U.S. Response: Bush Signs Antiterrorism Law

U.S. President George W. Bush signed new antiterrorism legislation today to expand law enforcement powers to combat terrorism.  “Today we take an essential step in defeating terrorism while protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans,” Bush said at the White House during the signing ceremony.

The legislation took less than six weeks to pass through the U.S. Congress (Reuters/New York Times, Oct. 26).

The U.S. Senate passed the legislation yesterday in a 98-1 vote, following House of Representatives approval Wednesday (see GSN, Oct. 25). 

The law would grant most of the new law enforcement powers requested by Attorney General John Ashcroft after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.  Its provisions include the following new powers:

Roving wiretaps.  Law enforcement officials were previously required to submit a request for permission from a special court to tap each phone they wish to monitor.  The new law will allow officials to ask for permission only once to tap any phone a suspected terrorist uses.

Computer monitoring.  Investigators will be able to subpoena the addresses and times of e-mail messages sent by terrorist suspects, similar to subpoenas for phone records under previous law.

Sharing intelligence and criminal information.  Intelligence organizations and criminal justice officials will be allowed to share information on investigations, including grand jury information. 

Detention.  Under the new law, the attorney general or commissioner of immigration can detain a non-U.S. citizen for up to seven days without charging them with a crime, rather than 48 hours, as previous law stipulated. 

Search warrants.  Federal officials can obtain nationwide search warrants for terrorism investigations.

Increased penalties.  The law will increase sentences for terrorist acts and harboring or financing terrorists.  It will also make terrorist attacks on mass transit systems a federal crime.

Foreign intelligence purpose.  National security investigators can now obtain authority to wiretap suspects in terrorism cases if officials can prove foreign intelligence operations are a significant aspect of the investigation, rather than the only purpose of the investigation, as previous law required.

Bioterrorism.  The law criminalizes possession of biological or chemical agents that could be used as a weapon, unless it is for a peaceful purpose.

Money laundering.  The law carries several measures to combat money laundering, a major part of terrorist financing.  The Treasury Department can now impose sanctions on banks in foreign countries that deny information to the FBI or other agencies; require banks to increase efforts to determine the sources of large overseas accounts; and monitor U.S. transactions in the nearly paperless hawala financial system.

“Shell banks.”  The law bars U.S. banks from conducting business with foreign “shell banks,” which are outside regulated banking systems.

Disclosure suits.  The U.S. government can be sued under the law for information leaks gained through the new surveillance powers (Adam Clymer, New York Times, Oct. 26).

The law also encourages the CIA to recruit unsavory agents to infiltrate terrorist groups, said Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.).  “The Congress clearly states that we direct the intelligence community that our priority is protecting the lives of Americans, even if we have to do so with people that we wouldn’t necessarily want to invite to lunch,” he said yesterday (James Kuhnhenn, Miami Herald, Oct. 26).

Although the new law greatly increases the powers of law enforcement officials, lawmakers denied some of Ashcroft’s requests.  The expanded surveillance powers on phones and computers expire in four years, when Congress will review the continuing necessity of the provisions.  The law also limits detaining immigrants without charge to seven days, rather than the indefinite period the White House had wanted, although in some circumstances the detention period could be repeatedly extended.  Congress also did not grant law enforcement the ability to use foreign wiretap information that would not have been illegal in the United States (Clymer, New York Times, Oct. 26).

Ashcroft said yesterday he would immediately issue guidelines to FBI agents and U.S. attorneys after President Bush signed the law explaining how they could use the new powers to fight terrorism.

“Let the terrorists among us be warned.  If you overstay your visas even by one day, we will arrest you.  If you violate a local law, we will … work to make sure that you are put in jail and … kept in custody as long as possible.  We will use every available statute.  We will seek every prosecutorial advantage.  We will use all our weapons within the law and under the Constitution to protect life and enhance security for America,” he said. 

“Some will ask whether a civilized nation, a nation of law and not of men, can use the law to defend itself from barbarians and remain civilized.  Our answer unequivocally is yes.  Yes, we will defend civilization.  And, yes, we will preserve the rule of law, because it is that which makes us civilized,” he added (Dan Eggen, Washington Post, Oct. 26).

“This legislation ensures that every law enforcement and intelligence agency with information on terrorist activities can readily share with others who need to know,” said Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mo.) (Dave Boyer, Washington Times, Oct. 26).

If officials had had the legislation’s new powers to share information between intelligence and law enforcement officials, they might have been able to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, said Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

In a related action, Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), the only senator to vote against the law, expressed concern that the legislation infringed too deeply on civil liberties.  He said the legislation would give law enforcement too much authority to access personal medical and education records of innocent people who had only obscure contact with suspected terrorists (CNN “The Point with Greta Van Susteren” transcript, Oct. 25). 

“There is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists,” but that type of a country “would not be America,” he said (Jess Bravin, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 26).

“These new and unchecked powers could be used against American citizens who are not under criminal investigation, immigrants who are here within our borders legally, and also against those whose First Amendment activities are deemed to be threats to national security by the attorney general,” said Gregory Nojeim of the American Civil Liberties Union (Eggen, Washington Post, Oct. 26).

House Democrats presented a $7 billion proposal to fight bioterrorism yesterday, including $1.4 billion for vaccines and treatments (see GSN, Oct. 18) and $250 million to help the Postal Service safely handle tainted mail, such as recent letters containing anthrax (see GSN, this issue).  Two senators also recently announced proposals to tighten visa procedures, improve border controls and increase monitoring of foreigners in the United States (Bravin, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 26).

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Afghanistan: Brahimi Leaves For Region; Abdul Haq Reported Dead

Lakhdar Brahimi, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's newly reappointed special envoy for Afghanistan, was scheduled to leave New York today for Pakistan, where he will begin talks with players and interested observers in the Afghan conflict on how to govern a post-Taliban Afghanistan.  Brahimi will arrive Sunday in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, according to Annan spokesman Fred Eckhard.

"He has a tough job," Mauritian U.N. Ambassador Jagdish Koonjul said yesterday of Brahimi, adding that the envoy's job could be even tougher if Kabul, the Afghan capital, falls before an interim government structure is in place.  U.K. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, who heads a committee on implementation of the Security Council's Sept. 28 anti-terror resolution, said the post-Taliban political process should come in two steps:  agreement by the Afghans on how to proceed, and action by the international community to enact the Afghans' wishes (Note: You may need to download free software to access this PDF file).

The subject of peacekeeping is proving as thorny as politics.  "A U.N. force is out of the question, a Muslim force is out of the question, an Afghan force is impossible, and then people (in the Security Council) started talking about, 'If possible, let's demilitarize Kabul,'" Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov said, calling for "quiet diplomacy" and endorsing Brahimi's visit (Edith Lederer, Associated Press/Yahoo! News, Oct. 26).

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the world body is reluctant to get involved in peacekeeping in Afghanistan.  Citing concerns about the willingness of the Afghan people to accept foreign peacekeepers, Brahimi and Annan have both expressed reservations about a U.N. force for the country, Powell said.  He added that some kind of force will nevertheless be necessary and suggested troops could be drawn from a coalition of willing countries -- possibly including Turkey, which the United Nations has reportedly considered to lead a force of U.N. "green helmets," or Muslim peacekeepers, in Afghanistan (Los Angeles Times, Oct. 26).

India yesterday said countries "certainly see a role for U.N. in the post-conflict situation."  An External Affairs Ministry spokeswoman also stressed that no single country, including Pakistan, should "have a veto on what happens in Afghanistan post-conflict" (Press Trust of India/Times of India, Oct. 26).

U.N. special rapporteur for human rights Kamal Hossain called yesterday for measures to head off possible massacres and human rights violations if the Taliban falls.  Hossain is in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, on his fifth visit to the region as special rapporteur (Dawn, Oct. 26).

Pakistani Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, on a visit Tuesday to the Algerian capital, Algiers, stressed the need to rebuild Afghanistan when the war ends, calling on Algeria to help develop infrastructure, health systems and communications and combat poverty (Associated Press of Pakistan/Karachi Business Recorder, Oct. 26).

Exiled Afghan opposition figures finished meeting yesterday in Peshawar, Pakistan, resolving to set up a traditional grand council to determine the country's path and asking Washington to stop bombing.  Reporting that ethnic tensions could lead to bloodshed among rival groups if the Taliban falls, the London Guardian links the absence at the meeting of representatives of the Northern Alliance, the main armed opposition group within Afghanistan, to Pakistan's desire to curtail U.S. support for the Northern Alliance.  Pakistan has in the past preferred Pashtun groups such as the faction led by former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (Rory McCarthy, London Guardian, Oct. 26).

Also in today's Guardian, U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw speaks of a "collective desire to bring Afghanistan back into the family of nations," something that "can only come as part of a long-term strategy, and one which includes the present military campaign."

"Our commitment to help the Afghan people rebuild their country is no empty promise," Straw writes.  "It can be done, because it has been done in Bosnia, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, East Timor and Mozambique -- in each country, the international community has helped bring order out of chaos and hope out of despair."

"We will not turn our backs on the people of Afghanistan," he continues.  "With the United Nations and our partners in the coalition against terrorism, we are determined to place the future back in the hands of the people of Afghanistan themselves" (Jack Straw, London Guardian, Oct. 26).

Opposition leader Abdul Haq, reported yesterday to have taken a group of armed men into southern Afghanistan to stir up rebellion against the country's ruling Taliban, was reportedly killed today.  The Taliban said Haq died in a shootout, while Reuters and al-Jazeera said he was executed.  Allies of Haq, who was expected to be an important figure in Afghanistan's future, said he was captured but not that he was dead (MSNBC.com, Oct. 26).

As U.S. bombing continued, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that Washington is satisfied with its campaign so far.  He cited the disabling of Taliban anti-aircraft capabilities and aircraft, which he said could help the opposition make gains.  As for Osama bin Laden, the Taliban guest and Saudi exile allegedly behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, finding him "is like looking for a needle in a haystack," Rumsfeld said  (Tom Infield, Knight Ridder/Miami Herald, Oct. 26).  "Do we expect to get him?  Yes," he added (Vernon Loeb, Washington Post, Oct. 26).

The opposition is ready to march on Kabul but waiting for the right moment, Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said yesterday.  Opposition forces are waiting for more U.S. air strikes before advancing, according to the minister.  "Our military forces are ready, but that does not mean we're about to move," Abdullah said (Branigin/Loeb, Washington Post, Oct. 26).

Senior Northern Alliance commander Abdul Basir complained yesterday of the limited nature of the U.S. strikes.  "It doesn't seem like the Americans have woken up to what's going on," he said.  "We are not seeing anything like the kind of air attacks they gave Yugoslavia and Iraq.  The Taliban haven't suffered any real losses, and the U.S. isn't putting any pressure on them."  Abdullah said he "can understand some of the frustrations among the commanders" (James Meek, London Guardian, Oct. 26).

At the current pace of bombing, the Taliban will survive the winter in Kabul, the Los Angeles Times reports (Michael O'Hanlon, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 26).  The Washington Post adds that U.S. and Pakistani intelligence efforts have failed to secure any significant Taliban defections (Moore/Khan, Washington Post, Oct. 26).

Meanwhile, U.S. use of cluster bombs continues to create controversy.  The Taliban today appealed to human rights groups to call on Washington to stop the practice.  "They are contaminating our farmlands and destroying our villages," Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said.  "It is very dangerous for civilians to try and remove these bombs" (Agence France-Presse/Times of India, Oct. 26).  U.N. spokeswoman in Pakistan Stephanie Bunker said yesterday that nine civilians in a western Afghan village have died from the bombs -- eight in the attack and one who picked up a bomb later (AFP II/Times of India, Oct. 26).  The world body is planning to retrain 4,000 Afghan mine-clearers to handle the bombs (Stephen Farrell, London Times, Oct. 26).

The United Kingdom has committed more than 4,000 troops, including Royal Marines, to the fight in Afghanistan, Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said, calling the force a "concrete demonstration of our resolve to see the international campaign against terrorism through to the end" (London Independent, Oct. 26).

Following repeated allegations of Saudi noncooperation with international anti-terrorism efforts, AP reported yesterday that no terrorism-related arrests have been made in Saudi Arabia since Sept. 11 despite the fact that the country has reportedly been home to more than half of the hijackers and numerous other suspects.  The Saudis have not frozen any terrorist assets either, and the country's royal family has not acknowledged that Saudis could be involved in the Sept. 11 events, according to AP (AP/CNN.com, Oct. 25).  The FBI said yesterday that 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia (Audrey Gillan, London Guardian, Oct. 26).

U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday praised the Saudis for their "contributions to the efforts," but AP reported that U.S. officials privately complain of noncooperation from the kingdom (AP/CNN.com).

Riyadh and Saudi clerics are speaking out against calls from some extremist Muslims for a holy war against the West, the Financial Times reports.  "Those who kill (non-Muslims) with whom Muslims have treaties will never see paradise," Council of Senior Ulemas head Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said yesterday (Roula Khalaf, Financial Times, Oct. 25).

Foreign ministers from around the Mediterranean region today wrap up a two-day anti-terrorism meeting in Agedia, Morocco, the first such meeting involving both Arab and Western countries since Sept. 11, according to BBC Online.  Among the seven European and four North African countries participating are France, Greece, Egypt and Morocco (David Bamford, BBC Online, Oct. 26).

In New York this week, more than 100 religious leaders from 30 countries met to discuss terrorism and find ways for religion to help promote peace.  Delegates to the conference donated $1 million to the United Nations for aid to refugees.  "In light of Sept. 11, we stand in solid unanimity that terrorism finds no place in any of our religions," World Conference on Religion and Peace Secretary General William Vendley said (Melissa Radler, Jerusalem Post, Oct. 26).

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U.S. Response: Government Will Aid Insurance Companies

U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill presented the Bush administration’s plan to assist insurance companies to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Wednesday.  Under the proposal, the government and private insurance companies would share the costs of a terrorist attack, with the government’s share decreasing over time.

In 2002, the federal government would pay 80 percent of the claims resulting from any terrorist attacks under $20 billion and 90 percent of higher claims.  The government’s percentage would decrease until private insurance companies absorbed all costs by 2005.  Combined public and private liability during the course of a single year would be capped at $100 billion.  

Government assistance for a period of time would allow the industry to recover from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and assess the risk of future terrorist attacks, O’Neill said, adding that many insurance and reinsurance companies were raising rates or simply dropping property and casualty contracts as they come due Dec. 31. 

“If Congress fails to act, reinsurers have signaled their intention to exclude [terrorism risk] coverage, meaning that primary insurers may have to drop this coverage or institute dramatic price increases,” he said, adding, “After Jan. 1 the vast majority of businesses in this country are at risk for either losing their terrorism risk insurance coverage or paying steep premiums for dramatically curtailed coverage.” 

“When terrorists target symbols of our nation’s economic, political and military power, they are attacking the nation as a whole, not the symbol.  This argues for spreading the cost across all taxpayers,” O’Neill said, adding that there were reasons to limit the government’s role, as well (State Department release, Oct. 24).

Glenn Hubbard, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, endorsed O’Neill’s plan.  “By providing a temporary bridge of three years, a steadily receding federal presence and an explicit sunset, we will permit the industry to grow into this new market,” he said.

“I worry that if we don’t have some kind of legislative remedy, downtown New York will never be rebuilt,” said Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Many lawmakers, however, expressed doubt about the plan.  Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said he was concerned the plan did not prevent insurers from only covering clients that were relatively safe from terrorism (State Department release, Oct. 24).

“I have a real problem with the federal government basically guaranteeing profits for the insurance industry.  You are basically guaranteeing that insurers will not lose a certain amount,” said Senator Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) (Stephen Labaton, New York Times, Oct. 25).

Meanwhile, insurance prices across the United States have started increasing since Sept. 11 and are not confined to areas likely to be most vulnerable to terrorism, the New York Times reported.

“The insurance companies have just taken a big hit and, to recoup, they have to raise prices for people in Santa Barbara and Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Tillamook, Oregon, and everywhere else in the country,” said Tom Caesar, owner of a commercial insurance broker in Santa Barbara, California. 

Higher demand for insurance has added to the upward push on prices, and the increases are often extreme.  Some insurance companies are providing coverage only to the least-risky customers, the Times said (Joseph Treaster, New York Times, Oct. 25). 

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South Asia: Japan Suspends Sanctions for Pakistan and India

Japan today announced that it will suspend economic sanctions against Pakistan and India to support the countries during strikes led by the United States in Afghanistan (see GSN, Oct. 23). Japan had instituted the sanctions after both India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in May 1998.

Japan had frozen all new loans and grants to Pakistan and India except for humanitarian aid, but now, in addition to suspending sanctions, the government plans to discuss steps to help ensure political and economic stability in both countries, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda (Reuters/New York Times, Oct. 26).

Pakistani officials announced today that they have established seven no-fly zones around their nuclear installations, indirectly disclosing how many such installations are present in the country (United Press International, Oct. 26).

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Pakistan: Nuclear Scientists Questioned Over Taliban Connections

Pakistan detained two Pakistani nuclear scientists on Tuesday for questioning about their activities in Afghanistan and their possible relationship with the Taliban, according to Maj. Gen. Rashid Quereshi, a spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf.  Quereshi said the two had not been charged with anything and would probably be released within days.

The two detainees were Bashiru-Din Mehmood, a pioneering member of Pakistan’s nuclear program, and Abdul Majid, who worked for Mehmood at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.

Mehmood has led a group of friends in rehabilitation projects in war-torn Afghanistan.  His family insists he is loyal to Pakistan (Munir Ahmad, Associated Press, Oct. 26).

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Anthrax:  U.S. State Department Worker Infected

A U.S. State Department worker at an offsite mail facility has been infected with inhalation anthrax and a second NBC News employee has been infected with the skin form of the disease, officials said yesterday.

The State Department contract worker handled mail at a processing center in Sterling, Virginia, and is the fifth case of inhalation anthrax reported in Washington (see GSN, Oct. 24).  About 90 percent of the mail from the U.S. Postal Service's Brentwood Road facility in Washington--where four workers had previously been infected with inhalation anthrax--to the State Department passes through the Sterling center, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.   

The Centers for Disease Control is working quickly to determine how the Sterling employee was infected, said CDC spokeswoman Lisa Swenarski.  "There is the possibility of cross-contamination with the Daschle letter," Swenarski said.  The Daschle letter is an anthrax-tainted letter that had passed through the Brentwood facility before it arrived at the offices of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).  There is "the possibility of another letter" tainted with anthrax that went through Brentwood to the Sterling center, Swenarski said.  

It was "highly suggestive that this would have come through the Brentwood station," said Joel Selanikio, a CDC official.  "It doesn't require a very large amount to stick to an envelope and get downstream."

The Sterling center was immediately closed yesterday (Twomey/Goldstein, Washington Post, Oct. 26).   All of the mail handlers at the center have been given antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin, said Boucher during a press briefing yesterday.  Six mail processing facilities, including the Sterling center, are being checked for possible anthrax contamination, according to Boucher.  No workers at the State Department headquarters in Washington had been tested for anthrax, Boucher said, but mailroom employees there had been given Cipro without being tested.  Secretary of State Colin Powell had also not been tested.  "He wouldn't qualify as a mail handler," Boucher said (State Department transcript, Oct. 25).

A second NBC News worker in New York was reported to have the skin version of anthrax, officials said yesterday.  The worker began suffering headaches, fever and skin bumps, around the same time as the first NBC News employee had been diagnosed with skin anthrax, according to the New York Daily News.  "There is one other person who apparently handled the letter that was sent to NBC who is confirmed to have developed cutaenous anthrax, said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (Williams/Goldiner, New York Daily News, Oct. 26).

Trace amounts of anthrax spores were discovered yesterday at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.  The level of contamination was "medically insignificant" but the building will be closed until tests and cleaning can be conducted, said a CIA official.  No CIA employees have tested positive for anthrax exposure, but antibiotics have been offered to all mail handling staff and any interested employees, according to CNN.  CIA officials said that only one site tested positive out of 31 in the mail receiving building and the CIA main mailroom.

The mailroom at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research also tested positive for anthrax, said a U.S. Army spokesman Charles Dasey.  The mailroom at Walter Reed will be closed today but the institute will be open, Dasey said (CNN.com, Oct. 26).

Mail from the Brentwood facility goes to recipients in three ZIP codes throughout Washington, said a postal official.  Residents in those areas have been told there is no need to get antibiotics, according to the Washington Post.  "We've not been advised to do that by the CDC," said Washington Health Department spokesman Jack Pannell.  "The CDC is leading the science here for us ... At the present moment, there is no threat to the public customers of the Brentwood facility," Pannell said.  The CDC's current recommendation is that only State Department mail handlers go on antibiotics, said CDC spokeswoman Swenarski.  The CDC is "always evaluating and reevaluating our recommendations," however, and that the scope of people who may be told to take antibiotics could widen, Swenarski said.

Plans are completed for a network of locations, staffed with up to 1,000 workers, which could provide antibiotics to large numbers of the public if tests showed anthrax had contaminated general mail, according to Washington health officials.  "This is frightening," said CDC Administrator Julie Gerberding.  "This is a biological attack and we have no experience with this" (Rick Weiss, Washington Post, Oct. 26).

Congressional members returned to most Senate and House of Representatives office buildings today, but two will still remained closed, said congressional leaders.  Senator Daschle said he hoped the Senate Dirksen building will be opened today.  The Senate hart building, which is where the anthrax tainted letter to Daschle arrived, will not be opened till at least next week, Daschle said, and added that it may be even later before the southeast wing would be ready to be reopened. 

Traces of anthrax were found in a ventilation system on the ninth floor of the Hart building and in a stairwell leading from the eight floor to the a ninth floor conference room, according to Daschle.  The anthrax could have made its way into the ventilation system from Daschle's offices on the fifth and sixth floors, said Capitol Police spokesman Lt. Dan Nichols.  Daschle's staff used the conference room after the tainted letter was opened, Nichols said.  "The experts say this is neither a surprise nor a concern," Daschle said.

House leaders are keeping the Longworth office building closed until further tests come back, according to the Washington Post.  Representatives seemed happy to be able to get back to their offices in the reopened Cannon and Rayburn buildings, according to the Post.  "I never dreamt it would be so good to return to Rayburn," said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.). 

The Library of Congress announced that it had completed testing of its buildings and no anthrax was found.  The Adams, Jefferson, and Madison buildings are scheduled to be reopened today (Eilperin/Dewar, Washington Post, Oct. 26).

Two postal workers in Miami were hospitalized yesterday and tested for anthrax after showing flulike symptoms, according to the Miami Herald.  The two workers came to the Pan American Hospital emergency room yesterday complaining of symptoms that were similar to recent anthrax cases," said Pan American Chief Executive Officer Roberto Tejidor.  "Since they are postal workers, we have to be on extra alert," Tejidor said.

The two workers, who are husband and wife, will be placed in isolation until a diagnosis is made, Tejidor said.  The tests are expected to take 48 hours.  Tejidor said the hospital did not notify public health officials because doctors do not yet know if they are dealing with anthrax, the flu or something else (Miami Herald, Oct. 26).

New York Mayor Giuliani is encouraging all New Yorkers to get flu shots to help decrease fears over anthrax, according to the London Telegraph. "It’s good for you to get a flu shot and it's really good for the city," Giuliani said.  "You'll help reduce the needle-in-a-haystack situation that can go on in trying to figure out what these symptoms are all about."  Flu shots would "transfer some of the anxiety that people feel unnecessarily about their possible exposure to anthrax or bioterrorism," said New York Health Commissioner Neal Cohen (Phillip Broughton, London Telegraph, Oct. 26).  

Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said to expect a major public health campaign to encourage flu shots once enough supplies are available.  Vaccines were supposed to be reserved this month for the elderly and others especially at risk from dying from the flu and plans were made to vaccinate the rest of the country starting in November, according to the Associated Press, but production problems have caused delays.  Thompson is bringing vaccine producers to Washington for meetings today and Monday to find out why production of the flu vaccine is delayed for a second year in a row, according to the AP.  "I am going to have a stern discussion with them," to encourage faster action, Thompson said (Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press, Oct. 26).  

Increased demands for flu shots, however, could create shortages that would endanger more people than any anthrax threat, said federal health officials yesterday.  The CDC warned that flu shots would not reduce confusion between anthrax and the flu and that the CDC "does not recommend" flu shots for that purpose.  An increased demand on easily available flu shots could disrupt a program to get the vaccines to the elderly and chronically ill first, according to health officials.  "Reducing influenza vaccine coverage of these groups could lead to an increase in hospitalization and deaths," the CDC said.

"It certainly would create a problem if every American wanted to be immunized against the flu this year," said Aventis spokesman Len Lavenda.  "There simply isn't enough vaccine" (Sabin Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 26).

Kenyan and U.S. officials met yesterday to solve a dispute over a U.S. package, suspected to be tainted with anthrax, sent to a Nairobi businessman.  Kenyan officials had said the package tested for anthrax while the CDC said on Wednesday that, after further tests, no anthrax was detected.  Kenyan Director of Medical Services Richard Muga said more tests were being conducted on the package.  Mice had been injected with the germs found in the package to determine whether "it was disease causing or not," said Muga.  "We shall definitely relay the results of the test to Kenyans since we have a duty and obligation to keep them informed on any new developments," Muga said (Mwaniki/Gathura, Daily Nation, Oct. 26).  

About 15 people in Zimbabwe have contracted anthrax through a natural outbreak, according to the Zimbabwe Herald. The victims apparently contracted the disease after butchering infected cows.  Zimbabwean Director of Veterinary Services Stuart Hargreaves said his department rarely sees infected animals because they die so quickly.  "They die quickly in a matter of hours with no symptoms.  People generally cut the meat and when they fall sick is when we know there is anthrax," Hargreaves said.

Anthrax periodically breaks out in Zimbabwe, where it can be transmitted from cattle to people, according to Agence France Presse.  The former white minority government in Rhodesia had been accused of using anthrax as a weapon.  About 10,000 people were infected during the 1970s independence war, according to Western scientists (Agence France Presse, Oct. 26).    

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Anthrax: More Details Given on Anthrax Spores

The spores responsible for the anthrax incidents in Florida, New York and Washington came from the Ames strain (see GSN, Oct. 11), Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said yesterday.  The Ames strain, named for its discovery by an Iowa lab in the 1950s, is a type of anthrax bacterium commonly used in research around the world and was studied by the U.S. military, according to the Washington Post. Ridge’s comments are the first time a U.S. official has specified the strain of anthrax bacteria responsible for the incidents, according to the Post. 

The spores sent in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) had “some different characteristics” than those in letters sent to NBC News and the New York Post, Ridge said.  The Daschle letter’s spores were “highly concentrated,” said Ridge.  “It is pure and the spores are smaller.  Therefore they’re more dangerous, because they can be more easily absorbed into a person’s respiratory system.” This was opposed to spores found in the New York Post letter, which were clumpy, Ridge said (Weiss/Eggen, Washington Post, Oct. 26). 

“It’s clear that the terrorists responsible for these attacks intended to use this anthrax as a weapon,” Ridge said.  “Clearly we are up against a shadow enemy, shadow soldiers, people who have no regard for human life.  They are determined to murder innocent people.”

Ridge’s comments differed from what the Bush administration had been saying about the Daschle letter, according to the New York Times.  Soon after the tainted letter was discovered, administration officials called the anthrax “common variety,” “naturally occurring” and susceptible to antibiotics, according to the Times.  Those statements, in the narrow sense, were true, but did not convey all that was known, said public health and law enforcement officials. 

The White House had not been playing down the risk, but was waiting for conclusive scientific evidence, said a senior administration official yesterday.  “It’s easier to speak quickly from guesswork than it is to wait and speak definitively on the record,” the official said.  “The worst thing that could happen as the nation goes through the anthrax scare is for the federal government to say things, on the record, that are later proved to be incorrect.”

Experts have criticized the government’s slowness in providing a clear description of the anthrax inside the Daschle letter.  The government’s explanation was akin to saying that “before you can call a zebra a zebra you have to analyze every hair on its back to make sure they are zebra hairs,” said one source familiar with the investigation.  “Standing 10 yards away, I could tell it was a zebra” (Stolberg/Miller, New York Times, Oct. 26).

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Smallpox:  No Mass Inoculations, WHO Recommends

The World Health Organization has decided to recommend against vaccinating entire populations for smallpox, Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland announced today.  The risk of harmful side effects from the vaccine is too high to vaccinate people in the absence of a direct threat, Brundtland said.

"The risk of adverse events is sufficiently high that mass vaccination is not warranted if there is no or little real risk of exposure.  Individual countries that have reason to believe that their people face an increased risk of smallpox because of deliberate use of the virus are considering options for increasing their access to vaccines," the WHO advisory committee on smallpox vaccination said in its recently completed review, begun due to concerns terrorists could use smallpox as a biological weapon.

Governments should only vaccinate people who could have been exposed to smallpox, Brundtland said, adding that the best way to contain an outbreak is to vaccinate those who have contact with smallpox victims. 

The WHO has posted smallpox information on its web site, Brundtland said, adding that the organization "has also re-established a team of technical experts in smallpox who are available to assist countries in the investigation and response to outbreaks."  Brundtland urged the international community to consider any future smallpox outbreaks as an "international emergency" (WHO release, Oct. 26).

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has been meeting with pharmaceutical companies that could produce new smallpox vaccine doses within a year.  Thompson said he hopes to offer a contract or contracts by next week as part of U.S. efforts to stockpile enough vaccine for every American.  He said he hopes vaccine production could begin late next month or in early December (Jill Carroll, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 26).

Meanwhile, U.S. federal, state and local authorities have been reviewing their legal authority to quarantine smallpox victims and track down their contacts, the Wall Street Journal reports.  "We're looking at ordinances to see what the Chicago commissioner of public health's powers are," said William Paul, deputy commissioner of public health in Chicago. 

Current national plans involve isolating any smallpox cases and tracking and vaccinating anyone with whom the infected had contact.  "Every person you saw today and yesterday would be quarantined," said Laurene Mascola, director of the acute communicable disease unit of the Los Angeles County Health Services Department.  "If we had our first case of smallpox, the military, the National Guard would be here" (Marilyn Chase, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 26).

Canada is considering stockpiling between 30 and 32 million smallpox vaccine doses -- about enough for everyone in Canada -- to prepare for a potential bioterrorism attack, Health Minister Allan Rock said yesterday.  Ottawa has been discussing plans to work with Washington to develop an improved vaccine, Rock said (Mark Kennedy, Vancouver Sun, Oct. 26).

Indians do not need to panic about smallpox and India could easily acquire smallpox vaccine from Russia with WHO assistance if an outbreak occurred, said S.M. Sapatnekar, director of the Haffkine Institute.  India does not produce the vaccine, he said. 

"It is not as if an entire city or community has to be immunized.  What is needed [is] to stop all family contacts, including domestic help and such daily contacts of the infected person, and 50-odd buildings within the radius, depending on the population density," Sapatnekar said (Seema Kamdar, Times of India, Oct. 26).

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U.S. Response: Vary Antibiotics Against Anthrax

Health officials modified their strategy on treating anthrax yesterday, recommending that victims take two or more antibiotics instead of Cipro alone. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said patients who recovered from inhalation anthrax had taken combinations of antibiotics.

The CDC recommended that patients take either Cipro or doxycycline plus one or two other antibiotics from a list that includes penicillin, ampicillin and others (Lawrence Altman, New York Times, Oct. 26).

Some drug companies have offered large gifts to the U.S. government, hoping that their drugs will be approved for treating anthrax. Johnson & Johnson is offering the federal government 100 million doses of its antibiotic Levaquin pending government approval (Joseph Picard, New Jersey Home News Tribune, Oct. 26). Bristol-Myers Squib is offering to give the government an unspecified amount of its antibiotic Tequin and to fund a team of 20 to 25 bacterial research scientists to fight biological weapons (AFX Press, Oct. 26).

Consumers have filed several dozen lawsuits accusing German drug maker Bayer of illegally keeping generic forms of the anthrax antibiotic ciprofloxacin off the market, the Financial Times reported today. Bayer’s patent on the antibiotic, which it markets under the brand name Cipro, expires in December 2003. The consumers have charged that the lack of competition resulting from Bayer’s monopoly has not only driven up Cipro’s price, but also has critically limited its supply.

The plaintiffs allege that since a 1997 legal challenge to its patent, Bayer has paid $200 million dollars or more to generic manufactures to keep them off the market. The Times reported that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into the payoffs more than two years ago, but has not brought any charges against Bayer. An attorney for the plaintiffs in one of the current lawsuits noted that U.S. drug law includes a provision that allows drug makers to block generics by making such deals (Waldmeir/Michaels, Financial Times, Oct. 26).

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader also criticized Bayer for not offering Cipro to the United States at a lower price. Bayer has agreed to sell 100 million tablets of Cipro to the United States for 95 cents per pill, almost half of its original asking price of $1.77 per pill (see GSN, Oct. 25). Under a program administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, however, Bayer supplies the antibiotic at 43 cents per pill to organizations that treat poor and underserved patients.

Bayer spokesman Rob Kloppenburg said that “the program is the Public Health Service program and it is a federally mandated program and under it, companies provide drugs at a price fixed by the government and there is no control we have even over the quantity. All companies have to provide it at that price.”

The Washington Post reported that, through the program, the price of Cipro fluctuates throughout the year and it has previously been higher than 95 cents per pill. Kloppenburg noted that different government agencies typically pay different prices for various programs. One pharmaceutical economist, however, argued that is the problem.

“The industry has tried to segment the market into as many sectors as they can that allow them to charge as much as they can in each sector,” said Stephen Schondelmeyer of the University of Minnesota (Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post, Oct. 26).

Health officials are considering advising patients to take the anthrax vaccine after they have already taken antibiotics. The CDC have asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for permission to dip into the military’s stockpile of vaccine and to use it as an “investigational new drug,” instead of as a preventive treatment.

Researchers recommended in a 1999 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that since antibiotics halt the body’s natural process of fighting anthrax, the vaccine could be a useful way to jumpstart that process once patients have finished a course of antibiotics.

The sole U.S. manufacturer of anthrax vaccine closed its plant in 1998 due to problems with sterility and quality-control, but the company is now waiting for approval from the FDA to reopen and unload some of its stockpile of the vaccine. Although part of the stockpile of the vaccine may be unsterile, that part has been quarantined. The Journal reported that some experts believe that the vaccine could help reassure those who have been exposed (Laura Johannes, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 26).

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Anthrax: U.S. Postal Service Responds to New Incidents

Anthrax spores were found on machinery at a mail distribution center in New York, officials said yesterday.  Meanwhile, the U.S. Postal Service has begun to implement new safety measures to protect employees and mail recipients, according to reports.

Laboratory tests had found traces of anthrax on four high-speed mail sorting machines at Morgan Station, the largest mail distribution center in New York, according to the Postal Service.  The machines were likely contaminated by anthrax tainted letters sent to NBC News and the New York Post that had been sorted at Morton Station, postal authorities said. 

The section of the center where the machines are located has been closed, but a postal workers’ union has called for the entire plant to be closed.  “This building must be closed,” said New York Metro Area Postal Union President William Smith.  “If they don’t close it, we’re going to go to court.  Who wants to go into that building when there might be anthrax bacteria in other areas?” Smith said, and added that sorting centers in Washington and New Jersey had been closed after workers there had been infected with anthrax. Postal Service spokesman Robert Trombley said there was no need to close all of the plants.  “We have different situations between New Jersey and here,” Trombley said.  “To date there have been no reported symptoms of anthrax at any post office east of New Jersey.”

Random testing on workers from Morgan Station has begun, but no results have been announced, according to the New York Times.  Many workers at the plant have called for all workers to be tested.  “Everyone in that whole station is afraid,” said Derrick Reddick, a mail sorting clerk.  “I don’t want to go back to work there tomorrow.  I feel they should close it down.”  Beverly Pabon, another plant worker, said, “We should be tested just like everyone else.  We don’t want to wait for someone to die to be a test case” (Steven Greenhouse, New York Times, Oct. 26).  

The discovery of a U.S. State Department mail handler infected with anthrax has prompted a renewed effort by the Postal Service to find other contaminated mailrooms and to provide safety equipment for workers, according to the Washington Post.  “We are continuing to take every possible action to protect our employees and the public, and we are doing that while keeping the mail moving,” Deputy Postmaster John Nolan said.  “Obviously, mail is an indispensable part of our everyday life in America, and we’re just not going to give in to this terrorism,” Nolan said.

Anthrax testing in Washington is being expanded to all government mailrooms, which could include hundreds of sorting and distribution facilities, said Postal Service Vice President Deborah Willhite.  Postal officials said yesterday they have bought 4 million facemasks, of which 2 million had been shipped to about 140 locations.  The Postal Service has also obtained 86 million pairs of gloves made of vinyl and Nitrile, a high-grade industrial plastic, to supply three pairs a day for each employee nationwide, according to officials (Randolph Schmid, Washington Post, Oct. 26).

Four truckloads of mail that may be tainted with anthrax from a Washington postal center were shipped to an Ohio facility yesterday for decontamination, according to officials.  The mail had been sent to be irradiated with “e-beams” – streams of electrons to kill anthrax bacteria (see GSN, Oct. 25), said Deputy Postmaster Nolan. 

The mail sent to a private company in Ohio for decontamination had mostly been destined for the White House and Congress, said Nolan.  “The mail that’s going to you and I, at this point, there’s no indication whatsoever of any ongoing problems,” Nolan said.  “We’re looking at … mail going to certain locations where you’re more likely to have a risk of someone doing something stupid, whether it’s mail going to Congress or the White House or Planned Parenthood.”  More than 120 abortion clinics, many run by Planned Parenthood have been targets of recent anthrax threats, according to the Washington Post.    

The Postal Service will process mail faster by sending it on the 16-hour trip to Ohio and back, not counting irradiation time, than by having workers sort suspicious mail by hand for testing, Nolan said.  “It’s a very laborious, time consuming process to handle it manually, as opposed to irradiating it and having it come back and fly through the equipment,” Nolan said.  “Over time, it’s probably the way you’re going to want to go.”  The Postal Service is also looking at firms in Maryland and New Jersey that have similar equipment and capacity to decontaminate large amounts of mail, Nolan said (Nakashima/Schmidt, Washington Post, Oct. 26).

Routine sterilization of mail would not begin until tests ensured that there would be no hazard to employees or mailed goods, according to postal officials.  Experts said that ion beam sterilization technology had potential but urged caution.  “Any time you generalize and say something is a cure-all for everything that ails you, you will overstep the technical limits and end up with egg on your face,” said Irwin Taub, an expert on food irradiation.

There were doubts that ion beam technology could be used on cartons or other bulky mail because the electrons would not penetrate deep enough to kill bacteria inside, said Taub.  The technology could also changed some materials sent through the mail in uncertain ways, said experts.  Minerals and gemstones sent through the mail and exposed to the sterilization technology could have their color altered, according to the New York Times.  Topaz, for example, is changed from clear to blue through ion beam sterilization, though the change is done at higher energy levels than ones proposed for mail sanitation.  Glass, however, could go through similar reactions at the planned energy levels, according to mineralogists.  Clear glass for example, could turn brown, said George Rossman, a professor of mineralogy at the California Institute of Technology.

The Postal Service was still in the early stages of deciding how to handle the new risks and technologies chosen to reduce it, said spokesman Gerry Kreienkamp.  “We’ll have to test this and make sure it works within our system,” Krienkamp said (Andrew Revkin, New York Times, Oct. 26).

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North Korea: No Talks Soon

North Korea yesterday rejected U.S. calls to resume talks on a broad range of issues, including missile proliferation.  The official North Korean newspaper Minju Joson criticized comments made by U.S. President George W. Bush last weekend in Shanghai.  Bush said he hoped that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il would accept U.S. and South Korean efforts to hold meetings with Pyongyang.  He added that he was “disappointed in Kim Jong-il not rising to the occasion, being so suspicious, so secretive,” Bush said.

“His remarks prove that he does not know any elementary etiquette and has no common sense as a statesman, not to speak of a head of state,” the newspaper said yesterday (Reuters/New York Times, Oct. 26).

The United States was “prepared to meet with North Korea any time any where without any preconditions,” U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Thomas Hubbard told a group of South Korean business leaders yesterday.  “Either side can raise any issue they want to raise” (Associated Press, South China Morning Post, Oct. 26).

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ABM Treaty: U.S. Radar Tests Delayed Indefinitely

The United States yesterday announced the postponement of three missile defense tests that could have violated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a possible indication that the Bush administration is looking for ways to modify the treaty with Russian cooperation rather than discarding the pact altogether.

“Treaties and most legal documents have vagueness to them,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a press briefing. “We have said we will not violate the treaty while it remains in force … therefore we do not want to be in a position of having a small minority of people suggesting that we in fact are violating it,” Rumsfeld said.

The planned tests involved tracking ballistic missile warheads and interceptors with radar systems based on a U.S. Navy Aegis cruiser and at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.  Rumsfeld did not say whether or when the tests would be rescheduled.

Article VI of the treaty states that treaty parties may not test non-ABM components “in an ABM mode,” where ABM is defined as a system designed “to counter strategic ballistic missiles.”  Because the Aegis radar is part of an existing air defense system designed to counter aircraft and perhaps short-range missiles, it would be a treaty violation to test it against a long-range strategic missiles, according to John Rhinelander, former legal adviser to the U.S. delegation during the ABM Treaty negotiation.

Despite the test delays, Rumsfeld voiced his intention to move beyond the treaty limits: “At some point going forward we’ll have a way to permit our country to go forward with the kinds of testing and development of ballistic missile defense that we believe is in the best interests of our nation” (Greg Webb, GSN, Oct. 26)

A Pentagon review group had decided recently that radar tests would violate the treaty.  “It was pretty clear-cut,” said one senior Pentagon official, but some defense officials had nevertheless recommended interpreting the treaty to allow the tests in order to acquire valuable technical information.

Other officials, however, both in the Pentagon and elsewhere, argued that it was better not to conduct the tests and to emphasize therefore that the treaty was restricting U.S. missile defense efforts and should be scrapped quickly (Sipress/Graham, Washington Post, Oct. 26).

It was “debatable” whether testing the Aegis radar would have violated the treaty, said former Assistant Secretary Defense Philip Coyle, in part because those radars “don’t have the power or range needed for [national missile defense]-class engagements.”

“If it had gone ahead, it would be like poking them in the eye,” Coyle said.  “The Russians could infer we weren’t interested in negotiating at a time when Putin is to visit and we need Russian cooperation in the war in Afghanistan” (Mark Matthews, Baltimore Sun, Oct. 26).

“I think there have always been some who just wanted to get out of the treaty—period,” said one administration official. “The broader view has been to get relief from it.  Not partial relief.  Not limited relief.  Not constant negotiations, but substantial relief.  If we find a mutually acceptable arrangement with the Russians to move beyond the treaty, fine.  It could take a variety of different forms.  But if we are unable to get something that is mutually acceptable, we will exercise our right to withdraw,” the official said (Shanker/Sanger, New York Times, Oct. 26).

The move was intended as “a signal of good faith” to the Russians, said Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  “There may be a much greater chance of a compromise here than anyone thought” (Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 26).

“The positive sign is that the administration has sent a signal to the Russians and the rest of the world that the United States will not violate” the treaty, said John Isaacs, president of the Council for a Livable World Education Fund.  “On the negative side, the administration continues to insist that the treaty is a significant obstacle to the missile defense program and that it must get beyond the treaty, with or without the Russians, and soon.  We disagree,” Isaacs said (CLWEF release, Oct. 25).

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Radiological Weapons: U.S.-Canadian Border Was Terrorist Target

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States likely involved a plot to crash a hijacked aircraft into a U.S. nuclear power plant near the Canadian border, said a British terrorism expert yesterday before the Canadian Senate. 

“Many of the specialists who are involved in the investigation of the suicide hijackings of planes in the United States are of the opinion that there was a plan to fly one of the airliners at 500 miles an hour into a nuclear reactor,” said Paul Wilkinson, a scholar who has advised the British government on terrorism.  “If that had happened, and the action had caused a major disaster in that plant, the consequences would have been experienced by many of the urban areas on the Canadian side of the border as well as within the United States,” Wilkinson said, but did not provide details on the alleged plot (Mofina/Bronskill, Montreal Gazette, Oct. 25). 

“This is not a piece of nightmare fiction,” said Wilkinson.  “That means we are one step nearer, sadly, to the use of that kind of chemical, biological [and] nuclear radiation devices” (Mofina/Bronskill, Calgary Herald, Oct. 25).

A U.S. Department of Energy report that showed that a direct, high-speed crash by an airliner could penetrate an nuclear reactor’s protective dome (see GSN, Oct. 25) was available to the public for nearly 20 years until it was removed soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, regulators said yesterday.  The report remained available to the public even after warnings as far back as 1995 that terrorists had targeted nuclear power plants, according to the Washington Post.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would not discuss the contents of the report, according to a NRC spokesman.

The DOE study calculated the impact of objects as large as a commercial jetliner, traveling at various speeds, on the reinforced concrete containment dome protecting the reactor core at most nuclear plants.  The study concluded that at the highest flight speeds the dome would be penetrated, according to the National Whistleblower Center. 

The ignition of a small percentage of an aircraft’s jet fuel inside the dome “could lead to a rather violent explosion environment and impose upon the primary containment relatively severe loads,” according to the report.

The report was found in the NRC’s public reading room in Bethesda, Maryland, on Oct. 2, according to the Whistleblower Center.  “We asked a volunteer to look around the public reading room and see what was there on airplane crashes.  And there it was,” said Michael Kohn, the Center’s general counsel (Peter Behr, Washington Post, Oct. 25).

Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said the report showed the government should have prepared much sooner to protect a nuclear plant against an airplane crash and should do so now.  “This document is disturbing because it makes clear the NRC knows that a nuclear power plant can be successfully attacked by an aircraft and that information has been public for nearly 20 years,” Markey said (Associated Press/New York Times, Oct. 24).

In the United States, officials at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, are examining a plan to protect the laboratory’s stockpile of nuclear materials by moving some to an underground site.  “It makes it harder for an adversary to get their hands on it,” said Joseph Krueger, head of security at the laboratory.

A final decision would be part of a larger Energy Department plan now under review.  DOE is working to improve security at 10 U.S. nuclear weapons facilities across the country.  Underground sites are part of a proposed solution, according to the Mercury News, and the idea is not a new one.  Former DOE Secretary Bill Richardson’s staff considered the idea of consolidating weapon-grade nuclear materials, but the idea never gained momentum, according to the San Jose Mercury News.  A report released last month by the Project on Government Oversight also mentioned the idea.

DOE is “looking at further consolidating some of its holdings of nuclear materials,” said Krueger (Tina O’Brien, San Jose Mercury News/Nuclear Control Institute, Oct. 23).

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