire pattern are the same from model to model, such as the pileup of debris on the opposite side of the Earth from the Yucatan Peninsula.
"Different trajectories can modify the distribution of fires in small ways, but not significantly alter the general pattern," said Kring.
Kring and Durda plan to apply their modeling efforts to other impact events, such as the Manicouagan event in Canada some 200 million years ago and the Popigai impact in Russia some 35 million years ago, to determine the extent of wildfires produced.
Washington Post
DOHA, Qatar, Sept. 15 -- Journalist Yosri Fouda says he believes that the suspected coordinator of the Sept. 11 attacks, Ramzi Binalshibh, thought highly of his news reports and so offered him an exclusive interview.
Now that Binalshibh has been captured by Pakistani police, Fouda is afraid, in a real sense, that he is not so popular among Binalshibh's followers -- for the moment, fearful enough not to return to the scene of the interview, Pakistan.
"Not now. Not while I'm being called a pig and a traitor," Fouda said today in this Persian Gulf emirate. "I hope we can escape with the least damage possible."
Fouda, 38, is a star investigative reporter for al-Jazeera satellite television, whose reports reach Arabic-speaking audiences across the Middle East and beyond. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, al-Jazeera has broadcast videotaped statements from Osama bin Laden and other top al Qaeda representatives. Fouda's interview with Binalshibh was a scoop, but apparently went too far for some al Qaeda sympathizers.
Internet messages reported by news services have linked the interview, broadcast just before the anniversary of the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, with Binalshibh's capture in raids conducted Tuesday and Wednesday in Karachi. "This means there was a kind of treason that caused brother Ramzi to fall into the hands of those infidels," one message read.
Fouda rejected the possibility that U.S. or Pakistani intelligence agents tailed him on his clandestine meeting with Binalshibh. The interview took place in June but was broadcast as a segment of a two-part program about the events surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks. "I can't blame people for thinking what they do. I myself tried to think if there could be some link. But why would the intelligence apparatus wait for all this time to act?" he said.
The focus on Fouda's interview underlines the complex dangers facing reporters who probe al Qaeda or, as in this case, are approached by the terrorist organization to get its messages out. The veteran journalist has no doubt that al-Jazeera is subject to observation by all sides as the United States and its allies search for al Qaeda operatives. "My main worry is getting caught in between," he said.
Just as many people in the Arab world refuse to acknowledge al Qaeda's evident responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks -- an opinion frequently voiced by callers to Qatar-based al-Jazeera -- now al-Jazeera is also subject to rumors of a conspiracy.
Fouda's odyssey began when he was working in Islamabad after completing a documentary on a group of Pakistani prisoners who had escaped Afghanistan but were detained in Pakistan and flown to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for indefinite detention among scores of other al Qaeda suspects. He received a call after the program aired from a contact who liked the report and said al Qaeda representatives had "top secret" information for him. Fouda's show is called "Top Secret," and his angular face is familiar throughout the Middle East.
"They were proud of their ability to contact and invite a well-known journalist, even if for just a cup of tea. It had big significance for them," Fouda said.
He received instructions on how to proceed in short, unpredictable phone calls: Fly to Karachi on a particular plane, wear loose-fitting Pakistani clothing, go to a certain hotel in Karachi, then at the last minute go to a different one. "They were very careful," Fouda recalled.
Finally, there was a knock on his hotel door. "I'm the mystery caller," the visitor said, instructing Fouda to take a cab to yet another location, where he was blindfolded and driven to another spot in Karachi. When the blindfold was removed, he recognized Binalshibh and a high-ranking associate, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Fouda stayed with them for two days, eating catered rice dishes, kebabs and salads.
In the interviews, each of which lasted for more than an hour, the two men related how Mohamed Atta, one of the hijackers, code-named the targets: The Pentagon was the Faculty of Fine Arts and the World Trade Center was the Faculty of Town Planning. The Capitol, evidently the target of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, was the Faculty of Law.
Binalshibh also related a message from one of the hijackers who told him by e-mail that "the first semester begins in three weeks, two high schools and two universities. This summer will be really hot." Binalshibh also said he ordered the hijackers to purchase business-class tickets for "mobility and maneuverability."
The windows of the place where Fouda was taken were barred; he had the impression the building was empty except for them.
"I wasn't nervous. It's important that such people believe you trust them," he said. Fouda said he had no fear of meeting the same fate as Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan while working on a story about Islamic extremists. "They would not win points with their fans for killing a Muslim and well-known television personality," Fouda said. He is Egyptian and lives in London.
Binalshibh betrayed irritation with one question Fouda posed: whether it was right to kill civilians. "I think they saw on my face distaste for it. They tried their best to justify it. The targets were taxpayers, they work in a place that dominates the world. They said the Muslim victims were collateral damage and hoped God would consider them martyrs," Fouda said.
Binalshibh produced a document called "The New Crusade," in which Islam was used to justify such attacks. "It was chilling," Fouda said.
Fouda said he is not surprised that Binalshibh was caught, and not Mohammed. "Ramzi was proud of his religious knowledge, of technology -- he was surrounded by laptops and cell phones. He sat a lot and thought and he was dismissive of intelligence people as stupid. Khalid seemed more careful. He moved, he was agitated."
The interviews were videotaped on al Qaeda equipment, but his hosts kept the tapes. They promised to provide them later. Fouda heard nothing about them for several weeks. Then came a note requesting $1 million for the tapes, and complaining that the "struggle was in a difficult situation." Payment was not part of the deal, Fouda said, and he left Pakistan; he cried as he packed. "I felt it was my work, not something to sell."
Later a request arrived for $17,000. "Some discount," Fouda said.
"This seemed to me a symptom that something was wrong, there was some breakdown. These people don't ask for money."
2002-09-23
(NewYorker-by Rebecca Mead)
When the New York-New York Hotel and Casino opened in Las Vegas, five years ago, the absence of the World Trade Center towers from the resort's ersatz skyline seemed like a reasonable omission, the kind of messing around with reality that is to be expected from a city where a volcano spews lava on schedule every evening, and where a Venetian canal, complete with singing gondoliers, can be found one flight up from a rattling casino floor. New York-New York does include a squat forty-seven-story replica of the Empire State Building; a scaled-down Chrysler Building that is significantly less shiny than the real thing, on account of its being topped with fibreglass rather than steel; a slice of Lever House; and a massively oversized Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument that seems designed to perplex visiting New Yorkers, who are not sure they've ever noticed the real thing. When the hotel was built, its developers explained away the missing Twin Towers by suggesting that the complex was supposed to evoke a Manhattan of the nineteen-forties; and, if that does not quite account for why, at the foot of the diminutive replica of the Brooklyn Bridge, one can find the ESPN Zone,it should be remembered that, even in Jazz Age New York, commerce was occasionally known to trump integrity.
Last Wednesday, a resilient commitment to commerce was demonstrated by the management of New York-New York, even as the horrible reconfiguring of the real New York skyline, in accordance with its desert simulacrum, was memorialized. It was decided that the terrorists would have won if the tourists were deprived of their opportunity to lose, so the casino—an indoor version of Central Park, filled with one-armed bandits instead of rollerbladers—remained open. But the solemnity of the day was marked nonetheless. Toward noon, a large crowd gathered at the intersection of Tropicana Avenue and the Strip, where a hundred-and-fifty-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty surveys a miniaturized New York Harbor, in which two scaled-down fireboats spray water over a nonexistent inferno. This spot has, during the past year, become an unofficial memorial to the events that befell the real New York, New York: T-shirts from fire departments across the country have been hung over the harbor railings, many bearing handwritten messages of sympathy. (From Deerfield Beach Fire and Rescue: "May the fabric of this T-shirt represent the fabric of a nation who is forever indebted to those brave souls that made the ultimate sacrifice in honoring our sworn duty.") Whereas most of the spontaneous memorials that appeared in the real New York were swiftly removed or relocated, this one has remained intact, and the T-shirts, in contrast to the casino's pristine exterior, have been faded by harsh sunlight and washed by infrequent rain.
A patch of red carpet had been set up for some bagpipers, who alternated between "God Bless America" and "Amazing Grace," while vacationers milled about, paying their respects. Steve Ray, a retired firefighter from Alabama, said, "Those boys in New York, they had a bad shift." Janie Ray, his wife, clutched a plastic cup filled with tokens to her chest and looked on sadly. Shortly before midday, the Manhattan Express, a roller coaster that swoops amid the huddled skyscrapers at regular intervals, so that they ring with the screams of terrified riders, was stilled. Moments later, a hundred doves were released from somewhere around the bagpipers' feet, with a sudden fluttering of wings. A few tourists let go of the red, white, or blue helium-filled balloons they had been holding, and there was scattered applause. It was, for Las Vegas, a remarkably subdued display. Mary Shugrue, a program manager from Flatbush by way of Maryland, who was wearing a T-shirt bearing the letters "USA" and a pin bearing the image of firefighters raising the flag at Ground Zero, wiped tears from her eyes. "I woke up early this morning to watch the ceremonies on the East Coast, and waking up in Las Vegas at five is hard," she said. "Every time I see it on TV, I start crying. Those two towers were New York." She looked up at the New York-New York skyline. "Apart from the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. It's odd that they didn't have them here. I guess they were too big." The balloons drifted off on the wind, over the Bavarian turrets and ramparts of the Excalibur hotel. The birds circled low above the intersection, hovered for a moment by the MGM Grand, then turned south and headed toward the black glass pyramid of the Luxor, Las Vegas's reimagined Egypt.
Sep. 11, 2002
By RON HUTCHESON and MARK MCDONALD
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - President Bush takes his case against Iraq to the United Nations Thursday, but his success or failure at the world body may hinge on an audience of one: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As Bush seeks to rally U.N. support for possible military action, Russia looms as a pivotal swing vote. With veto power on the U.N. Security Council and longstanding ties to Iraq, Moscow could become a formidable obstacle in Bush's path to Baghdad or help clear the way for a U.S.-led invasion.
It is not an easy call for Putin. The Russian leader wants to align his country with the West, but he is under pressure at home to stand up to the United States and to protect Russia's economic stake in Iraq.
"While America thinks about bombing Iraq, we think about doing business there," said Alexander Yedokov, acting director of a Russian-Iraqi business council in Moscow.
Russia's importance to the international debate is a matter of both complex geo-political calculations and simple vote counting.
As one of five permanent members of the 15-member U.N. Security Council - along with the United States, the United Kingdom, France and China - Russia is empowered to veto any resolution, including one authorizing force against Iraq.
So far, only Britain is fully on board with Bush, but France has recently softened its opposition. China is a harder sell, but diplomats and foreign policy experts generally agree that Beijing would not want to stand alone if Russia and France fall in line with the United States.
"France is not going to veto the United States, so in that sense, Russia is important. If they go along, China is likely to go along," said Judith Kipper, a foreign policy specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "If Russia categorically says, `At no price will we go along with this,' it's a problem."
Russia's support for U.S. policy in Iraq would also send a powerful message of solidarity to the world. If it could clear the veto hurdle, a U.S.-backed resolution on Iraq would have little difficulty winning the nine votes needed for approval from the full 15-member security council.
Syria is the only likely "no" vote in a lineup that includes Mexico, Norway, Ireland and other U.S. allies.
While Bush attended ceremonies Wednesday marking the anniversary of last Sept. 11's terrorist attacks, U.S and British officials were hard at work on a proposed U.N. resolution that would give Iraq about three weeks to provide complete access to U.N. weapons inspectors - or else.
"We're back to early Afghanistan days in terms of how closely we're working with the British," said one Bush administration official.
France has proposed a two-step process that would require a second vote authorizing military force if Iraq refuses to cooperate with inspections, but the U.S. and Britain will press for a single vote. The proposed resolution would call for new inspections and simultaneously authorize the use of military force if Iraq balks.
"The challenge is the language. You have to write it so the language is tough enough to make clear what would happen, but not so tough that people will veto it," said John Hulsman, a foreign policy specialist at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
U.S. officials, well aware that the road to Baghdad goes first through Moscow, are going all-out to bring Russia on board.
"We've been shadow-boxing for many months, but now the real game begins," said a senior American official.
Under Secretary of State John Bolton arrived in Moscow on Wednesday for talks, and he will be followed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and foreign secretary Jack Straw.
Next week, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will meet in Washington with Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov and defense minister Sergei Ivanov.
Russia's decision may hinge on economics.
Saddam Hussein and his regime owe Russia an estimated $8 billion - a debt that is unlikely to be repaid as long as U.N. economic sanctions remain in place.
Russia is also on the verge of signing a $40 billion economic pact with Iraq that includes contracts to help rebuild Iraq's crumbling oil infrastructure.
The question for Putin and Russia's business moguls is, are they better off doing business with the current Iraqi regime or seeking a guaranteed slice of the pie from a new U.S.-backed Iraqi government?
"They don't care about Saddam Hussein," said Michael Mandelbaum, author of "The Ideas that Changed the World," a new book that examines Russia's role in the post-Cold War world. "Privately, what they'll be saying is, `What's in it for us?' You're going to start seeing a kind of (secret) bargaining over - to put it crudely - dividing up the spoils."
Yedokov, the head of the Russian-Iraqi business group in Moscow, said some Russian firms are already looking ahead to the possibility of a regime change.
"Our oil companies are already doing all they can to secure their future positions in Iraq," he said. "Russian businesses don't care who the Iraqi leader is. If it's not Saddam Hussein, they'll deal with the new guy."
But some Russian hard-liners, still chafing at the loss of Kremlin influence since the collapse of the Soviet Union, complain that Putin has already gone too far in accommodating Bush.
Putin's increasingly cordial relationship with the United States, along with a series of humbling political concessions he has made to Washington, have been criticized over the past year by nationalist lawmakers, opposition politicians and a phalanx of senior generals.
To the dismay of his critics, Putin quietly accepted the expansion of NATO, Washington's unilateral scrapping of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the presence of U.S. troops in Georgia and former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
"Putin is in a tough spot, definitely, and the public statements from his administration remain fairly critical because they're concerned about domestic opinion," said a senior Western diplomat in Moscow. "They want to show they're standing up to the Americans."
Even so, most experts agree that, if forced to choose between Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush, Putin will side with Bush.
"Russia has a considerable economic interest in Iraq that I would argue would be better protected under new leadership in Iraq," U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said at a Sept. 11 anniversary forum in Moscow earlier this week. "I am not saying that our interests are identical, but I think they are very similar."
EFE - 9/4/2002
Women are now in charge of two of Mexico's biggest drug cartels, a high-ranking police commander was quoted Tuesday as saying.
In an interview published Tuesday in La Jornada daily, the head of the attorney general's organized crime unit (UEDO), Joe Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, said control of the Tijuana and Colima cartels, run by the Arellano Felix and Amezcua Contreras families, respectively, has been turned over to the sisters of the former leaders who have either been imprisoned or killed.
The notoriously violent Tijuana cartel is one of main groups responsible for smuggling cocaine into the United States, while the Colima cartel is one of the main suppliers of amphetamines to Mexico's northern neighbor.
The Arellano Felix organization had been led by brothers Ramon and Benjamin until Ramon was shot to death by police in February and his brother was arrested a month later. Their sister Enedina has since taken over.
The sisters of Colima cartel leaders Luis Ignacio, Jesus and Adan Amezcua Contreras have taken over for their brothers, who are in prison, Vasconcelos explained.
The presence of women in drug cartels was brought to light when Delia Buendia, also known as "Ma Baker," was arrested on Aug. 20. She was considered the head of the Neza cartel, the most important drug-trafficking organization in the central state of Mexico, at the time of her arrest.
In recent years, Vasconcelos noted, the profile of the typical Mexican drug smuggler has undergone considerable changes.
"We find them living in middle-class neighborhoods, trying to blend into the crowd. Now they are more sophisticated. Globalization and competition have increased, and that requires more preparation in all areas and more sophistication," he said.
Sunday, September 22, 2002
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- In a society where conspicuous consumption is a minor industry, an art book portraying wealthy Mexicans rolling in riches has the country's intellectuals sputtering in outrage.
"Ricas y Famosas" shows its subjects -- mostly young women--vamping, posing and playing amid extravagant possessions. In one photo, a granddaughter of a former president poses in a tennis dress, one foot atop a stuffed lion. In another, a woman sprawls across an enormous Buddha, scattered with money and surrounded by a moat of champagne.
Yet another shows a woman in red hot pants, blue halter top and cowboy hat sitting in a saddle, tapping ash from a cigarette while pouting before a large painting of peasant revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.
Historian Lorenzo Meyer said Daniela Rossell's 176-page book--whose title means "Rich and Famous" in English -- shows Mexico's wealthy "are not a leading class, but a parasitic one."
Writing in the newspaper Reforma, he welcomed the book "in the same way an oncologist should recognize the usefulness of a good image of cancer."
The book's subjects are supposed to be anonymous, but outrage grew when newspapers identified some as the offspring of politicians within the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which governed from 1929 to 2000 while claiming to represent Mexico's impoverished masses.
They include a granddaughter of ex-President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz and a son of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, shown in an almost priestly pose, a rosary wrapped around hands held as if in prayer.
Rossell herself is the granddaughter of a PRI governor and many of the book's subjects were childhood friends and acquaintances _ some of whom reportedly threatened to sue her after seeing the work and hearing their homes described as "vast kitsch palaces" in book reviews.
While most Mexicans fall below the official poverty line, mass-circulation magazines routinely run portraits of the rich and famous posing with sumptuous possessions behind the razor-topped walls of their estates.
The September issue of "Actual" magazine shows an art collector's garden, complete with eight types of citrus trees. A photo of the collector posing in her home carries the headline: "Her mother disinherited her for having bought a Han dynasty spoon for $12,000."
Though such magazines are popular in Mexico, few Mexicans will ever see Rossell's book, which itself is something of a luxury item. It had an initial Mexican run of only 4,000 copies and a $39 price tag -- more than three times what most Mexicans make in a day. It is also sold via the Internet in the United States.
But the newsmagazine Proceso ran a cover story on the book and serious newspapers have covered it heavily, mixing anger over flaunted wealth with bemusement at decor that sometimes struggled to reach the dignity of kitsch: sculpted blackamoors, mounted animals, tarty dresses.
Guadalupe Loaeza, whose novels portray Mexico's rich, agreed with Meyer's description of the political and business elite as "parasitic."
"I think it reflects perfectly well the surroundings in which they live," she said.
She attributed the bad taste to people who had become rich overnight with the help of political cronies.
"We are talking about people without education, without culture, without tradition, without points of reference," she said. "They are like drug traffickers when they become rich and have to launder money" through frivolous spending.
Roderick Camp, who has catalogued Mexico's elite, said the book may have attracted such attention because "it is reaching an entirely different audience" than the one drawn to society pages.
"When somebody actually comes out, particularly with a visual image, then it really reinforces these rather distorted views (of corruption) -- which are not entirely distorted," said Camp, who is a professor of government at McKenna College in Claremont, California..
The 29-year-old Rossell earlier had exhibited the photos in New York and Madrid and was in Berlin this week for an upcoming exhibition.
In interviews published soon after the book appeared, she seemed taken aback by the attention, and by the anger of those portrayed.
Some, she said, had been "calling me names like traitor and leaving messages on my answer phone."
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Cracks also discovered during laboratory analysis
Associated Press
CARROLL TOWNSHIP -- The stainless-steel liner under the lid of the now-closed Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station reactor was thinner than officials originally believed and had begun to crack in several places, a laboratory analysis shows.
The strength of the liner was critical because when corrosion created a large hole in the reactor's lid, the liner became the only barrier between the reactor's high-pressure coolant and the building that houses the reactor, The Plain Dealer reported today.
The liner was supposedly three-eighths of an inch thick. But testing determined that the liner was significantly thinner in places -- in one location nearly 50 percent thinner -- than plant owner FirstEnergy Corp. believed.
It is unclear, too, if the liner was made that way or if coolant pressure caused it to thin.
Officials of Davis-Besse and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission don't know how or when the cracks formed, or even how deep they go, and said Tuesday that they are still reviewing the findings.
But the presence of cracks raise questions about whether the barrier was as strong as FirstEnergy Corp. has said and how much longer it would have been able to withstand the reactor's operating pressures.
The answers to those questions will affect the outcome of NRC and Davis-Besse studies to determine how close the plant came to a major nuclear accident. That finding, in turn, will dictate what penalties and continuing scrutiny FirstEnergy faces from the NRC.
"We want to know more, obviously," said William Beecher, an NRC spokesman.
Davis-Besse officials learned of the cracks Monday night, said FirstEnergy spokesman Todd Schneider.
"It's important to know what happened . . . every detail," Schneider agreed.
The reactor has been idle since February, when the plant shut down so workers could inspect for cracks in the 69 nozzles that penetrate its massive steel lid. Nozzle cracking has been a recognized issue industrywide for years in older reactors. The cracks were thought to be relatively benign, but the NRC became alarmed when more extensive, possibly dangerous cracks were found at a South Carolina reactor in 2001.
At Davis-Besse, workers found not only serious cracking, but also the 6-by-8-inch hole formed by the reactor's corrosive coolant leaking from the cracks and pooling undetected on the lid for years.
FirstEnergy has used the liner's strength as part of its argument to the NRC that Davis-Besse wasn't close to an accident, and thus it doesn't deserve a harsh punishment. Although the company will have to revise its safety calculations based on the new crack findings, its argument still holds, Schneider said.
"We have to remember that the liner held normal operating pressure and that the plant shut down safely," he said.
Like the woman at the UK Ministry said Sept 11th is a good day to put out your dirty laundry stories.
13sep02
(.heraldsun.news.com.au)
TRY to imagine an Earth in the distant future -- a planet devoid of human life.
The great cities are no more than wreckage, the sum of all human achievement reduced to nothing.
Five million years from now, most of the living creatures we know today have become extinct.
Instead, our planet is teeming with strange and colourful beasts.
Five years ago, an international team of 16 scientists were given the task of looking into the future.
Taking into account the history of climate, geographical and evolutionary change on Earth -- with a healthy dose of imagination -- this is what they have come up with.
All agree that massive change will be brought about by turmoil in the planet's weather systems, gigantic continental shifts and rising and falling oceans and ice sheets.
Future Earth is an unfamiliar place, with oceans where there were deserts.
The forests of the Amazonian Basin have become arid wastelands, spawning bizarre creatures.
At times, the Earth will be a boiling hothouse, at others it will once again be under seas of ice.
One of the first things the scientists agreed on is that in only a few million years, life on Earth will not include mankind.
Like the dinosaurs, we will be just a distant memory, our demise brought about by a combination of massive climatic change -- possibly triggered by an asteroid strike -- and a depletion of resources caused by overpopulation.
The scientists were asked to analyse what kind of life might evolve from ice ages or volcanic eruptions that are sure to hit the Earth in the future.
An exploding super-volcano could easily throw enough debris into the atmosphere to blot out the sun and kill off all known plant life and much animal life.
Evolution would be left to mould the few species left into weird and wonderful new creatures.
Scientists believe that in 5 million years, the Earth will be experiencing an ice age in places; in others forests will have been replaced by dry grasslands.
In 100 million years, they predict the Earth will be a hothouse. The continents will be starting to fuse into one great landmass, as they were millions of years before humans lived, a process that will be completed in 200 million years.
Perhaps, further into the future, a creature similar to mankind will arise. Or intelligent life may have arrived from other planets.
Eyewitnesses say that they saw an UFO hovering above the exploded reactor
2002-09-16
(the ever-increasingly fantastical PRAVDA.ru)
Sixteen years have passed since the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant on April 26, 1986. The explosion happened at 1:23 a.m. Tons of radioactive products were emitted into the atmosphere. The machine shop of the plant was gripped with fire, and the fire was about to move on to the third power-generating unit of the plant. Firemen managed to extinguish the fire several hours later. Many of them died later of radiation exposure.
Much has been written about the Chernobyl disaster, both in Russia and abroad. It seems that the physical nature of the tragedy has determined, as well as the people who were responsible for it. The fourth power-generating unit was supposed to be repaired. Yet, before shutting it down, the administration of the plant decided to perform several experiments. Steam delivery was cut to one of the turbogenerators in order to discover the period of time that electric power would still be generated due to the rotation of the rotor. The experiment was not well-organized. There was another test conducted simultaneously: the study of turbine vibration.
They started decreasing the capacity of the generating unit at 1 a.m. on April 25. The emergency cooling system of the reactor was shut down at 2 p.m. This was supposed to stop the reactor.
However, the Kievenergo energy company did not know anything about these tests. An energy control officer did not allow the fourth generating unit of the plant to be stopped. These were the prerequisites of the tragedy. Many people are still suffering.
The explosion was very large, but, luckily, it was a thermal blast. The fourth power generating unit was basically destroyed by overheated steam. There was no nuclear explosion. Roughly 180 tons of enriched uranium were in the reactor. If a large blast had happened, half of Europe would not currently be depicted on any maps.
There are many theories to explain such luck. One of the theories is that there was help from an Unidentified Flying Object. When troublesome events started to occur, some people saw a spaceship hovering above the fourth generating unit of the Chernobyl plant. Eyewitnesses say that an UFO was there for six hours and that hundreds of people saw it. People started writing about it only two years after the catastrophe. Of course, such information appeared in magazines on ufology. As it is generally believed, serious people don’t read such magazines and journals.
Here is what Mikhail Varitsky had to say: “I and other people from my team went to the site of the blast at night. We saw a ball of fire, and it was slowly flying in the sky. I think the ball was six or eight meters in diameter. Then, we saw two rays of crimson light stretching towards the fourth unit. The object was some 300 meters from the reactor. The event lasted for about three minutes. The lights of the object went out and it flew away in the northwestern direction.”
The UFO brought the radiation level down. The level was decreased almost four times. This probably prevented a nuclear blast.
Three years later (on September 16, 1989), the fourth power-generating unit emitted radiation into the atmosphere. Several hours later, a doctor saw an object in the sky above the Chernobyl plant. Doctor Gospina described it as “amber-like.” She said she could see the top and the bottom of it as well.
In October of 1990, a reporter from the newspaper the Echo of Chernobyl , V. Navran, was photographing the machine shop of the Chernobyl plant. “I photographed the top of it, includomg a part of the hole above. I remember everything very well; I did not see any UFO. However, when I developed the film, I clearly saw an object that was hovering above the hole in the roof.” The object looked like the one doctor Gospina saw.
It seems that aliens are not worried with the fate of humanity. They are basically worried about the planets environment.
SIGNONSANDIEGO
September 13, 2002
Researchers at UC San Diego have concluded that three types of elephants exist on the continent of Africa, one more than was previously thought.
The scientists made the conclusion after studying DNA extracted from elephant dung.
The finding, to be published in next month's issue of the ``Proceedings of the Royal Society,'' points to the existence of an elephant type genetically different from the known savanna and forest elephants, researchers said.
Elephants of the newly discovered type live in both the forest and savanna of West Africa and have been evolving from the other two groups for 2 million years, they said.
``The discovery is important, because the West African elephants are threatened with extinction as a result of human activities,'' said David S. Woodruff, a professor of biology at UCSD.
``If these findings are confirmed, zoologists and conservation managers will need to recognize three different species of African elephants, all of which need protection because their numbers are declining.''
The discovery, if confirmed by additional genetic evidence, could result in experts splitting the African pachyderm population into three distinct species or subspecies.
``Knowing that forest elephants are very different genetically from savanna elephants means that overpopulation in some Southern African savanna parks should not lead to a relaxation of the protection for elephants elsewhere, especially in the forests,'' said Lori S. Eggert, postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.
Wildlife managers estimate that out of the 400,000 to 500,000 elephants in Africa, only about 12,000 belong to the previously unidentified group, UCSD said.
Damn, when I saw the Headline i thought perhaps they'd discovered the infamos Rangee Gadgy
Associated Press
09/18/2002
HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli police and Palestinian officials in the West Bank said they believe extremist Jewish settlers planted two bombs in a Palestinian school yard Tuesday.
One device exploded, injuring five children.
Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, spokesman for the Jewish Settlers' Council, said the bombing was an "immoral and illegal act."
Israeli military officials said the explosion occurred near a water cooler in the courtyard of the Ziff junction secondary school south of Hebron. The second bomb was found and safely detonated.
The Israeli military controls the junction, a remote region populated mainly by Bedouins.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres' office, meanwhile, said the government had rejected a Palestinian cease-fire proposal during a meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York.
The proposal by Palestinian Cabinet Minister Nabil Shaath called for an end to Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians in a first phase and an end to all attacks in the second. Peres' office said the plan was unacceptable because it would allow attacks on those not classified as civilians during its first phase.
In other developments, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition by the families of two Palestinian suicide bombers to prevent the destruction of their homes by Israeli forces, Army Radio reported. The bombing Dec. 1 killed 11 Israelis.
(AP)
LONDON (Sept. 18) - President Bush, Princess Diana and Winston Churchill are distant relatives whose ancestry can be traced back to a 15th century English squire, genealogists say.
Researchers for the U.S.-based company MyFamily.com, which has a license to publish British census records from 1841 to 1901 on the Internet, found that the trio's roots can be traced to Henry Spencer of Badby, Northamptonshire, who lived between 1420-1478 and was married to Isabella Lincoln.
According to a family tree published on the company's Web site, one of their two sons, William, founded the line that would produce Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales, whose maiden name was Spencer. Churchill's middle names were Leonard Spencer.
The daughter of the other son, John, married Sir William Cope and the descendants of this line settled in the New World.
They included Anne Marbury, who moved from Lincolnshire, England to Massachusetts during the 1600s. A direct descendent, Harriet Fay, married James Bush, the great-great grandfather of the current president, the company said.
Bush is an admirer of Churchill and keeps in the Oval Office a bronze bust of the British leader - a loan from Prime Minister Tony Blair.
When he received the bust in July 2001, Bush joked that he hoped to develop a personal relationship with the late wartime premier.
``I look forward to visiting with him,'' Bush said. ``Sometimes he'll talk back and sometimes he won't, depending on the stresses of the moment.''
A spokeswoman for MyFamily.com said the discovery was made only recently, and further research was ongoing to find out more about Henry Spencer.
Bush's apparent royal connections have been revealed before.
According to Gary Boyd Roberts, a genealogist at the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston, Bush is descended from British royalty going as far back as 12th century King Henry I, the son of William the Conqueror.
(By Barry Chamish -Israeli Conspiracy mongerer)
During much of his youth, Jesus lived in Britain with his uncle Joseph of Arimithea, who ran a lucrative tin trading business between Cornwall and Phoenicia.
(The Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (Sept. 18) - Intelligence agencies failed to anticipate terrorists flying planes into buildings despite a dozen clues in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks that Osama bin Laden or others might use aircraft as bombs, a congressional investigator told lawmakers Wednesday as they began public hearings into the attacks.
Just a month before the attacks, intelligence agencies were told of a possible bin Laden plot to hit the U.S. Embassy in Kenya or crash a plane into it.
The preliminary report by Eleanor Hill, staff director of the joint House and Senate intelligence committee investigation of the terrorist strike, showed authorities had many more warnings about possible attacks than were previously disclosed.
The reports were generally vague and uncorroborated. None specifically predicted the Sept. 11 attacks. But collectively the reports ''reiterated a consistent and critically important theme:
Osama bin Laden's intent to launch terrorist attacks inside the United States,'' Hill said.
Despite that, authorities didn't alert the public and did little to ''harden the homeland'' against an assault, she said. Agencies believed any attack was more likely to take place overseas.
Just two months before the attacks, a briefing for senior government officials said that, based on a review of intelligence over five months, ''we believe that (bin Laden) will launch a significant terrorist attack against U.S. and/or Israeli interests in the coming weeks.''
''The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests. Attack preparations have been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning,'' it said.
Hill read most of her 30-page report to House and Senate members sitting together in what is believed to be the first joint investigation by standing congressional committees. The committees have been meeting behind closed doors since June to examine intelligence failures leading up to the attacks and recommend changes.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said the report revealed ''far too many breakdowns in the intelligence gathering and processing methods.''
''Given the events and signals of the preceding decade, the intelligence community could have and in my judgment should have anticipated an attack on U.S. soil on the scale of 9/11,'' he said.
Pressed by Rep. Ray Lahood, R-Ill., about whether agencies had enough information to have prevented the attacks, Hill said it was possible, but there were no guarantees.
Details of intelligence about terrorist use of airplanes could embarrass the White House. After questions were raised in the spring about what President Bush knew about terrorist threats before Sept. 11, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the threats were vague and uncorroborated.
''I don't think anybody could have predicted ... that they would try to use an airplane as a missile,'' Rice said then. ''Had this president known a plane would be used as a missile, he would have acted on it.''
Hill outlined 12 examples of intelligence information on the possible terrorist use of airplanes as weapons, beginning in 1994 and ending with the Nairobi plot in August 2001.
In August 1998, U.S. intelligence learned that a ''group of unidentified Arabs planned to fly an explosive-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center,'' says the report. The report was given to the Federal Aviation Administration and FBI, which took little action. The group may now be linked to bin Laden, the report says.
Other intelligence suggested that bin Laden supporters might fly an explosives-laden plane into a U.S. airport, or conduct a plot involving aircraft at New York and Washington, the report said.
While generally aware of the possibility of these kinds of attacks ''the intelligence community did not produce any specific assessments of the likelihood that terrorists would use airplanes as weapons,'' the report said.
The FBI on Wednesday underscored the need for continued vigilance by law enforcement agencies, confirming that it sent a routine reminder to police around the country in the last day or so. The reminder said that al-Qaida might consider the use of aircraft in another act of terrorism against the United States and could rely on non-Arabic individuals to do so.
Hill also said that between May and July 2001, the National Security Agency reported at least 33 communications indicating a possible, imminent terrorist attack. Asked why intelligence agencies didn't do more about the terrorist threats, Hill said they have complained about a lack of resources and the massive amount of intelligence they were receiving. ''They were overwhelmed by almost a flood of information,'' she said.
Senior CIA officials noted Hill's report also recognized their efforts to report on the immediacy of the threat from bin Laden before Sept. 11 and did not look to assign blame on U.S. agencies.
Hill stressed the investigation is continuing and a future report will deal with what was known about the 19 hijackers before the attacks.
She also noted that CIA Director George J. Tenet has declined to declassify information on two issues looked at by the inquiry:
References to intelligence agencies supplying information to the White House, and details of an al-Qaida leader involved in the attacks. That leader is believed to be Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind.
Hill said the White House and Tenet believe ''the president's knowledge of intelligence information relevant to this inquiry remains classified'' even when the information itself is declassified.
Also Wednesday, two spouses of Sept. 11 victims urged the committees to fix intelligence shortcomings that allowed the attacks.
''Our loved ones paid the ultimate price for the worst American intelligence failure since Pearl Harbor,'' said Stephen Push, whose wife died aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.
Wed Sep 18, 2002
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional hearing was told on Wednesday that three years before the Sept. 11 attacks intelligence agencies had information about a group that planned to fly an explosives-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center.
The information obtained in August 1998 about the group of "unidentified Arabs" was passed to the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration, but "the FAA found the plot highly unlikely given the state of that foreign country's aviation program," said Eleanor Hill, staff director of the joint Sept. 11 inquiry of the House and Senate intelligence committees.
This was one of many details revealed at the first public hearing into intelligence failures by America's spy agencies to detect plans by Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network to conduct the Sept. 11 strike.
While most of the rising volume of threat reports about an impending attack during spring and summer of 2001 pointed to a strike overseas, some of it suggested targets inside the United States, Hill told the hearing.
But none of the threats provided a specific time, date, and place of the attack. "My own view is ... no one will ever really know whether 9/11 could have been prevented," she said.
On Sept. 11, four hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon near Washington and a Pennsylvania field, killing about 3,000 people. The United States blames bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.
Despite concerns about bin Laden and al Qaeda, intelligence agencies had not directed adequate resources to analyzing them, Hill said.
Before the Sept. 11 attacks, the CIA's Counterterrorist Center had only five analysts assigned full-time to bin Laden's network worldwide, and the FBI's terrorism analytic unit had only one analyst looking at al Qaeda long-term, she said.
A senior CIA official said there had been 125 analysts throughout the agency focused on tracking bin Laden and al Qaeda, not just the ones in the Counterterrorist Center's small bin Laden unit.
THREAT REPORTS
In March 2001 an intelligence source claimed a group of bin Laden's operatives were planning an attack in the United States in April 2001. That April, information was obtained that "unspecified terrorist operatives" in California and New York were planning terrorist attacks in those states, Hill said.
In May 2001 intelligence agencies had information that bin Laden supporters were planning to infiltrate the United States through Canada to conduct an attack using explosives.
In the same month, the Defense Department acquired information that it shared with other intelligence agencies indicating that seven bin Laden associates had departed various locations for Canada, Britain and the United States.
In June 2001, Hill said, CIA's counterterrorist center had information that key operatives in bin Laden's organization "were disappearing while others were preparing for martyrdom."
The National Security Agency, which eavesdrops on global communications, reported at least 33 communications between May and July 2001 indicating a "possible, imminent terrorist attack," she said.
"This is not an example of missed signals, this is an example of how many signals there are out there," the CIA official said. "It illustrates how much information is coming in, how difficult it is to sort out, specifically when it's not specific," he said.
There were also threat reports that terrorists were considering using airplanes as weapons as a method of attack.
In August 2001, a month before the attacks, intelligence agencies had information about a plot to either bomb the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi from an airplane or crash an airplane into it, Hill said.
In April 2001, a source said that bin laden would be interested in commercial pilots as potential terrorists.
A year earlier, in April 2000, a source walked into the FBI's Newark office and claimed he had been to an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan where he learned hijacking techniques and received arms training and was supposed to meet five to six others in the United States to hijack a jumbo jet.
"They were instructed to use all necessary force to take over the plane because there would be pilots among the hijacking team," Hill said. The source passed a polygraph but the FBI was not able to verify his story, she said.
AL QAEDA LEADER
U.S. intelligence agencies had known about a rising al Qaeda leader since 1995 but had not recognized his growing importance in bin Laden's network until recently, Hill said.
She did not name him, but sources told Reuters that Hill was referring to Khaled Sheikh Mohammad, who officials now say could fill the leadership gap if bin Laden died, and who was instrumental in planning the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, there was little analytic focus given to him and coordination among the intelligence agencies was irregular at best," Hill said.
CIA Director George Tenet declined to declassify the al Qaeda leader's identity and information about him, she said. The issue was important to the inquiry, Hill added.
"We now know that our inability to detect and prevent the Sept. 11 attacks was an intelligence failure of unprecedented magnitude," Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. "Some people who couldn't seem to utter the words 'intelligence failure' are now convinced of it."
(ABCNEWS)
W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 18 — The FBI sent a notice to thousands of law enforcement officers today, warning them that terrorists may be developing a new way to hijack passenger jets, government sources told ABCNEWS.
The agency also is concerned that the al Qaeda terror network is searching for new ways to sneak explosives on planes — explosives that cannot be detected.
Law enforcement sources emphasized the al Qaeda discussions took place before last year's Sept 11 attacks, and that there is no information indicating current, ongoing planning.
In today's weekly Intelligence bulletin, distributed to 18,000 law enforcement agencies around the country, the FBI warns that al Qaeda members have discussed "hijacking a commercial airliner using Muslim extremists of non-Arabic appearance" to slip past security.
Today's bulletin is based on interrogation of an al Qaeda member in detention.
"This is a very smart bunch of people and they definitely think of all the angles," said Robert Blitzer, former FBI chief of the Domestic Terrorism/Counterterrorism Planning Section. "They are very creative. Just look at how well they hid themselves here in the U.S. prior to the Sept 11 attacks."
Sneaking Explosives Onto Planes
The discussions involved using 10 to 20 "Chechen Muslims affiliated with al Qaeda, but already present in the United States" to overwhelm the crew after taking seats in first class, according to the FBI bulletin.
Other discussions called for sneaking liquid explosives mixed with coffee and brought onto the plane in carry-on bags. Aviation sources said current airport technology would not detect such explosives.
Even though the al Qaeda plans were developed before Sept. 11, sources say, given al Qaeda's tendency toward long term planning, there is reason for concern.
"Al Qaeda does plan years in advance and we've seen this over and over again," said Blitzer. "[V]ery, very long planning cycles some times up to two-three years."
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
CIA Director George J. Tenet declared "war" on Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in 1998 but had only five agency analysts assigned to study the group at the time of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Congress was told yesterday. Top Stories
The CIA and FBI also failed to recognize the danger of an aircraft attack by Islamic terrorists inside the United States despite numerous reports of an impending strike, an interim staff inquiry of a joint House and Senate intelligence review panel revealed.
Collectively, the reports "reiterated a consistent and critically important theme: Osama bin Laden's intent to launch terrorist attacks inside the United States," Eleanor Hill, the panel's staff director, said in testimony before the review committee.
It was the first public hearing of the panel, which met 10 times in secret. Mrs. Hill also disclosed that:
•The National Security Agency, which eavesdrops on global communications, reported at least 33 communications intercepts indicating an "imminent" terrorist attack from May to July 2001. The intercepts did not include specific locations, timing or methods of attack.
•Despite numerous intelligence reports indicating a potential terrorist attack inside the United States, the general view of U.S. intelligence agencies in the spring and summer of 2001 was that an attack was likely to occur outside the country.
•Intelligence reports between March and July 2001 referred to an increased danger of attack, but only a small portion referred to the danger as coming from bin Laden and al Qaeda.
Despite that, authorities didn't alert the public and did little to "harden the homeland" against an assault, Mrs. Hill said.
Just two months before the attacks, a briefing for senior government officials said that, based on a review of intelligence over five months, "We believe that [bin Laden] will launch a significant terrorist attack against U.S. and/or Israeli interests in the coming weeks."
"The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests. Attack preparations have been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning," it said.
More than 3,000 people were killed in attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by three hijacked airliners used as missiles. A fourth aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back against their hijackers.
"We now know that our inability to detect and prevent the September 11 attacks was an intelligence failure of unprecedented magnitude," said Sen. Richard C. Shelby, Alabama Republican and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
"Some people who couldn't seem to utter the words 'intelligence failure' are now convinced of it," he said.
The committee staff reviewed 400,000 intelligence documents and interviewed more than 400 intelligence officials as part of an inquiry into why U.S. intelligence agencies failed to detect and prevent the al Qaeda plot.
According to Mrs. Hill, U.S. intelligence agencies had received information from 1994 to August 2001 indicating that terrorists "seriously considered" using aircraft in attacks.
"While this method of attack had clearly been discussed in terrorist circles, there was apparently little, if any, effort by intelligence community analysts to produce any strategic assessments of terrorists using aircraft as weapons," Mrs. Hill said.
After questions were raised in the spring about what President Bush knew about terrorist threats before September 11, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said the threats were vague and uncorroborated.
"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile," Miss Rice said then. "Had this president known a plane would be used as a missile, he would have acted on it."
An intelligence official defended the lack of analysis on the use of aircraft by terrorists, saying hijacking jets was "viewed as one of many possible methods."
"It all seems apparent with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight," the official said. "Still, [an estimate] would not have provided the specific information, the when and where, that would have prevented the September 11 attack."
Mrs. Hill said the CIA refused to declassify documents related to intelligence reports sent to the White House and on the identity of one of the September 11 plot leaders.
"These public hearings are part of our search for truth, not to point fingers or to pin blame, but with the goal of identifying and correcting whatever systemic problems that might have prevented our government from detecting and disrupting al Qaeda's plot," Sen. Bob Graham, Florida Democrat and chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said at the hearing.
Regarding Mr. Tenet's declaration of war on al Qaeda, the CIA director wrote to several deputies after the August 1998 al Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa that "we must now enter a new phase in our efforts against bin Laden."
"We are at war. I want no resources or people spared in this effort," he said.
Yet despite Mr. Tenet's declaration, "There was no massive shift in budget or reassignment of personnel to counterterrorism until after September 11, 2001," Mrs. Hill said.
The CIA's Counterterrorist Center, "had only three analysts assigned full-time to bin Laden's terrorist network worldwide," she said. "After 2000, [but before September 11, 2001] that number had risen to five."
At the time of September 11, the FBI had only one analyst at FBI headquarters focused on al Qaeda, she said. A CIA official said the center had nine analysts assigned to bin Laden and al Qaeda and additional analysts on other terrorism issues.
According to the 30-page report Mrs. Hill read during her testimony, the arrest on Aug. 16, 2001, of Zacarias Moussaoui was mishandled as the result of an internal debate about whether he was an agent of a foreign power — a requirement for conducting surveillance of him. Moussaoui, who sought flight instruction but did not request landing lessons, was not placed under surveillance.
She also said the FBI mishandled an investigation into two men who would become hijackers aboard the aircraft that hit the Pentagon. The FBI failed to find Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi after being warned they were in the United States.
Kristen Breitweiser, chairman of a group of September 11 victims' families, testified before the panel that a high-level government commission should be formed to further investigate the matter.
"The families of the victims of September 11 have waited long enough. We need to have answers. We need to have accountability. We need to feel safe living and working in this great nation," said Mrs. Breitweiser, whose husband was killed in the attacks.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage are scheduled to testify before the panel today, congressional aides said.
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