Bush's New Nuclear Push

By JARRETT BANKS Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Bush wants mini-nukes

STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP

UNITED STATES

Although President George W. Bush spends endless hours trying to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, his Administration isn't above creating a few itself. The Pentagon is hard at work pushing to develop the first new class of U.S. nukes since the end of the cold war. Two plans are on the table: retooling existing warheads into atomic sledgehammers capable of destroying bunkers beneath 300 meters of rock, and designing new mini-size nukes ideal for targeting stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons. Congress banned work on mini-nukes for the past decade out of fear that smaller nuclear weapons might be more likely to be used. But the Bush Administration, citing the jump in what it calls HDBTs — hard and deeply buried targets — has convinced the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to lift the prohibition. Both houses could vote on the measure as early as this week as they take up next year's military budget. The Pentagon has included $21 million for the two new programs, as well as $25 million to jump-start nuclear tests, if the Administration sees fit.

Why does America need new nukes? The Administration argues that the current arsenal consists largely of mammoth city-blasters that can't burrow underground where U.S. officials believe nations such as Iran and North Korea are assembling their own weapons of mass destruction. Moreover, Pentagon officials say, this arsenal is no longer an effective deterrent. Washington's enemies, they contend, calculate that the U.S. won't use its existing nuclear weapons because of the widespread carnage they would cause.

But the new plans have their own detractors. They include nuclear scientist and Pentagon adviser Sidney Drell, who says that even a tiny 1-kiloton weapon exploding 15 meters deep in rock would spew radioactivity across a wide swath of the planet. Arms-control advocates worry that possessing less catastrophic nuclear weapons would scuttle efforts to stop worldwide proliferation. Said Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, last week: "This Administration seems to be moving toward a military posture in which nuclear weapons are considered just like other weapons." — By Mark Thompson/Washington

SERBIA'S WAR WINDFALL

SERBIA

Old Europe may get the cold shoulder when coveted reconstruction contracts are doled out in post-Saddam Iraq. But Serbian officials say their country — not long ago the target of U.S. bombs — is in line for a chunk of a $680 million pie. Reason: in the run-up to Gulf War II, Serbian and U.S. officials tell Time, Serbia gave the U.S. vital information about Iraqi targets. Serbia was perfectly poised to lend a hand. Throughout the 1990s, Yugoslav firms defied U.N. sanctions and did business in Iraq: an outfit named Yugoimport built the Baath Party

headquarters and at least five bunkers for Saddam Hussein. It also sold arms. That trade ceased last year, after the U.S. blew the whistle and Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic came clean (prior to his recent assassination).

Belgrade then persuaded Yugoimport to hand over blueprints of the bunkers. A senior Foreign Ministry official says Yugoimport's leaders agreed to help "only when they understood that there would be something in it for them." While U.S. officials emphatically deny that such contracts have been promised, Yugoimport was back in Baghdad, reopening the offices that just last year were peddling arms to Saddam. — By Andrew Purvis and Dejan Anastasijevic/Belgrade

NAPLES CAN'T REFUSE

ITALY

Several Naples city councilmen blamed the Camorra organized-crime syndicate for a garbage-collection stoppage last week, which resulted in giant trash heaps on the streets and reeking dumpsters being set ablaze. After public-waste dumps reached capacity, about 20,000 tons of rubbish piled up around the city. The fires forced the closures of schools and outdoor markets and prompted some residents to don surgical masks. Most garbage service returned to normal by week's end, but the crisis renewed attention to the so-called "eco-Mafia," the Mob's alleged responsibility for ecological damage caused by its grip on public infrastructure such as toxic-waste disposal and water distribution. Organized-crime clans throughout southern Italy have obtained a sizeable chunk of public works services, often by bidding through a front company. Once contracts are obtained, environmental activists say, Mob bosses defy laws meant to protect the ecosystem and maintain public-health standards. The mayor of Naples said: "If need be, I'll sweep the city myself." — By Jeff Israely/Naples

E.U. HERE WE COME

LITHUANIA AND SLOVAKIA

Lithuania became the first former Soviet republic to vote to join the E.U., with more than 90% supporting the move. Officials had feared that there would be poor turnout for the referendum, but after 64% of the population cast their ballots, the celebrations began. And in Slovakia, fears about poor turnout in a similar referendum prompted parliament leaders to say that they will ratify E.U. entry regardless — a move that angered many Slovaks.

FREE AT LAST

ALGERIA

Seventeen European tourists held hostage for three months by Islamic militants in the Western Sahara were freed by Algerian commandos after a gunfight that left one soldier and at least four kidnappers dead. Military officials said that the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) were responsible for the kidnappings. Germany's intelligence service says the group has never targeted civilians, and one of the hostages said the kidnappers wanted money. Members of Germany's élite counterterrorism unit continue to work with Algerian authorities seeking release of the remaining 15 hostages.

NO RELEASE

RWANDA

Nearly 800 former inmates suspected of genocide have been rearrested after being released in January due to overcrowding in the country's prisons. The Justice Ministry said that there are new charges against the suspects related to the 1994 atrocities, in which 800,000 Rwandans died. More than 100,000 suspects are in jail awaiting trial on genocide charges.

NOT SAYING MUCH

INDONESIA

Negotiations between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Jakarta government got off to a shaky start when the separatists threatened to stall the meeting if their delegates — five men arrested for trying to leave the country without notifying authorities — were not released by police. The meetings, which are taking place in Tokyo, may be the last chance to salvage a peace agreement brokered last December between the two sides. Separatist rebels have been fighting for an independent Aceh since 1976.

PRESIDENT BY DEFAULT

ARGENTINA

Presidential candidate Carlos Menem withdrew from the race just days before a runoff vote after polls showed his opponent, Nestor Kirchner, would win in a landslide. Kirchner, now victor by default, will assume the presidency on May 25. With the country facing massive foreign debt and half the population in poverty, Kirchner says he will work to restore the confidence of the IMF to regain economic stability.

MEANWHILE IN THE U.S. ...

COLOR MY WORLD

The Missile Defense Agency, part of the U.S. Department of Defense, handed out coloring books to children during Public Service Recognition Week in Washington, D.C. The book includes a variety of patriotic images, such as a portrait of Ronald Reagan, a map of the U.S., an "Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle" and other types of ballistic missiles. The crayons that came with the book were made in China, a country listed as capable of targeting the U.S. with its own drab green weapons.