antiW A R links & new U.S. truth commission N.Korea & rogues Iraq well poisoning Israel School of Americas prison vs barracks FEMA nuclear local Cong. McKinney D-GA links Def.Sec Rumsfeld & StarWars UN peacekeeping Frankenstein bin Laden biological warfare SIPRI Greenpeace mil. corruption vets HRts refs   §
	"The only way to abolish war   is to make peace heroic." John Dewey, 1859-1952 U.S. philosopher & educator
	soldiers destroying weapons   OPERATIONJoint Guardian

shanti sena

WASHINGTON   Ellen Thomas sits on a blue Mexican serape blanket, which partly covers a large blue protest sign directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. It's adorned with the slogans "LIVE BY THE BOMB … DIE BY THE BOMB " & " CONVERT THE WAR MACHINES ". She's been sitting there, peacefully protesting since 1984. The signs have been there since 1981, and so has her husband, vigil founder Wm. Thomas, whom they call simply "Thomas."
Ellen Thomas talks quietly with passers-by and hands out fliers to tourists, schoolchildren and business people. Only those who stop to read the signs are offered a flier. Many toss them once out of view, but a few will read the newsletter, and a few more might check out the group's Web site. At the base of a large tree, her dog, Bo, lounges in the late-morning summer heat. He pants even though he just got ahaircut.
Ellen Thomas is just one of a handful of volunteers who spend their evenings, nights, mornings, weekends or afternoons in the shade, with theirback to the White House, looking into Lafayette Park. Twenty-four hours aday, 365 days a year. Nineteen years and counting. They're protesting nuclear weapons. They want the U.S. govt, along with the other nations of the world, to give up their nuclear weapons and divert the money spent on the arms to humanitarian and environmental causes.
"Basically, the core motivation is my beliefs," Wm Thomas said. "I believe that energy & resources should be expended in a constructive manner, and I live in a society where constructive use of those resources isn't highly valued."

Party lines
They have been successful in introducing in the U.S. House of Representatives an initiative known as Proposition 1, which calls for the disarmament of nuclear weapons. The proposition has been introduced 4 times by D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, but it never made it out of committee.
William Thomas began the Lafayette Park vigil in 1981 with Concepcion Picciotto, another protester who sits about 20 feet away with her signs. The protesters have endured bitter cold, pulsing heat and jail time in order to promote their message to tourists and now three presidents. One group member claims that President Clinton once pulled up at 3 a.m. and spoke with him for several minutes, but the story can't be substantiated. Ellen Thomas is relieved of her vigil duties after several hours by Donn Condron, another protester. He's been involved in the vigil since its inception, but didn't start protesting until last June.
"I've done all kinds of things, construction, carpentry; but I used to come over here on my lunch break," he said. "We used to use my apartment to make the signs."

Group members have to be careful with how they protest. Displeased presidents and Secret Service agents have pushed for ordinances over the years that limit their protesting, such as allowing only two signs and the right to remove the signs if protesters are more than 3 feet away from them. "When the Republicans are in office, it's more stringent," Condron said. "With the Democrats, it's not as bad." Thomas concurs, pointing out that the group is banished from the White House side of Pennsylvania Avenue. But the vigil is still going with no end in sight.
"The police tried to get rid of him (Thomas), but we just keep on going," Ellen Thomas said. "There used to be a concerted effort to get us out of here, but it doesn't seem to be a policy to remove us anymore, and we appreciate that."

"Planted some seeds"
Ellen Thomas became involved in the group after her two children were grown. "I was working at the National Wildlife Federation," she said. "I decided that when I didn't need to worry about providing for my daughter, I was going to reduce my income to below the poverty level so I wouldn't have to pay taxes, because I don't agree with the policies" of the U.S. government. She met William Thomas soon after and the two were married in 1984. Since then, she has spent time in prison for "camping" in Lafayette Park. She and Thomas were arrested in 1987 for wrapping themselves in a blanket to keep warm, which, according to the U.S. Park Police, is considered illegal.
Ellen Thomas believes that after 19 years, something has been accomplished. "We've planted some seeds because 3 million people visit the White House each year," suggesting that some of those visitors leave with a different perspective on nuclear weapons. Many people who pass by the signs think that the protesters are homeless, but that isn't the case. The group lives and works out of an office on 12th Street in Northwest Washington, where they run their award-winning Web site. They received the office, a former crack house, free in exchange for bringing it up to code.
Through it all, Ellen is proud to point out that she's there to offer a solution. "I'm doing it because I choose to do it. I meet a lot of interesting people and learn stuff I wouldn't otherwise learn," she said. "I'm not here to complain, I'm here to fix."

U.S. 'Contractors' Fight Colombia Drug War
3.2.01   Jared Kotle AP   Roni Bowers
via Bush Drug War / Corruption Awareness Project

School of the Americas Reborn ¹

Rep. Joe Moakley D-MA said changes in the school proposed by the Clinton admin & approved by Congress last year are "little more than a fresh coat of paint, and do not address our concerns with this training facility." Moakley spearheaded long campaign in Congress to close the school, said, "Democracies aren't built with weapons & war. They are built with democratic institutions like fair judiciaries, open electoral systems and civilian police forces that protect people. That is what we should be teaching Latin Americans, not how to wage war against their own people." Defenders of the new institution say military exchanges bring greater understanding & cooperation in the hemisphere, which are key elements to confront new realities & threats in the Americas. They also say that bringing together the region's armed forces, esp. those with questionable human rights records, is better than no contact at all.
[ No contact is not the only option. Intl tribunal's prosecution & imprisonment for convicts are excellent alternatives. ]

"Arguably our best instrument of cooperation, of defense engagement in the hemisphere, is military education & training and that is what this institute does," said Pedro Pablo Permuy, dep. asst secretary of defense for inter-American affairs. "It is absolutely critical." He added that there is no doubt that training 800 members of Latin American armed forces at the school each year in professionalism, respect for human rights and support for democracy is positive. He said it is unfortunate Pentagon is trying to break past patterns while new institute's critics been slow "to get into the mindset that we are no longer in a Cold War."
Unlike the school, which closed last month, the new institute will also train civilians in govt & nongovt jobs and will be under congressional oversight. It will have a civilian-military dept directed by State Dept official not yet been named, and the curriculum will include courses such as natural disaster response, intl law & human rights. All students take 8hrs min. of human rights training.
New institute opening & earlier changes in SOA resulted in part from critics efforts but these also may have brought military training increase outside the U.S. which limits possibility of oversight, said observers, incl authors of a report to be released Thursday. Most U.S. military training takes place in the Andean region & Mexico under pgms such as Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) & International Military Education & Training (IMET). "If all training was as transparent as the SOA's, we wouldn't have much of a mission," said Adam Isacson of the Center for Intl Policy in Washington, which prepared the report with the Latin American Working Group, a coalition of religious, human rights & policy organizations. The report, Just the Facts 2000-2001, says 5% to 10% of U.S. training for Latin American military personnel in 1999 was provided at SOA. The report estimates 13,000 to 15,000 Latin American military & police personnel were trained by U.S. in 1999, more than all armed forces personnel trained by the U.S. in the Middle East, East Asia and countries of the former Soviet Union.

Isacson recognized courses' value in promoting better relations with civilians & respect for human rights, but added that other courses are worrisome, such as training in combat, weapons familiarization & infiltration. Concern is heightened, he said, with perception that the U.S. govt underestimates need to take responsibility for training results. "We contend that with training comes a share of responsibility for how skills transferred are subsequently used," the report says. Last year Congress passed a law to establish a way to track foreign military personnel trained by the U.S. which states beginning Jan. 1, Sec.Def must maintain database with information about all trainees, the type & date of their training and, as far as possible, the positions they hold after training.

"[Nearly 70% of the military budget] is to provide men and weapons to fight in foreign countries in support of our allies and friends and for offensive operations in Third World countries … Another big chunk of the defense budget is the 20% allocated for our offensive nuclear force of bombers, missles, and submarines whose job it is to carry nuclear weapons to the Soviet Union … Actual defense of U.S. costs about 10% of the military budget and is the least expensive function performed by the Pentagon."

Rear Admiral Gene LaRoque, U.S. Navy retired

active denial technology
Pentagon Fielding Electromagnetic Crowd Dispersal Weapon
3.14.01   Frank Morales   per CNN 3.2.01   contratech

"The Marine Corps is on the verge of unveiling perhaps the biggest breakthrough in weapons technology since the atomic bomb: a nonlethal weapon that fires directed energy at human targets. I have nothing to hide. This is a good news story. Our American public needs to understand that we have done our homework."

Col. Geo. Fenton dir. Joint NonLethal Weapons Directorate, DefDept
Marine Corps Times, March 5, 2001 ¹

The Marine report states that, "the need for a nonlethal means for stopping an aggressor is a direct response to today's world of unknown enemies...where small numbers of troops find themselves facing off against large crowds of civilians." And while "weapons that fire lasers, electricity and sound waves have been in development for years", "not since the advent of gun-powder and the splitting of the atom have armies seen such a leap in technology." The range of the electromagnetic weapon "remains classified" but project officials "expect it will exceed 750 meters" (2250') allowing the Marines to "engage a crowd from afar, directing two-second bursts of energy without risk of being overcome by the mob." The "mob", the target of the directed beam, cooking in 130 degree heat, "would immediately experience intense pain, causing confusion and driving the crowd to disperse." And while "the intention is not to burn the skin", "those hit by the beam begin to feel intense heat" during "potential applications" which include "urban operations." And finally, while "the Defense Department has spent nearly $40 million over ten years to develop the technology...budget predictions from last year...show another $26 million could be needed for development over the next 5 years." The primary contractor for the current VMADS $16 million project is Raytheon Missile Systems.
While the Marines expect to be microwaving people, it was the Air Force that developed the "technology" in the first place. On February 22, 2001 the United States Air Force Research Laboratory, located at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, issued it's own news release announcing that "a breakthrough technology designed to project an energy beam that drives away adversaries without injuring them, is now undergoing advanced testing." (2) According to the Air Force, the projected energy "beam" travels "at the speed of light" and penetrates "1/64 of a inch into the skin", rapidly heating up the skin's surface, causing the "subject", within seconds, to "feel pain that stops when the transmitter is shut off or when the subject moves out of the beam." According to the news release, the weapon was developed by two Air Force Research Laboratory teams: one from it's Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland, the other from it's Human Effectiveness Directorate, located at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas. The learned team leaders, Lt. Col.Chuck Beason and Dr. Kirk Hackett noted, in reference to the new EM weapon, that "the effect exploits a natural defense mechanism, pain, that has evolved to protect the human body from damage."

The Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate, in addition to developing "high powered electromagnetic weapons and countermeasures" also develops "moderate and high power laser devices". (3) In fact, recently (2/212/01), the public affairs office of the Airborne Laser System Program Office, located at Kirtland, AFB, announced that "Lockheed Martin Space Systems will open an $8 million, 16,000 square-foot optical test center...designed to analyze the beam guidance system for the U.S. Air Force's Airborne Laser, the world's first combat aircraft armed with a directed energy weapon." (4) Meanwhile, the Space Vehicles Directorate - Air Force Research Laboratory, "develops technologies to support evolving warfighter requirements to control and exploit space." (5) This past November, Kirtland AFB was the sight of the 3rd Annual Directed Energy Symposium entitled, Directed Energy for the 21st Century, presented by the Directed Energy Professional Association, in cooperation with the Office of the Secretary of Defense. (6)
The VMADS system is currently being tested in field conditions by the Air Force at Kirtland, AFB. At the New Mexico site, "they are using a transmitter that sends a narrow beam of energy to a test subject hundreds of yards away." It is reassuring to note that "all testing is being conducted with strict observance of the procedures, laws and regulations governing animal and human experimentation". In addition, "the tests have been reviewed and approved by the Air Force Surgeon General's Office and are conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate." Finally, "although testing is expected to continue in this summer (2001), officials have begun examining the technology for use on a vehicle-mounted version. Future versions might also be used onboard planes and ships." (7)

Col. George Fenton, director of the US Marine operated NLW program firmly believes in the safety of this "revolutionary force protection technology." He recently stated that "humans have been exposed more than 6,000 times in testing, all inside the laboratory (and that) no long term effects have been detected." Given that track record, Fenton believes that "the technology could move into the acquisition phase of making a prototype as soon as this summer (2001), when the project would be taken over by the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., near Boston." (8)
Finally, on-cue the New York Times joined in on the "unveiling", heralding "what some military officials hope will become the rubber bullet of the 21st century: a weapon that uses electromagnetic waves to disperse crowds without killing, maiming or, military officials say, even injuring anyone slightly." (9) Not even slightly! After all, notes the Times, they are only "intended to influence motivational behavior." According to free lance writer/researcher David Guyatt, "less than lethal anti-personnel weapons, especially some classes of EM weapons that are viewed as having a capability to remotely modify behavior or attack higher functions, are seen in some influential quarters as being the ideal remedy for future domestic disturbances...", wherein, the forces of repression will target the opposition, "armed with innovative technological weapons that do not necessarily kill but which render disenfranchised segments of society physically inactive, emotionally stupefied and incapable of meaningful thought..." (10)

Sound farfetched? Back in 1986, Marine Corps Captain Paul E. Tyler, author of an influential study entitled, "The Electromagnetic Spectrum in Low-Intensity Conflict" (11) was already making the point that "the potential applications of artificial electromagnetic fields are wide ranging and can be used in many military or quasi - military situations" including "crowd control". At that time he pointed out that although scientists hadn't identified electromagnetism for what it really was until the eighteenth century, "the results of many studies that have been published in the last few years indicate that specific biological effects can be achieved by controlling the various parameters of the electromagnetic (EM) field." And further, "many of the clinical effects of electromagnetic radiation (have) been reported in the literature to induce or enhance the following effects (including) … electroanesthesia...behavior modification in animals, altered electroencephalograms in animals and humans, altered brain morphology in animals, altered firing of neuronal cells." According to Capt.Tyler, "a 1982 Air Force review of biotechnology had this to say: Currently available data allow the projection that specially generated radio frequency radiation (RFR) fields may pose powerful and revolutionary antipersonnel military threats. Electroshock therapy indicates the ability of induced electric current to completely interrupt mental functioning for short periods of time, to obtain cognition for longer periods and to restructure emotional response over prolonged intervals." Further, "experience with electroshock therapy, RFR experiments and the increasing understanding of the brain as an electrically mediated organ suggested the serious probability that impressed electromagnetic fields can be disruptive to purposeful behavior and may be capable of directing and or interrogating such behavior", while "the passage of approximately 100 milliamperes through the myocardium can lead to cardiac standstill and death, again pointing to a speed-of-light weapons effect."

1. Marine Corps Times, "The People Zapper: This new secret weapon doesn't kill, but it sure does burn", C. Mark Brinkley, March 5, 2001, pg.10.
2. United States Air Force, Air Force Research Laboratory, News Release, Office of Public Affairs, "New Technology Drives Away Adversaries", February 22, 2001. www.de.afrl.af.mil/pa/releases/2001/01-09.html
3. Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, Directorate descriptions, www.afrl.af.mil/techconn/directorate_descriptions.htm
4. United States Air Force, Airborne Laser System Program Office, Office of Public Affairs, "Airborne Laser Optical Facility Opens", February 21, 2001. www.de.afrl.af.mil/pa/releases/2001/01-06.html
5. Air Force Research Laboratory, Directorate descriptions (above)
6. Directed Energy for the 21st Century, 3rd Annual Directed Energy Symposium, Preliminary Program and Registration, Kirtland Air Force Base, White Sands Missile Range, 30 October - 3 November 2000.
7. Air Force Research Laboratory, "New technology Drives Away Adversaries" 2/22/01 (above) 8. Marine Corps Times, 3/5/01 (above)
9. New York Times, "Pentagon Unveils Plans for a New Crowd-Dispersal Weapon", James Dao, 3.2.01
10. David G. Guyatt, "Some Aspects of Antipersonnel Electromagnetic Weapons", February 1996 www.adacomp.net/~mcherney/aspects.html
11. Capt. Paul E. Tyler, MC, USN, "The Electromagnetic Spectrum in Low-Intensity Conflict", in, LtCol. David J. Dean, USAF, Editor, Low-Intensity Conflict and Modern Technology, Air University Press, Alabama, June 1986. www.adacomp.net/~mcherney/mn142a.htm

Sounds like specular RF reflector 'd send the beams off in all directions, & with practice maybe even right back at those firing them. Wonder what a large, parabolic dish would do.

Break Out The Mirrors by RF Causes Cancer 3.16.01

mil ~ sec

Rather than relying heavily on the FTO process, the U.S. Government should take a broader approach to cutting off the flow of financial support for terrorism from within the United States. Anyone providing funds to terrorist organizations or activities should be investigated with the full vigor of the law and, where possible, prosecuted under relevant statutes, including those covering money laundering, conspiracy, tax or fraud violations. In such cases, assets may also be made subject to civil and criminal forfeiture.
In addition, the Treasury Dept. could use its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) more effectively. OFAC administers & enforces economic sanctions. For example, any U.S. financial institution holding funds belonging to a terrorist organization or one of its agents must report those assets to OFAC. Under OFAC's regulations, the transfer of such assets can be blocked. OFAC's capabilities and expertise are underutilized in part because of resource constraints. Other govt agencies such as IRS & Customs also possess information & authority that could be used to thwart terrorist fundraising. For instance, the IRS has information on NGOs that may be collecting donations to support terrorism, and Customs has data on large currency transactions. But there is no single entity that tracks and analyzes all the data available to the various agencies on terrorist fundraising in the U.S.

In addition to domestic efforts, disrupting fundraising for terrorist groups requires intl cooperation. A new UN convention, the Intl Convention for Suppression of Financing of Terrorism, provides a framework for improved cooperation. Each signing party is to enact domestic legislation to criminalize fundraising for terrorism and provide for seizure & forfeiture of funds intended to support terrorism. The parties are to cooperate in the criminal investigation and prosecution of terrorism fundraising, and in extraditing suspects.

Allies Deliberately Poisoned Iraq Public Water Supply In Gulf War
Felicity Arbuthnot Sunday Herald (Scotland) 9/17/00

U.S. Truth Commission: US Has Its Own Record of Atrocities
12/23/00   Jas. Ron & Chas. T. Call   Boston Globe   Roni Bowers

Direct US involvement in war crimes continued even after the Vietnam conflict. CIA operatives mined Nicaragua's main harbor in the 1980s, and until the 1990s, US Army courses for Latin American soldiers included torture. In the early 1990s, CIA agents created a right-wing group in Haiti that killed hundreds of civilians. Although most Americans barely recall those events, others elsewhere have not forgotten. For them, the contemporary US fascination with human rights seems empty and cynical. If the United States does not investigate its past misdeeds, these suspicions will ring true. In addition to directly participating in abuses, the United States also covertly aided brutal authoritarians abroad. Just as Milosevic pulled the strings during Bosnia's ethnic cleansing, the United States secretly sponsored cruel allies to advance political goals.
Consider Chile, where CIA operatives helped overrow an elected leftist leader in the early 1970s, creating the long nightmare of Pinochet's rule. The Chilean judiciary is now investigating Pinochet's crimes, but the CIA is only reluctantly opening its files. Or recall Iran, where US operatives in the 1950s helped depose an elected government that was threatening Western oil profits. They then installed the Shah, a dictator who relied on torture to maintain control. The same is true for Guatemala, where UN-backed investigators found that government counterinsurgency forces killed 90 percent of an estimated 200,000 civil war victims.

President Clinton recently called the substantial, clandestine US role in that war wrong, but did nothing to investigate those responsible. The US government offered widely accepted reasons for its behavior during the Cold War years. It was fighting global communism, which to many seemed a noble and worthwhile goal. Yet wouldn't men like Milosevic supply similarly reasonable explanations? Governments are skilled at justifying abusive policies, citing overwhelming threats to national security. Milosevic defended the Serbian nation, Pinochet battled subversives, and South African whites were fighting communism. Although the rhetoric of justification shifts with time, the realities of abuse remain constant. When states use indiscriminate force to get their way, innocents usually suffer.
In the post-Cold War environment there is increasing cause for optimism. Many countries, including Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Ethiopia, Chad, El Salvador, Chile, Haiti, and Guatemala, have tried to expose the truth about their past, often at great political cost. Yet the United States still refuses to practice what it preaches. As supreme Cold War victor, its representatives lecture others about human rights without stopping to consider their own past crimes. For both moral and political reasons, the United States should create a commission to investigate its own involvement in Cold War misdeeds. The methods of an official US ''truth commission'' should be professional and nonpartisan in order to avoid narrow political agendas. Despite these precautions, a US inquiry would be painful and divisive. Presidential fortunes might suffer, and congressional careers could be hurt. Yet recall that these are only some of the powerful risks run every day by politicians promoting truth-telling elsewhere, from South Africa to Argentina. How long can the United States promote accountability for others if it itself is unwilling to do the same?

James Ron is assistant professor of sociology and political science at Johns Hopkins University. Charles T. Call is assistant professor for research at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.
(c) Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company

Rogue Washington
1/1/01   Christopher Hitchens Minority Report THE NATION

The U.S.is "running out of demons. I'm down to Fidel Castro & Kim Il Sung"

Colin Powell, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chair & millenial Secretary of State
Robt. Borosage   "Inventing the Threat: The Clinton Defense Program" World Policy Journal Winter 1993-94

How to convey the absurdity of this? Take the example of the Taepodong missile test, that "shot heard round the world," when the N.Koreans fired a rocket into the air and watched it splash down on the other side of Japan. Red alerts all around, huge talk about a new "rogue state" and a threat from sinister Asian Stalinism. Well, the most salient fact about that missile test was that, like the more grandiose Pacific tests of the Star Wars interceptors, it was a failure. The objective of the Taepodong rocket was to get a N.Korean satellite into orbit; no signal from any such satellite has ever been picked up.

This puts the N.Korean regime in an embarrassing position, because it proudly announced that the launch was a success. However, the hysterical Western reaction to the test has helped transform impotence into potency-an uncovenanted propaganda victory for Kim Jong Il and his regime. At the "Mass Games" in the May Day stadium in Pyongyang, which I attended a few days before Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived to watch the replay, the centerpiece "special effect" was a giant montage of the Taepodong missile thrusting its way skyward, as if to bring the might of the Dear Leader to the attention of a waiting world.
They say that visitors to N.Korea see only what the regime wants them to see. This is not true. In a country with almost no vehicles on its roads, one of the commonest sights is a group of soldiers from the Korean People's Army, peering mournfully into the innards of a broken-down transport. I hardly think that these scenes were provided just to lull me into a sense of false security, either, any more than were the bald tires and clapped-out accouterments of the top-of-the-line tourist bus on which I traveled. The power cuts and blackouts in the capital, the people taking care of their laundry and personal hygiene needs in an open drain in the city of Kaesong, the bullocks doing much of the work on main highways, the abandoned projects and buildings, the peasants scavenging food by the grain in the fields-none of these are Potemkin showpieces.

It is even worse in the northern provinces, where visitors don't get taken at all. I've seen film secretly shot from across the Chinese border, where towns and factories are completely idle because the plants and machinery were broken up for barter during the famine. Good reports describe the once-vital coal mines as being often flooded and partially abandoned. (The pumps don't work because the vandals took the handles.) It's always worth remembering that N.Korea embarked on the building of a nuclear power station in the first place because it wanted to end dependence on coal.
Everything you have read about the party state in N. Korea is true or understated; from a purely human point of view it is the most literally oppressive and regimented society I have ever seen. But total control has diminishing returns; you cannot orchestrate people more than 100 percent, and you cannot manage them all the time. The same goes for ideology. In its proclamations about US imperialism the regime outdoes the rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, but in its actual negotiations it conducts a tough but entirely pragmatic diplomacy. If this were not so, there might well have been a nuclear exchange on the Korean peninsula in the summer of 1994. When the worst has been said about the Clinton Administration's abysmal foreign and military policy (much of it by me), it must be admitted that the President did overrule a crazed "pre-emptive-war party" in Washington and-with typical secrecy, hesitation and reluctance-replayed in miniature Truman's veto of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. (For an account of this almost unknown moment of near-calamity, see Don Oberdorfer's invaluable book The Two Koreas.)

In closed sessions, the N.Koreans have agreed to a deal whereby they close down their graphite reactors and put the rods into "cooling ponds," allowing international inspection of the latter to determine whether there is any stray reprocessable plutonium. In return the U.S. will help furnish light-water reactors (which are much less proliferation- friendly) in order to help overcome the country's energy crisis. I have actually met some of the on- the-ground invigilators of the International Atomic Energy Agency, tough and cynical guys who say that the agreement is being properly observed. But this leaves us with a mystery, or at any rate a conundrum. In secret, the military and intelligence authorities of the U.S. have concluded an agreement with Pyongyang that does them some credit and that has averted what could have been an annihilating confrontation. In public, the political leadership speaks as if an impoverished and exhausted N.Korea is so menacing and intractable that it requires the investment of untold billions in a destabilizing and fraudulent boondoggle. If this is not rogue behavior, then I should very much like to know what is.

Israel       MidEast UN peacekeeping UN resolution 3379 shades of the Stern gang & 1948 Israel to stick to killings policy 7.3.01   AP JERUSALEM   Ariel Sharon & his closest advisers brushed aside U.S. criticism and said Tuesday that Israel would stick to its policy of tracking down and killing suspected Palestinian militants. Israel television reported that a forum of top Israeli leaders authorized the military to step up the campaign of targeted killings. Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said the number of killings depends on Palestinian efforts to stop attacks. "The less they do, the more we have to do,'' he said. A senior Palestinian official, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, called the Israeli policy "the biggest violation'' yet of the faltering Mideast cease-fire. Israel insists it will carry out pre-emptive strikes in a bid to prevent Palestinian attacks that have persisted despite the U.S.-brokered truce. Israel's deputy defense minister, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, who was part of the forum of Israeli leaders that met Tuesday, defended the policy. "When we know of a terrorist who is a ticking bomb, meaning he is on his way, carrying explosives, to carry out an attack in Israel, it is incumbent on us to prevent it and that is what we do,'' she said.   [ Who when defines known terrorist on his way carrying explosives? Presumably the military, hopefully distinguished from the secret police. ] Rabin-Pelossof, daughter of assassinated Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, was asked about media reports that Prime Minister Sharon was weighing a broad assault against the Palestinian Authority if the cease-fire collapsed entirely. "We have to consider all the existing options,'' she told Israel radio. Interviewed by German television, Sharon said he is committed to the cease-fire and blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the violence. "The Palestinian Authority is behind terror and has done nothing to stop it,'' he said. The continuing unrest has prevented the launch of a seven-day test-period the sides agreed to during Sec.State Colin Powell's visit last week. Israel says that for the count to begin there must be no violence whatsoever. The test-period would trigger a series of other stages leading to resumed peace talks. Israel began its targeted attacks against Palestinian militants last November, and has killed 24 people in 19 attacks, according to the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights. The attacks have included helicopter strikes, exploding telephones and sniper shootings. In the most recent raid, an Israeli helicopter fired missiles Sunday night, obliterating a car carrying 3 militants in the West Bank which was, according to Israel, filled with explosives. A total of 6 Palestinians and 2 Israelis were killed Sunday & Monday in the worst surge of violence since the cease-fire was declared June 13. No major violence was reported Tuesday as of the evening, but both sides said the truce remained unstable. "The Israelis are the ones who violate it,'' Arafat said. "We are passing through a very dangerous period.'' Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the truce was in "a profound crisis and everything has to be done to save it.'' A meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs Monday night was acrimonious and produced no breakthroughs, both sides said. Peres, the most prominent dove in Sharon's govt, has come under criticism from some fellow Cabinet members for his willingness to meet with Palestinian leaders despite the violence. But he said he would press ahead. "If I am not allowed to fulfill the foreign policy in which I believe, there is no point in my being foreign minister,'' he said. He called for removal of settler outposts in the West Bank, which were set up without permission. "It is a first-class political mistake'' to refuse to remove the outposts, Peres said. "It focuses attention on an issue on which the world is united against us.'' U.S. State Dept said Monday the Palestinians were not doing enough to prevent violence, but spokesman Richard Boucher also stressed that the United States was "opposed to Israel's policy of targeted killings.'' Israeli Science Minister Matan Vilnai scoffed at the U.S. criticism. "I'm not sure they (American officials) really understand the rules of the game,'' Vilnai told Israel Radio. "I would like to see how the Americans would react if a car packed with explosives blew up in the middle of Manhattan.'' On Monday, 2 car bombs exploded in central Israel, but no one was hurt. A radical Palestinian group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said it carried out the attack to avenge the killing of Islamic Jihad activists Sunday. Assassinations will continue, Israel says 8.1.01 M.Kalman & B.Nichols USA TODAY JERUSALEM   Israel said Wednesday that it will continue targeting extremists despite international criticism of its "pre-emptive strikes" against Palestinian terrorism suspects. The decision came a day after an Israeli army helicopter fired missiles on the offices of the militant group Hamas in the West Bank city of Nablus. Eight people were killed in the attack, including two children. As many as 20,000 people attended the victims' funeral. Among those killed Tuesday was Jamal Mansour, a senior Hamas leader who had been arrested several times by the Israelis and Palestinian Authority. Two Palestinian boys who were in a nearby shop also died. Israel said the Hamas officials targeted in Tuesday's attack planned and executed a string of suicide bombings and were finalizing plans for an attack in Jerusalem. "This really was a preventive action," said Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, a key member of the peace process that has come to a standstill amid a cycle of killing and retaliation. Peres said Israel was under attack and had no choice but to respond with force. "We simply have no other option," he said. This week has been the bloodiest in the region since a suicide bombing killed 21 Israelis on June 1 in Tel Aviv. Since the latest cycle of fighting erupted Sept. 28, 551 Palestinians & 133 Israelis have been killed. The assassinations of Palestinians, so far about 50 have been killed, have generated international outrage. In an interview Wednesday with CNN, Sec.State Powell reiterated the U.S. condemnation of the attacks. "We felt that this was a targeted killing of the kind that we have spoken out and condemned in the past, and we did so yesterday, both at the White House and in the State Dept," Powell said. "This kind of response is too aggressive, and it just serves to increase the level of tension and violence in the region." During a conversation Sharon reportedly had with Powell on Wednesday, the Israeli leader defended the latest missile strike. According to media reports, Sharon told Powell that Israel has a right to defend itself. Also condemning the Israeli attack were China, Egypt and Mary Robinson, UNations' high commissioner for human rights. U.S. officials said no new peace initiatives are planned. They said the administration is committed to a cease-fire that CIA Dir. Geo. Tenet mediated June 13. Peres said the White House's harsh response to Tuesday's strike surprised him. "I was slightly amazed by it because the Americans knew that we didn't do it with joy, with enthusiasm or by choice," he said. Some in the region said the targeted attacks violate international law. "The govt itself does not refer to the current conflict as war," said Gabi Lasky, a lawyer & Peace Now activist. "Regardless of definition, there are rules of war stating what is allowed and what is not." Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo called on Israel to agree to international observers. Israel has rejected posting observers in the Palestinian territories. Israel says it would be unfairly blamed for retaliatory and preventive attacks. In Nablus, Palestinians chanting "Death to Israel" marched in a funeral procession for the eight dead. Palestinian flags were used as shrouds for Bilal & Ashraf Khalil, ages 8 & 10, the brothers who were killed Tuesday. The six men were buried in green religious banners. Some of the mourners fired shots in the air amid cries for a jihad, or holy war, against Israel. MK seeks court ban on targeting terrorists 8.3.01   Moshe Reinfeld Ha'aretz (Israel) MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) yesterday petitioned the High Court of Justice with a demand that it prohibit PM Ariel Sharon & Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer from approving "executions without trial" of Palestinians from the territories. Barakeh also asked the court to issue an injunction to suspend the "assassination policy" until it rules on the petition. The High Court will discuss the petition in two months, as well as a similar one submitted by the widow of Dr. Thabet Thabet, who headed Fatah in Tul Karm until he was killed by Israeli forces late last year. Barakeh argued that the decisions on "summary executions" are taken behind closed doors, on the basis of unreliable intelligence information and without judicial review. He said the continuation of the assassinations policy escalates the armed confrontation, in which a small number of Palestinians are involved, into unnecessary bloodshed that includes innocent victims on both sides. An example of this, Barakeh claimed, is the fact that after Thabet's death a group of Palestinians shot dead 2 Israeli civilians in revenge. 'Human shields' protect Beit Jala residents 8.3.01   Amos Harel Ha'aretz (Israel) Thirty human rights activists from Israel, Europe and America have moved in with Palestinian families in Beit Jala to act as "human shields" against heavy IDF firing into the village across the wadi from Gilo. The IDF says it is trying to find out exactly where the activists are staying for fear that wounding or killing any of them would create an international incident. The group, calling itself "the International Solidarity Movement," says its mission is to prevent harm to innocent Palestinians in the village when the IDF retaliates with artillery & missiles for rifle fire from Palestinian snipers. Several Palestinians and a German doctor have been killed and dozens have been wounded by IDF fire at Beit Jala in response to sniper fire at Gilo. At least two of the 30 are Israeli women and the group says more activists are due to arrive soon. Neta Golan, who has been living in the village for the past few weeks, told Ha'aretz yesterday the activists are staying with Palestinian families in homes that have already been shelled. "I'm living with a family in which a five-year-old boy lost a hand from Israeli fire a few weeks ago. On Wednesday night, shells hit the building." Another activist left a house with the family moments before a missile struck it. Golan says the activists "are not deluded into believing" that they can prevent shooting, "but we hope to draw international attention. It's clear it would be more upsetting to the IDF to hit one of us than some innocent Palestinians." Golan says she has spotted Palestinians firing from Beit Jala toward Gilo. The IDF says it has spotted 3 women from the group in a house snipers have used as a base in the past. Golan concedes the women were in the house, but not while there was any firing from it. "We aren't here to provide cover for Palestinian snipers," she says, "but for the civilians who are hit by Israeli fire." She says most Palestinian shooting is ineffectual and called the IDF responses "exaggerated." She said nobody from the IDF has contacted her to find out where she or the group is staying. IDF sources say the army is aware of the existence of the group in Beit Jala and is trying to avoid hitting any of them. They say that attempts to reach an arrangement with Palestinian officers to prevent fire from Beit Jala failed this week following the helicopter attack on the Hamas offices in Nablus. The sources say the Palestinian officers are "afraid" to confront the gunmen in Beit Jala.

Powell says U.S. opposes targeted Israeli killings 7.5.01   Reuters WASHINGTON   Sec.State Powell on Thursday underlined U.S. opposition to targeted strikes against Palestinian militants, one day after the Israeli security cabinet decided to resume the tactic. "We continue to express our distress and opposition to these kinds of targeted killings and we will continue to do so," Powell said in an interview with Reuters. However, he said that since the Israeli decision came out in media reports, there had been no such action by Israel. "But our well-known opposition to this kind of action is intact," he added. Powell said he still believed the Israelis, led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and Palestinians could not get started on a plan for peace sketched out by a committee led by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell until violence levels fell. But the two sides disagree about what constitutes an appropriate level from which to start moving, he noted. "Mr Sharon says it has to go down to what he calls absolute quiet. The Palestinians believe that it's at a level now that we should move forward on the Mitchell plan," Powell said. Neither the United States nor any other institution or country was "in a position to dictate to the parties when it begins. It is a judgement that the two of them have to make and Mr. Sharon has set for himself a very high standard," he said. Powell's remarks contrasted starkly with a Palestinian emphasis on moving swiftly beyond a cease-fire and cooling-off period prescribed by Mitchell to confidence-building measures. "At the moment I don't think any reasonable person would look at the situation ... and say that the level of violence has gone down to a point where someone would say we should all agree that it has reached a level where we should move forward," he said. Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian and critically wounded another in the West Bank on Thursday, further eroding a shaky three-week-old cease-fire. Powell said there was no immediate plan for a high-level visit like his trip to the Middle East last month or by CIA Director George Tenet, who mediated the June 13 truce. But he said Washington remained committed to the peace process, stressing his belief that the Mitchell plan, which he has described as "the only game in town", was the way forward. U.S. officials say there is "no plan B" if Mitchell's fails. "We remain deeply involved and engaged. It's a source of continuing discussion here. It's a source of continuing discussion between me and my ambassadors in the region and our consul general in Jerusalem. "I will continue to consult with the parties in the region, but there is no scheduled plan right now for another high-level visit," Powell said. pleas for calm He made clear his strategy for now was to plead for calm. "I just keep imploring both sides to do everything they can to restrain their passions, to keep from inciting the other side with statements and rhetoric and to do everything within their power to bring under control those who might be responsible, and are responsible, for violence and terrorism." This is a far cry from July last year when the Clinton administration hosted a marathon summit at Camp David that ended inconclusively but broke new ground in tackling some of the toughest issues, including the fate of Jerusalem. The U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said there was "no alternative in mind" if the Mitchell plan failed. "We've given it our best shot ... Hopefully the period of relative calm developing over the last few days is going to stay," he said. "The plan isn't very complex because the problem is so incredibly simple. It's that the two sides don't trust each other and they can't get a hold of the violence." The Mitchell plan envisages confidence-building steps by the two sides after seven consecutive days of calm, and a return to talks shattered when violence erupted in September. "We're hopeful but it's hard to be optimistic given how many times we've seen a period of calm followed by renewed violence," the U.S. official said. U.S. urges Syria to exercise restraint after raid 7.7.01   Reuters DAMASCUS   U.S. Middle East envoy William Burns urged Syria on Saturday to exercise maximum restraint after an Israeli strike on a Syrian military post in Lebanon in which three soldiers were wounded. Burns told reporters he also told Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara that Syrian-Israeli peace talks, broken off over 18 months ago, could revive if the confrontation halted in Lebanon between Israel, Syria and Syria's Hizbollah guerrilla allies. The U.S. envoy, who held similar talks with Lebanese leaders in Beirut on Friday, said attacks across the United Nations "blue line" on the Lebanese-Israeli border would block peace efforts. "I emphasized the critical importance for all parties at minimizing violence, maximizing restraint, and avoiding the escalation which can arise from violations of the blue line," Burns said. "Violence of that sort will make it much harder to revive the comprehensive process that I think we all seek," he said. The U.N. envoy's talks in Damascus follow last Sunday's Israeli air strike on a Syrian radar post deep inside Lebanon in retaliation for a Hizbollah missile attack on Israeli troops occupying the disputed Shebaa Farms area near the border. Two Syrian troops & a Lebanese soldier were wounded in the raid on the Syrian post in the Bekaa valley, where Syria maintains some 20,000 troops. The raid, which drew a Hizbollah counter-strike on Israeli troops in Shebaa farms, was the second such attack since April. Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, led Lebanese resistance which forced Israel to withdraw its troops out of south Lebanon last year after a 22-year-old occupation. The United Nations recognized Israel's pullout as complete and demarcated its extent with the so-called blue line, at the edge of which lies Shebaa Farms. The U.N. regards Hizbollah attacks on Shebaa and Israeli counter-strikes as violations of the blue line. It does not recognize Lebanese claims that Shebaa is Lebanese territory, saying it is Syrian land occupied by Israel. Syria has held sporadic peace talks with Israel since 1991 but the negotiations broke off in January last year without reaching agreement on the fate of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview released on Saturday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was planning a war in the region. "Today he is planning an even more extensive war because he cannot cope with a crisis in Israel," Assad told the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. U.S. asks Israel to end policy of assassinations 8.3.01   N.Guttman & A.Benn Ha'aretz (Israel) The U.S. yesterday asked Israel to stop conducting operations such as the helicopter attack on the Hamas offices in Nablus earlier this week because such actions damage Washington's relations with other countries in the Middle East. In contacts between Israeli and American representatives after the Tuesday attack, U.S. officials asked Israeli counterparts to "understand Washington's interests" in the region and to keep them in mind. But Washington yesterday refrained from a direct public condemnation of the government decision to continue the policy of assassinations against known terrorists while stating its reservations about the policy. A U.S. State Dept spokesman said that the U.S. "has always been against a policy of assassinations," while White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that the U.S. calls on all sides to show restraint "and that definition includes" opposition to the assassination policy. The U.S. also did not directly and publicly condemn the use of U.S.-made Apache helicopters for the missile attack on the Hamas offices. The security cabinet yesterday decided to continue with the current policy of "downing terrorists." A senior diplomatic source said that "the current policy is much more effective against terror and also politically. This is not the time to bomb empty buildings or move into Area A. And nobody suggested escalation. The decision remains to continue and to monitor the situation, and to adapt policy if necessary." "We are committed to the Mitchell report and the Tenet plan, to regional stability and the prevention of escalation. And we are acting with the necessary responsibility." PM Ariel Sharon, who received a phone call from U.S. Sec.State Powell last night, convened the security cabinet for a 5 hour discussion of the govt's strategy versus the Palestinians. Ministers heard briefings from all the relevant security services, and there was a consensus between the head of the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has the situation under his control, influences and encourages terror attacks. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that Arafat should not be attacked. According to participants in the meeting, nobody in the meeting suggested a major military operation or any other form of toppling the PA. Sharon, Peres, Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and his deputy Dalia Rabin-Pelessof, and Finance Minister Silvan Shalom took part in the meeting. The Sharon-Powell conversation was initiated by Powell who asked about the situation. Sharon said the Nablus attack was against people who had organized terror attacks in the past and planned more in the future. He told Powell, "it's our right and duty to defend ourselves, the way the U.S. defends its citizens. The PA doesn't act to prevent the murders and hasn't stopped the fighting for a single day." He said that 45% of Israeli casualties since the beginning of the Intifada have been by Palestinian Authority forces, "and Arafat has done nothing to stop the terror and Israel won't negotiate under fire." Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher called Peres to express concern about the situation and to condemn the "assassinations" policy. Peres denied that Israel was involved in the deaths of the six Fatah men in Jenin earlier this week, before the Nablus attack. He justified the Nablus attack, saying that the names of the Hamas activists had been given to the PA but it did nothing to stop their activities. Later yesterday, Peres said the time had come to seek a cease-fire by talking with the Palestinians "across the board, and not just about military affairs." The Peres-Maher conversation created a brief flurry of tension between Peres' office and Sharon's, after Peres issued a statement saying that Israel agreed to an American presence in Rafah, as requested by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. An hour later, Sharon's office issued a statement saying that Israel had not agreed to anything regarding observers or monitors." And an hour after that, Peres' office said that Arafat had raised the idea of Rafah monitors in his last meeting with Peres in Cairo. Peres promised to look into it and the next day told Egypt that Israel was not opposed. But nothing had happened since. Peres also spoke with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer yesterday, who expressed concern about the deteriorating situation. Washington's worried U.S. anxiety about the impact of the hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians on U.S. relations with the Arab world is beginning to have an impact on Washington's attitude toward the crisis. Saudia Arabia has been applying pressure on the administration to restrain Israel and return the parties to the negotiating table. Egypt and Jordan have also been calling for Washington to intervene to calm the situation. President George Bush heard that directly from King Abdullah in a phone call on Tuesday. State Dept Spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday that Israel heard U.S. reservations about the helicopter attack on the Nablus Hamas offices from both Undersecretary of State Richard Armitage, who met with Cabinet Secretary Gideon Sa'ar, and in a meeting between U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer and Israeli officials in Israel. Hours after the Israeli attack on Tuesday, Cong. John Dingell held a hearing on U.S. relations with the Arab world, where various spokesmen for

the American-Arab community called for a more balanced U.S. policy toward the conflict. At the hearing, Boucher said that U.S. policy is based on a regional approach and consideration of U.S. bilateral relations with countries in the region. He confirmed that there have been many approaches to Washington by govts in the region on the issue, but "all agree that the way to resolve the crisis is through the Mitchell plan."

Canceled security session
The scheduled Israeli-Palestinian security committee session, which was to be held last night in Tel Aviv and chaired by a representative of the CIA, was canceled last night by the Palestinians. An Israeli source said that the Palestinians told the Americans yesterday morning that they won't make it to the meeting as a protest against the situation in the territories and "Israel's actions against the Palestinian leadership and Palestinian people." Meanwhile, Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, back from a trip to Washington, said that the U.S. expressed interest in a joint project to study ways to identify explosives, and promised to send Israel 2 new "robots" used for neutralizing bombs by remote controls after 5 Israeli robots have been destroyed by bombs since the start of the Intifada.

Cheney sees 'some justification' in Israeli attacks
8.3.01   Reuters

State Dept spokesman Richard Boucher repeated on Thursday the long-standing U.S. position that it opposes the Israeli govt's policy of killing prominent Palestinians. "We're against this practice of targeted killings," he told his daily briefing. On the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday, Sec.State C.Powell criticized an attack that killed 8 people in or near a Hamas office in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday.
Cheney told Fox News it would be better if the Israelis could work with the Palestinian Authority of President Yasser Arafat to prevent bombings and imprison people planning them. "In some cases they (the Israelis) have in fact gone to the Palestinian authorities with names & locations, and asked that the Palestinians take action against the terrorists in Palestinian territory. And when the Palestinians have failed to do that, then the Israelis have gone forward and launched a strike," he added.

The State Dept & the White House denied this week a Washington Post report that they were at odds over how to deal with Israeli-Palestinian violence. Powell said they had "a consistent view" of Israeli targeted attacks. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "The administration … at all levels, deplores the violence there and that includes the targeted attacks." A State Dept official said he could not comment immediately on Cheney's remarks.

nuclear

Bush wants nuclear test ban treaty to die
7.7.01   Reuters

In January, just before Bush took office, Gen. John Shalikashvili, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented a report to Clinton urging U.S. to ratify the treaty. More than 150 countries have signed the CTBT, but it can come into force only when 44 potentially nuclear-capable countries ratify it. Shalikashvili, who spent 10 months conducting a review of the contents of the treaty by interviewing nuclear experts, weapons designers and senators, concluded that ratifying the CTBT would increase national security, and the security benefits of the treaty would outweigh disadvantages. He had said the Senate's vote not to ratify the treaty raised concern at home and abroad that the United States might be walking away from its traditional leadership of international nonproliferation efforts.

local

Stockton finds to stop gangs, disarm them
Using tough multi-agency approach, city taken 1,200 guns off the street & lowered killings from about 20 to 4 per year.
9.24.01   RONE TEMPEST L.A.Times

The approach features intensive enforcement by specialized police units that work with county probation officers to identify gangs most prone to violence. Community liaisons called Peacekeepers, often recruited from gang ranks, are sent into the toughest neighborhoods offering help: job training, high school diploma studies--and warning of draconian consequences to those who do not take it.
Cease-Fire, launched on a limited basis last year in East Los Angeles and in San Francisco, does not employ the gang sweeps that became notorious in the Rampart scandal. "The problem with those approaches," said David Kennedy, one of the creators of the Cease-Fire concept at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, "is that much of this kind of incessant policing actually strengthens gang identity and alienates police from the community. Cease-Fire is not directed at gangs as such. It is an anti-violence strategy." Funded by a $400,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice and administered by Rand Corp., the Los Angeles experiment with Operation Cease-Fire is limited to the Boyle Heights area.

But George Tita, a UC Irvine criminologist who is a consultant to Rand on the project, said the program has been slowed by the Rampart controversy, the police manpower drain caused by last year's Democratic National Convention and a change of leadership in Los Angeles. "It has been difficult to maintain continuity," said Tita, "but there is a core of individuals within the Probation Department, the prosecutors' office and the Los Angeles Police Department who are committed to the project." The San Francisco program is still in the beginning stages.

Operation Cease-Fire does not try to solve all of society's ills, proponents say. Rather, it aims its efforts specifically against guns and violent crime. If a gang engages in drug dealing or petty crime but does not commit violence, it is likely to be left alone by Cease-Fire personnel. But a violent gang is likely to be pursued relentlessly for everything from drugs to expired bicycle licenses. Stockton Police Lt. Mike Becker, who heads the city's gang intelligence unit, often encourages landlords to evict tenants in homes where gang shootings have occurred. City building codes are strictly enforced in known gang hangouts, even family homes.
"What we do is tell the gangs that if they do violence," said Stewart Wakeling, juvenile justice coordinator for San Joaquin County, "then we will make it very hard for them to do all the other things they really like to do, such as sell drugs or sit on a stoop and drink a 40-ouncer." According to Cheryl Maxson, a UC Irvine criminologist who specializes in gang issues, it is this clarity of message that distinguishes the Cease-Fire program from other anti-gang efforts. "This is a strategy that is being picked up across the country," Maxson said. "It involves a clear message and a follow-up. It tells the gang, 'If you do this particular thing, the wrath of the state will be called upon all of your members.' "

In the Sacramento office of Assistant U.S. Atty. Richard Bender is a glossy photograph, arranged like a team picture, of one of Stockton's most violent street gangs, the Southside Stocktone. The photo was taken two years ago by a police officer who somehow managed to get the gang to pose in a local park. To Bender's satisfaction, nearly all of the gang members in the picture are in prison or face trial in federal court on drug and gun charges after 200 federal, county and city officers swept through the gang's turf in the summer of 2000 and again this year. So far, 23 members of Southside Stocktone have been charged. "Between the two busts," said Bender, "we took the core out of what had been the Southside Stocktone."

It is Jose Gomez's job to make sure that the lesson of the Stocktone crackdown gets out to other gangs. Gomez, 32, is a muscular former Marine who works for the Peacekeeper unit. He is also a former gang member, who in his youth was arrested for possession of a sawed-off shotgun and for his involvement in a drive-by shooting. "The Marines are the most powerful gang in the world," Gomez said. "Joining them was the best thing I ever did. They turned me around." Now Gomez spends his time counseling gang members, warning them about dangerous behavior and gently using his example as a path out of violence that they might also take. "That kid has really expressed a desire to change," Gomez said after riding around in one of Stockton's toughest neighborhoods with a reporter and a young gang leader dressed in his blue colors. "He's smart. He's streetwise. But he's got the death wish."
When he gets a chance, Gomez, who makes about $35,000 a year, said he likes to drive some of his favorite gang leaders into the Sierra, where they can experience trees and snow. "I just like to show them that there is a different world," he said. His biggest success, he said, has been convincing several of his proteges to enlist in the Marines.

On the front lines of Operation Cease-Fire is Stockton Police Sgt. Brian Ingersoll, a 12-year veteran who commands one of the five-man Gang Street Enforcement Teams, known on the streets as G-SET. When gang violence breaks out, G-SET swings into action. On a recent night, Ingersoll's job was to crack down on two rival Asian gangs for a series of shootings. His first step was to contact members of the county Probation Department. One of the key components of Cease-Fire is the involvement of probation and parole offices in sweeps of gang neighborhoods. Ingersoll asked the probation officers to identify members of the two gangs who were under court supervision and therefore subject to search without a warrant.
For several hours the plainclothes G-SET team, backed up by uniformed patrol officers, conducted impromptu searches of gang members' homes and cars, recovering three guns and several thousand dollars from one young man who had a 9- millimeter handgun under his front seat. "We are part of the high-visibility enforcement--saturation enforcement," said Ingersoll. Later that night, Ingersoll and his team would station themselves at key intersections in a neighborhood where the two gangs are at war, hoping to intercept them. Other tactics include shadowing gang members in public places, such as a weekly flea market that one of the gangs likes to frequent. This clearly has not earned the G-SET any favor with gang members. Popular gang graffiti includes "187 G-SET," using the police code for homicide.

But the saturation tactics have been effective. According to program director Wakeling, Stockton officers recovered 1,200 guns in the first year of the program. This compared to 600 guns in Boston, a city more than twice Stockton's size. As the G-SET unit searched the ranch-style family home of one gang member, recovering a rifle and a shotgun, Patrolman Dave Brown, a 10- year veteran, looked on. "You can't believe how much this place has changed," said Brown, a native of Chicago. "A few years ago this was like Vietnam."

Cong. Cynthia McKinney   subject archive

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