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To: Kevin Clarke who wrote (93641)	10/14/2001 9:27:50 PM
From: dreamer	Respond to of 150070

Pentagon split over war plan Generals at odds with politicians on strategy Julian Borger in Washington and Richard Norton-Taylor Monday October 15, 2001 The Guardian The Bush administration is growing increasingly alarmed by the direction of the military campaign in Afghanistan after a week of almost continuous bombing has failed to dislodge either Osama bin Laden or the Taliban leadership. In the absence of new intelligence on the whereabouts of the Saudi-born extremist accused of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks, US generals are under pressure from civilian defence officials to send greater numbers of special forces into Afghanistan to try to accomplish what the bombing failed to do - flush out a target. But the Pentagon's top brass are reluctant to deploy their best troops in the absence of good intelligence about Bin Laden's whereabouts, and before further bombing has softened expected resistance on the ground. The defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is reported to be increasingly frustrated by the caution of the generals and their inability to come up with a creative battle plan. One of his aides was quoted in today's edition of Newsweek as comparing the attitude of today's Pentagon to the conventional thinking familiar in the Gulf war - a thinking now considered to be out of date and inappropriate for the delicate nature of the war against terrorism. "The media are preparing to cover a second Gulf war," the aide said, "and the military are preparing to fight one." It was always assumed that the second phase of the military campaign in Afghanistan would involve the deployment of significant numbers of special forces, but as the moment drew closer yesterday differences were becoming more visible over how many should be used and in what manner. Mr Rumsfeld had taken office planning a radical shake-up of the military hierarchy, but did not have time to do so before the US came under attack on September 11. After the suicide attacks on New York and Washington were traced to Bin Laden and his camps in Afghanistan, Mr Rumsfeld gave his top generals the task of drawing up a radical and innovative battle plan. His aides predicted that apart from a few opening air strikes to destroy the Taliban's air defences, the war would be a largely covert conflict. Instead the first week of the campaign has involved wave after wave of Gulf war-style strikes, and a rising toll of claimed civilian casualties. The traditionalist generals believe that there are more military targets in Afghanistan which can be hit from the air, and have backed the renewed use of heavy bombers this week, after a weekend in which most strikes were carried out by smaller, tactical strikers launched from carriers in the Arabian sea. One potential target is the Taliban's 55th Brigade, made up principally of Arab fighters who are thought to constitute the regime's Praetorian guard. The first week of bombing has not "smoked out" Bin Laden or the Taliban leadership from their strongholds, as President Bush had hoped, and the Pentagon's military planners are said to be still operating in an intelligence vacuum. Some feel the job of finding these elusive targets belongs to the diplomats and the spies. "I hope the military isn't given this to solve," General Anthony Zinni, the former head of the Pentagon's central command, is reported to have grumbled to other officers. British defence officials were yesterday giving the clear impression that military planners are deeply frustrated by the lack of intelligence about the impact of the air campaign and what next they should do to attack such elusive targets. They say they are continuing to look at all the options for the deployment of ground troops, including "small units" - a reference to special forces - or "larger numbers" - the prospect of airborne troops gaining a bridgehead inside Afghanistan as a base for raids against Taliban forces. But sources describe the plans as "paper talk" and say no decision has been made. Top officers in the Pentagon are leaning away from setting up a base inside Afghanistan on the grounds that it would be vulnerable. Instead the most likely option is that helicopter-borne special forces units will launch their missions from the deck of the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier in the Arabian sea. Military planners are concerned about the approaching winter and the pressures on the Pakistani leader, General Pervez Musharraf, as well as the immediate tactical problem of knowing where to strike against the forces of an unconventional enemy. While most of the Taliban's air defences have been destroyed, their light forces and the small open-backed lorries they use to move about the country were reported yesterday to be mostly intact. The Afghan militia's deputy prime minister, Haji Abdul Kabir, yesterday offered to hand Bin Laden over to a neutral country if the US provided evidence of his guilt. But the offer, a reiteration of previous Taliban proposals, was immediately rejected by President Bush. A White House spokeswoman said: "The president has been very clear: there will be no negotiations."

To: Kevin Clarke who wrote (93641)	10/14/2001 9:39:08 PM
From: Jim Bishop	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 150070

And once again in that article, is mention of ACAM: "Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said last week the government hopes to have 40 million fresh doses of smallpox vaccine by next summer, well ahead of the original deadline of 2004. Acambis, a British firm, will speed up its 20-year, $343 million program to replenish the U.S. supply. About 15 million doses of the old vaccine remain from the 1970s." Smallpox was eradicated in 1977, and routine vaccinations ceased in 1980. However, the Russians produced tons of smallpox for their bioweapons program in the 1980s, and some experts fear some of it may have escaped, perhaps to other countries that make biological weapons. About half of Americans alive today were vaccinated against smallpox, but the protection wears off. Dr. D.A. Henderson, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies, estimates that only 10 percent to 20 percent of them still have immunity against smallpox. Acambis' new vaccine will be grown in cell cultures and will be much purer than the original version, derived from the pus of infected cows. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to store it at guarded warehouses around the country, to be shipped off quickly after an attack to keep the highly contagious and untreatable virus from spreading.