1. A Letter from Lenny Siegel: Director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight(2001/06/05)
  2. STATEMENT FROM THE JUSTICE AND PEACE CAMP(2001/06/11)
  3. Vieques Has Its Own Show of Force(2001/06/12)
  4. Bush to Announce Halt to Vieques Exercises(2001/06/13)
  5. Report from Peace and Justice Camp(2001/06/13)
  6. Bush Says U.S. Navy to End Vieques Training(2001/06/14)
  7. Puerto Rico Bombing to End in 2003(2001/06/14)
  8. IN AMERICA Treated Like Trash(2001/06/14)
  9. Ricky Martin Fan Club holds pro Vieques protest in Rome(2001/06/14)
  10. Vieques Closing Angers Military, Hill GOP(2001/06/15)
  11. On Vieques, A Wary Wait for Navy Exit(2001/06/15)
  12. Protests 'Quiet' as Navy Practice-Bombs(2001/06/19)
  13. URGENT CALL FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE(2001/06/22)
  14. Letter From Vieques(2001/06/23)
  15. A Report from Vieques(2001/06/24)
  16. Navy Secretary Defends Bush's Decision to End Vieques Bombing(2001/06/28)
  17. Vieques Protesters Released From Jail(2001/06/30)

Vieques Protesters Released From Jail

Associated Press
Saturday, June 30, 2001; Page A02

NEW YORK, June 29 -- Three politicians who were jailed 37 days for protesting Navy bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques celebrated their release today and vowed to continue the fight.
"I am not asking the Navy to leave Vieques today," Bronx Borough Democratic Party Chairman Roberto Ramirez said after his release. "What I am asking is for the Navy to stop the bombing in Vieques today."
Ramirez, state Assemblyman Jose Rivera and City Councilman Adolfo Carrion Jr. walked out of the Metropolitan Detention Center, flashing a victory sign.
They were sentenced to 40 days in jail for trespassing but were released early for good behavior. A fourth protester, the Rev. Al Sharpton, was jailed for 90 days because of a prior civil disobedience arrest.
Looking tired and thinner after a nearly month-long liquids-only fast, Ramirez said, "Until Reverend Sharpton comes home . . . until the United States Navy stops the bombing in Vieques, we will not be free."
President Bush announced two weeks ago that bombing exercises on Vieques will end by May 2003; protests have continued on the Puerto Rican island to advocate the bombing stop immediately.

Navy Secretary Defends Bush's Decision to End Vieques Bombing

By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 28, 2001; Page A34

Navy Secretary Gordon R. England yesterday defended the Bush administration's decision to abandon a firing range on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, as both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill accused the administration of playing politics with national security.
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, England predicted that the Navy would lose a Nov. 6 referendum among the 9,500 residents of Vieques over the continued use of the island for training by ships, planes and amphibious forces. "It's better that this decision be made by the Department of the Navy than the voters of Vieques," England said.
Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz (D-Tex.) raised the possibility that the Navy could replace Vieques with a privately owned, 222,000-acre expanse of ranchland in his district on the Gulf of Mexico. But he said more time is needed for "consensus building" among his district's residents. Rep. Bob Stump (R-Ariz.), the committee's chairman, chided England and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz for placing military readiness "at risk" by abandoning Vieques. Stump also said he was worried that the decision might result in "other nations and communities seeking to force the U.S. military to withdraw from other critical training facilities around the world."
The Bush administration announced June 15 that it would ask Congress to cancel the referendum, part of a deal struck last year between the Clinton administration and former Puerto Rico governor Pedro J. Rossello. The deal called for the federal government to provide $40 million for economic development on Vieques, plus an additional $50 million if voters supported the Navy's use of the bombing range.
Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the committee's ranking Democrat, attributed the administration's decision to "political expediency," particularly the desire to lure Hispanic voters. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) went further, accusing both the Clinton and Bush administrations of "pandering to Hispanic voters" in a way that will benefit only rich developers eager to build resorts on Vieques.
"That's the scam," Taylor said. "And the scam hurts national security."
Taylor also told England that the Navy was not doing enough to woo Vieques voters and try to win the referendum. According to one poll this month, support for the Navy among Vieques voters stood at 39 percent and was growing.

Protests 'Quiet' as Navy Practice-Bombs
14 Are Detained for Allegedly Trespassing on Puerto Rican Training Grounds

By John Marino and Sue Anne Pressley
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 19, 2001; Page A08

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico, June 18 -- The Navy today began dropping inert bombs on Navy-held parts of this slender island of 9,000 people -- but without the massive protests and arrests that usually accompany such training exercises, Navy officials said.
"Things are quiet as far as the protesters are concerned," said Lt. Commander Katherine Goode, "and we are happy to be able to be training our sailors."
Last week, President Bush announced that the Navy will pull out of Vieques by 2003, ending a six-decade-old military presence that had been drawing more aggressive protests since the death of a civilian guard during a bombing exercise two years ago. Since then, the Navy has switched to the use of dummy bombs, which do not contain explosives, but the island altogether, citing harm to residents' health and to the environment.
Fourteen people were detained today and turned over to federal marshals for gaining illegal entry to the Navy's Camp Garcia, Goode said. During the last training exercise, held April 27-May 1, 187 people were arrested and charged with federal trespassing, including Al Sharpton and Robert Kennedy Jr., with some alleging abusive treatment by Navy personnel.
This time, there were no incidents, Goode said. "Everyone was cooperative and gave their names," she said. Jacqueline Jackson, the wife of civil rights leader Jesse L. Jackson and vice president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, who had joined protesters at Camp Garcia's front gate, was among those detained. "Yours is a noble cause," she told about 100 residents Sunday night who gathered to tell her how the Navy presence had damaged their lives.
Protest leaders denied that the movement has lost momentum after Bush's announcement. "We get phone calls, faxes, e-mails, from volunteers and people just showing up here from all over Puerto Rico," said Nilda Medina, one of the organizers of the Peace and Justice Camp, located in a rental house across the street from Camp Garcia's entrance. "There's still enthusiasm. We're just being more strategic about the civil disobedience."
Leaders said about 30 protesters gained access to restricted areas of Camp Garcia today in an attempt to force the Navy to postpone or scrap its exercises. Navy officials said no trespassers have been found near the target area and denied protesters' claims that they had successfully postponed the exercises for several hours today.
"Every hour they don't bomb is a victory for us," said Ishmael Guadalupe, who was jailed for two weeks for trespassing during the last round of exercises and protests.
The Navy will practice aerial bombardment on its Vieques target range all this week, using F-14 Tomcats, F-18 Hornets and EA-6B Prowlers to drop about 1,500 inert bombs. But it will not practice ship-to-shore shelling, normally a key part of the training exercises. The Puerto Rican government has sued the Navy, claiming the shelling violates newly enacted noise regulations.
The maneuvers, which began on the high seas last week, involve the USS Theodore Roosevelt battle group, which includes 11 ships and 10,000 sailors.
Pressley reported from Miami, special correspondent Marino from Vieques.

Vieques Closing Angers Military, Hill GOP
Bush's Decision Is Criticized as an 'Outrage,' 'Betrayal' and Politically Expedient

By Mike Allen and Roberto Suro
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 15, 2001; Page A09

Senior military officers said they felt betrayed and Republicans on Capitol Hill reacted furiously yesterday after President Bush said he would end bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques in 2003.
Rep. Bob Stump (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, was among 21 Republican House members who sent Bush a letter saying they were "gravely disappointed" with the plan and warning that it could result in sending "our troops forward less than fully combat-ready."
If the Navy pulls out of Vieques, opposition to training exercises will mount in South Korea, Okinawa and elsewhere overseas, said Rep. James V. Hansen (R-Utah), a senior committee member. "What do we tell them?" he asked at a news conference with other Republican legislators. "We won't bomb on ours, but we'll bomb on yours?"
Senior Navy and Marine officers complained that they had not been consulted and used such terms as "outrage," "sold-out" and "betrayal" in describing their reactions. Speaking with the understanding they would not be identified, flag rank officers accused the White House of acting out of political expediency regardless of the cost to military readiness.
Described by the Navy as the crown jewel of training areas, Vieques is the only place where the Atlantic Fleet practices amphibious landings backed up by aerial bombing and naval gunfire. The Pacific Fleet conducts similar exercises on an uninhabited island off the California coast. Protests against the Navy periodically have flared in Puerto Rico over the past decade and gained momentum two years ago after an errant bomb killed a security guard on the training facility.
Until the administration's sudden change of course, the Pentagon's position was that the 9,500 residents of Vieques could be persuaded to accept the training exercises and would vote to let the Navy remain in a November referendum, part of a deal worked out under the Clinton administration. Moreover, the Navy has insisted that Vieques is an irreplaceable training ground for the flotillas that are rotated through the Persian Gulf.
Bush took an entirely different view when he announced his decision yesterday during a news conference in Goteborg, Sweden.
"The Navy ought to find somewhere else to conduct its exercises, for a lot of reasons," Bush said. "One, there's been some harm done to people in the past. Secondly, these are our friends and neighbors, and they don't want us there." And, he expressed confidence that the Navy "will find another place to practice, and to be prepared to keep the peace."
Normally loyal Republicans in Congress flatly disagreed with the president.
"I've been all the way around the world to every possible, conceivable alternative site," said Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), arguing that there is nothing to replace Vieques. "I see this as an issue that means American lives."
"I will do everything I can within my power to keep from changing the law so that we can go ahead with the November referendum," Inhofe added.
Other critics of the decision in both parties said it looked like a political favor to Hispanic voters and, in particular, to New York Gov. George E. Pataki, one of the few Republicans who lobbied to evict the Navy from the island.
A Republican official said the decision appeared to be part of Bush's effort to win over many Hispanic voters before he seeks reelection in 2004. "You don't get people voting for you who didn't in the past by not doing anything for them," the official said. "And now you have Pataki delivering for a big part of his constituency."
A White House official denied that political considerations played a part in the decision. The official said it was made quickly to quell protests planned for Monday, when the Navy begins another training exercise on the island, and to "keep more demonstrators out of harm's way."
The decision was finalized Wednesday at a White House meeting between Bush's senior adviser, Karl C. Rove, and Navy Secretary Gordon R. England. News of the move leaked that night, after England briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Senior military officials said that even the Pentagon's top uniformed leadership was taken by surprise.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld distanced himself from the controversy yesterday and offered only a tepid endorsement of the decision. Asked why he was giving up the long fight to continue training on Vieques, Rumsfeld told reporters: "That is a matter that the secretary of the Navy has been dealing with, with Deputy Secretary [Paul] Wolfowitz, and I think I'll leave that issue to them. We've got great confidence in them and the way they're handling it, and they're doing a fine job."
Pataki, who discussed Vieques with Rove during a meeting Tuesday at the White House, lobbied the administration and the Pentagon aggressively on the issue. He sat with Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderon during Bush's inauguration and led a delegation of state lawmakers and community leaders to Vieques in March.
Michael McKeon, Pataki's communications director, said the governor considers Vieques to be "a human rights issue -- these are American citizens who don't want to live with bombs falling in their backyard."
Among senior military officers, suspicion about Bush's intentions began to mount more than a month ago when the White House blocked the Navy from taking steps intended to win the goodwill of the island's residents and increase the chances that they would vote in November to let the Navy continue using the island.
Under the agreement reached by the Clinton administration, the Navy was to spend $40 million on public works to improve the economy and living conditions on Vieques. The Bush administration, however, has given the Navy only $6 million of the authorized funds. This left the impression that the administration had no intention of trying to win the referendum, officers said.

On Vieques, A Wary Wait for Navy Exit

By Sue Anne Pressley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 15, 2001; Page A08

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico, June 14 -- Some residents of this scenic, and as yet largely undeveloped, island today were already beginning to envision a day when the Navy would no longer occupy the most beautiful of their beaches -- and when low-flying military jets on maneuvers would no longer disturb their sleep.
But they also said they have waited too long and been disappointed too many times by the military and the U.S. government to count on a trouble-free departure of the Navy from its training facilities in Vieques in 2003, as President Bush promised today. "This should be an island paradise," said Deputy Mayor Henry M. Gonzalez Vega. "We are concerned that they are going to return the land clean, without contaminants."
The Navy owns two-thirds of Vieques, one of the smaller islands of Puerto Rico, and for 60 years, has used it as a simulated war zone in the training of hundreds of thousands of sailors in the Atlantic Fleet. Until two years ago, when a civilian guard was killed during a bombing exercise, the Navy used real ordnance instead of dummy bombs, as it does now, and residents have complained for years about high cancer rates, respiratory problems and harm done to Vieques' tropical forests and beaches.
The military and the 9,000 islanders have never been very interdependent, and in recent years, with increasing demonstrations about the military presence, the relationship has grown less cordial. Because Camp Garcia and the other Navy installation on Vieques are largely training facilities, where personnel are brought in for short, intensive exercises and then depart, they never gave rise to the kind of community nightlife and businesses catering to the military that usually spring up around a U.S. base. And since the 1999 death of civilian guard David Sanes Rodriguez spawned more heated protests, Navy personnel have been restricted to the clubs and beaches on Navy grounds.
Nor was the Navy ever a very large employer on the island. "A hundred people tops," Gonzalez Vega said. "The problem here is they had the chance to increase the economy of the island for 60 years and they never did it." Before Vieques became identified with Navy bombing exercises, it was home to five sprawling sugar plantations, he said. Back in the 1930s, there were 30,000 residents, he said, but the military's use of the island discouraged new arrivals and others left out of fear and economic hardship. A potential tourist industry also has stumbled because the island's reputation as a military outpost belied its tall palms, winding country roads and pristine stretches of sand.
Vieques tourism director Maria L. Leguillou said about 300 people a month visit Vieques, some of them day travelers. She hopes the numbers will swell once the Navy is history here, and laments the fact that the largest, nicest beaches -- Red Beach, Blue Beach -- are Navy property. Until two years ago, residents were periodically allowed in those areas, but that, too, halted with Sanes's death and the stepped-up protests.
"A lot of times, we get calls from people who say, 'Are they bombing around the hotels?' And we say, 'Oh no, they are at the base, far from the hotels.' But there is a certain fear on the part of people to come here," she said.
At the same time, she said, other callers say they fear coming to an area that has been the target of so many protests. Vieques has become internationally known for the struggle to oust the Navy, attracting celebrities to the protest lines.
Leguillou said that the Navy can stay or go, "as long as they stop the bombing." She said she will appreciate it when military jets do not fly over her seaside home: "At 2 o'clock in the morning, you can hear the jets," she said. "When my grandson was a baby, they made him nervous."
At his El Patio restaurant in Isabel Segunda, the larger of Vieques' two towns, Edgard Parilla said he would love to see more tourists discover the island. He would love to see more hotels and tourist-related businesses spring up, and more customers sitting down to eat his steamed chicken with rice and beans -- but only to a certain point.
"Once the Navy leaves, I think our tourism can only increase," Parilla said. "We would probably end up with more hotels, more everything. But we've got to have controlled economic development. We've got to make sure we don't lose this natural beauty of Vieques."

A Report from Vieques

June, 24, 2001
Aloha Kakou

I returned on Thursday, June 21 from Puerto Rico and Vieques. Mahalo nui for all of the messages of support and solidarity. Thanks to Bonita Chang for transcribing the first installment over the phone into email. Here is the second half of my report.
On Monday, June 18 Mrs. Jackson entered the range with five others and was arrested. As they were transported by jeep past the gate, they held up their handcuffed arms and the Peace and Justice Camp exploded in cheers and chanting.
One chant I liked was a call and response, "Marina? - Fuera! Marina? - Fuera!" [Navy? - Get out!], accompanied by a quick upward pointing motion with the right hand in unison on the "fuera!"
Many wore red bandanas around their necks, head or face with "paz" [peace] on it. This was a response to the police' attempt to ban face coverings.
At the end of the day there were 28 arrested. All the while, more civil disobedience teams were preparing to enter the range. As of yesterday, I read that 45 persons were arrested, including a number of Vieques youth.
We met with leaders of the ecumenical movement for Vieques. They explained that the acts of resistance were acts of "moral obedience" not "disobedience." They also explained how the Vieques struggle has helped the different religious denominations to work together, something that will have long lasting benefit for progressive movement in Puerto Rico.
On Monday night we met with leaders of the Alliance of Vieques Women. The women gave powerful testimony about how they were moved to take action out of a concern for their families and through the process became more confident individually and more powerful politically. The Vieques struggle has empowered these women to tackle the issues of women’s health promotion.
On my first visit to Vieques in October 1999, I saw the horror of the destruction of the land and communities. On this recent visit, I saw the hope that the Vieques movement has sparked in all of Puerto Rico. Some observations I have made:
1) Vieques is a human rights concern. The movement has very effectively framed the problem as one of human rights violations by the U.S. military.
2) Mass acts of nonviolent "spiritual obedience" or "moral obedience" have transformed the culture of fear and frustration into a celebration of resistance and hope. The Viequenses have taken creative nonviolence to another level, capturing the moral high ground and making it impossible for the Navy to fight them without further losing legitimacy. A number of people in the struggle have commented that overcoming fear was the greatest victory.
3) The struggle is the teacher. The struggle has taught people how to work in solidarity despite differences, how to organize, how to clarify and pursue their own vision of community, how to address the varied social ills that have kept them down, and how to trust in their own power.
4) The struggle has animated Puerto Rican society to address a whole range of issues and concerns that will have long lasting benefit to Puerto Rico.
Women are now organized to tackle health problems. Youth are confronting the lack of educational and employment opportunities in Vieques. Religious leaders are overcoming their theological differences to address real social problems together. Professionals (lawyers, scientists, planners, etc.) are devising new participatory methodologies for community and economic development.
5) Vieques is an example for communities around the world struggling against militarism and imperialism. The Vieques movement has helped to expose the global problem of U.S. militarism and the role of the military in maintaining U.S. hegemony in global political and economic affairs. It is also a laboratory for nonviolent strategies and tactics to fight U.S. militarism. The explosion of pro-Vieques culture and art was very exciting and helped to broaden the appeal of the protests. These are just some things we might keep in mind as we ready for the next chapter in the struggle for peace in Makua. I have a new video about the Vieques movement that I will try to get on cable TV very soon.
Aloha Aina

Kyle Kajihiro
AFSC Hawai'i

22 June, 2001

URGENT CALL FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

The US Navy threatens to continue its bombing practice next week. So far, around fifty people have been arrested in the navy's restricted areas in Vieques. The actions carried out by our people have blocked the bombing during this week, allowing the Navy to drop only 100 out of 1800 bombs they plan to shoot at our island.

WE CALL ON ALL THOSE WHO LOVE PEACE AND ARE READY TO PARTICIPATE IN CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ACTIONS TO COME TO VIEQUES AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO BE INCLUDED IN THE LIST OF OUR FORCES IN DEFENSE OF PEACE ON VIEQUES.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/
Thursday June 14 1:01 PM ET

Bush Says U.S. Navy to End Vieques Training

By Charles Aldinger

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Thursday the U.S. Navy would end controversial training on Vieques island off Puerto Rico, giving up a bitter fight to continue a half-century of bombing and shelling there.
At a news conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, Bush praised the Pentagon and Navy for bowing to opposition from Puerto Rican leaders and other critics and deciding to find another place to practice ``within a reasonable period of time.''
He did not give a specific time frame, but defense officials in Washington told Reuters the exercises would be ended by May 2003 no matter what the results of a referendum scheduled on Vieques in November on whether the war games should continue.
``My attitude is that the Navy ought to find somewhere else to conduct its exercises for a lot of reasons,'' Bush said in response to questions after a U.S.-European Union.
``One, there has been some harm done to people in the past. Secondly, these are our friends and neighbors and they don't want us there.'' ``I appreciate the fact that the Defense Department and the Navy responded and have made the statement loud and clear that within a reasonable period of time that the Navy will find another place to practice and to be prepared to keep the peace,'' the president added.

RUMSFELD DECLINES TO DISCUSS DETAILS

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declined to discuss details of the move in response to questions from reporters, but said it had been handled by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Navy Secretary Gordon England.
Despite complaints from senior Navy officials and members of Congress that Bush had simply made a political decision and given in to bitter opposition, including the arrest of dozens of protesters on Vieques, Rumsfeld said he supported the step.
``I am in full agreement with the president, the deputy secretary of defense and the Navy secretary. I don't know how I could be more specific,'' Rumsfeld told reporters.
``No,'' Rumsfeld shot back when asked if he thought the decision might affect the results of protests against use of other U.S. training ranges such as training on Okinawa.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, said he was disappointed he got no advance notice of the administration's decision on Puerto Rico.
Still, Daschle said, ``I think it is a step in the right direction in the sense that the government has now acknowledged its willingness to terminate the bombing.''
``The Hispanic Caucus met with our caucus this morning, and we were told that nobody in the Hispanic Caucus had been notified,'' either, Daschle said.
``Nobody in Puerto Rico had been notified. Nobody at least in the Democratic leadership had been notified. So this came as quite a surprise to all of us, and we're still trying to sort out what it is they have now decided to do,'' Daschle said. One defense official, who asked not to be identified, stressed that the service currently planned to continue up to 90 days a year of training on Vieques until May 2003.
That may not be viewed as sufficient by opponents of the training who seek an immediate halt to the bombing. The Navy has conducted bombing exercises on Vieques for some six decades, but it has faced increasingly vociferous protests by Puerto Ricans and environmentalists.

GOVERNOR DEMANDS HALT

Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderon has demanded that the exercises be halted immediately and permanently.
She traveled to Vieques on Wednesday to sign into law a Puerto Rico bill for a July referendum on the Navy's future on the tiny island, and to show solidarity with its 9,300 residents over the issue.
But the referendum she planned could turn out to be moot if the Navy announces a withdrawal from Vieques by 2003, although this might depend on how quickly the Navy planned to leave and to stop bombing training and on whether there were demands for it to go faster.
And the November referendum that the Navy had until now planned toorganize on its future in Vieques would presumably now not take place. The vote was to offer Vieques residents the option either of the Navy continuing to train with inert ordnance until May 1, 2003, after which the Navy would leave and return its land, or of allowing the Navy to train indefinitely on the island with live ordnance.
The latest round of Navy training began on Wednesday in waters off Vieques but Puerto Rican officials said bombing training was not expected to start until Monday.
The Navy's use of the 33,000-acre island off Puerto Rico's east coast for target practice has sparked widespread protests since a civilian security guard was killed there in a botched bombing run more than two years ago.
The Navy says the bombing training is critical to U.S. battle readiness but residents say it has damaged their health and the island's air and water quality.
During war games in April, about 180 protesters were arrested for trespassing on Navy property and the training was interrupted several times because of protesters on the range.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Puerto Rico Bombing to End in 2003
Navy to Seek New Site For Training Exercises

By Mike Allen and Sue Anne Pressley
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 14, 2001; Page A01

President Bush plans to stop Navy bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques in 2003, ending a 60-year practice that has produced angry protests and escalating resentment from residents who complain it is dangerous.
Navy Secretary Gordon R. England plans to announce today that training will end in two years and that an outside panel will be charged with finding another suitable location for the training, White House and Pentagon officials said. Locations in and outside the United States will be considered, officials said.
The decision would in effect remove the administration from a standoffwith local residents that has become increasingly violent and fractious, and that Republican strategists feared was alienating Hispanic voters, a group that is being ardently courted by both parties. The Navy contends that no other area would allow the same combination of air, sea and land exercises, and it has called the weapons range "the irreplaceable crown jewel of our training." Vieques activists reacted coolly to Bush's plan, calling the withdrawal too slow.
England met at the White House yesterday with Bush's senior adviser, Karl C. Rove, and with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. England's plan is to be announced as soon as today, officials said. New York Gov. George E. Pataki met Tuesday with Rove and recommended that the administration stop the bombing, a position that few Republicans have taken.
Senior military officers voiced concern yesterday that the White House was so worried about the potential political losses with Hispanic voters that it was willing to sacrifice the military benefits of training on Vieques.
Suspicion about Bush's intentions began to mount more than a month ago when the White House blocked the Navy from taking steps intended to increase chances that the residents would vote in a November referendum to continue the training, the officers said. Under the plan, the military will announce that it intends to end all training on the island by May 2003. Under an agreement between former president Bill Clinton and former Puerto Rico governor Pedro Rossello, that is the date that the military would have had to leave Vieques if it lost the November vote.
A non-binding referendum will also be held by Puerto Rico on July 29.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is to appoint a panel of retired military officers and civilians to recommend an alternate site.
A Pentagon official said the Navy would be unlikely to retain any facilities on Vieques, which is home to 9,300 residents, if training ended. If the Navy continues to insist that Vieques is irreplacable, a political battle may develop with pro-defense legislators opposing the administration.
Ten thousand Navy personnel aboard destroyers, frigates, submarines and ammunition ships took to the high seas yesterday 75 miles south of the island to begin a series of exercises. Navy officials also notified residents that they will begin air and ground maneuvers on the island Monday that will involve about 60 planes dropping inert, or dummy, bombs on targets at Navy installations.
Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderon, who arrived on the island yesterday for a prayer ceremony with bombing opponents, said she would not comment immediately on the Bush plan because she had not been officially told.
Protesters said they would continue to try to obstruct Monday's ground training because they do not want to wait two more years for the Navy to leave. At the house rented by the Committee for the Rescue & Development of Vieques across the street from Camp Garcia, protest leaders said they were not satisfied by Bush's decision.
"We don't want the bombing stopped in 2003 -- we want it stopped now," said Robert Rabin, a leader of the group. "The demands of the community are immediate and permanent cessation of all military activity, the removal of all military artifacts and equipment, and the decontamination and return of all lands to the people of Vieques."
The Navy maintains that Vieques is ideal because it is outside the path of commercial airline flights, allowing military pilots to deliver live air-to-ground ordnance from the same altitudes they would in combat.
"In nearly 60 years of range operations, not one civilian living or working off the range has ever been killed or placed at risk," the Navy says on a Web site largely devoted to trying to reassure neighbors.
The Navy bought two-thirds of the island in 1941 for use as a staging area during World War II. The Navy has since sold much of the land, but has used the island ever since for ship-to-shore and air-to-ground gunnery practice and amphibious landings.
Since the death of a civilian guard in a bombing exercise two years ago, protests have increased with each new training session. The Navy began dropping dummy bombs, which contain no explosives, after the accident, but residents allege health and environmental problems from the use of live ordnance for decades.
More than 180 protesters, including Al Sharpton, actor Edward James Olmos and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., were arrested during the last exercises in late April and early May.
Protesters were massing yesterday at a house across the road from Camp Garcia. At least 100 state police officers lined the narrow country road that leads to the naval installation.
Ivan Ventura, 36, a fisherman, says his livelihood is threatened by the Navy exercises but said he was unimpressed with the 2003 plan. "It should stop now," Ventura said. "How many things can happen between now and 2003?"
Pressley reported from Vieques. Staff writer Roberto Suro in Washington and special correspondent John Marino in San Juan contributed to this report.
June 14, 2001

IN AMERICA
Treated Like Trash

By BOB HERBERT

*elda Gonzalez may be 68 years old, the vice president of the Senate in Puerto Rico and a grandmother several times over. But none of that mattered to U.S. Navy officials who treated her like trash, which is the same way they've treated so many others who have been arrested for protesting the Navy's bombing exercises on the island of Vieques.
Ms. Gonzalez was with a large group of protesters, including a U.S. congressman, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, who were arrested on Vieques in April and subjected to harsh, dangerous and at times sadistic treatment at the hands of Navy personnel. Details of the arrests made that weekend have been emerging through interviews and a hearing held in Washington last week by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Ms. Gonzalez and dozens of others were rounded up by security personnel on the afternoon of April 28 and charged with trespassing on Navy property. "As soon as they caught us," said Ms. Gonzalez in a telephone interview on Tuesday, "we offered our hands and they handcuffed us." The detainees were taken by truck to a fenced-in detention area. Several, still handcuffed, were forced to kneel for extended periods on the gravel and rock-strewn ground. They were taunted and told by their captors to "eat dirt."
One of those kneeling was Congressman Gutierrez. The military guards became enraged when he lifted one of his legs and extended it behind him while he tried awkwardly to clear some debris from the spot where he was kneeling.
The congressman and several witnesses, including Ms. Gonzalez, said two of the guards grabbed Mr. Gutierrez by his shirt and trousers, lifted him in the air and tossed him several feet. When he landed face down they began kicking him.
"I was yelling, 'He's a congressman! He's a congressman!' " said Ms. Gonzalez.
After being held overnight in the detention area, the detainees were taken by barge to the main island of Puerto Rico. Some of the prisoners were forced to kneel in the hot sun on the deck of the barge. Young women kneeling on the deck were harassed by officers who made obscene comments and gestures.
Ms. Gonzalez said the prisoners were worried because they were still handcuffed and were not wearing life jackets. She said they were told that prisoners given life jackets would be required to have their hands cuffed behind their backs.
"That would force us to lean forward if we were in the water, even with a life jacket," said Ms. Gonzalez. "We would drown if there was an accident. So we preferred to stay with our hands cuffed in the front."
The ordeal that caused Ms. Gonzalez to weep was still to come.
The prisoners were subjected to body searches at a processing center. For some reason, when it was Ms. Gonzalez's turn to be searched, she was taken outside, and the search was conducted in public. "They made the most indecent, disgusting, immoral search of me, out in the street, in front of a cyclone fence with 20 Navy men watching," she said.
It was more an exercise in humiliation than a real search. It was conducted by a woman who began by lifting Ms. Gonzalez's blouse. The rest of the search consisted of the very public rubbing, squeezing and mauling Ethrough her clothing Eof the vice president of the Puerto Rican Senate.
Ms. Gonzalez underwent radiation treatment for breast cancer a few years ago, which has left her breasts very tender. She began to cry on the telephone as she described the mortification and the physical pain she felt during the search.
"This was in front of everybody," said Ms. Gonzalez. "I'm an old woman. I'm a grandmother of 11 grandchildren."
There were many other abuses detailed at the hearing in Washington, which was headed by Representative Robert Menendez of New Jersey. But the Navy seems unconcerned. A spokesman, Lt. Cory Barker, told me yesterday, "There are no formal investigations by the Navy at this point because we have not deemed that, in fact, we have had any cases of abuse or excessive force."
I asked him if the testimony of a U.S. congressman supported by eyewitnesses was enough to prompt the Navy to at least investigate further. He said no.
New York Times.com

Bush to Announce Halt to Vieques Exercises

By DAVID E. SANGER and CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS

WASHINGTON, June 13 EThe Bush administration will announce on Thursday that it will halt all military exercises and aerial bombing runs on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques by May 2003, reversing the Navy's long-running insistence that no other locale is suitable for battle simulations, senior officials said tonight.
The decision was made today at a White House meeting that included President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, who has frequently voiced concerns that the mounting protests against the Navy operations and the arrest of the protesters seeking to block the exercises was costing Mr. Bush vital support among Hispanics. Also attending was Gordon England, the secretary of the Navy, who told lawmakers tonight that he would recommend that the Navy stop using the range by 2003, officials said.
Another exercise involving the dropping of inert bombs is scheduled to begin on Monday, and a senior administration official said today that "we wanted to get the word out quickly" that the administration would end the exercises, though not as quickly as Puerto Rican officials have demanded.
In April, about 180 protesters, including four prominent New York politicians, were arrested for disrupting the exercises, and more arrests seem likely in coming days.
The announcement on Thursday, which was first reported on the evening network news reports, appears intended to short-circuit Puerto Rican plans to hold a referendum next month on the Navy's operations on the island, which covers 33,000 acres and has about 9,300 residents.
While the referendum would have no legal effect on the Navy, Gov. Sila Calderón, until now a harsh critic of the military's refusal to end the exercises, has used it to build political pressure on the Bush administration, a tactic that seems to have worked. Ms. Calderón signed a bill into law this week authorizing the July 29 referendum, though it is now unclear whether that will go ahead.
Some critics of the Navy's activities said tonight that they would continue their crusade until the Navy agreed to halt all Vieques maneuvers immediately.
"If they're saying `We will continue bombing till 2003,' that would be unacceptable," said Representative Jose E. Serrano, a New York Democrat who was born in Puerto Rico.
Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, another opponent of the bombing, said, "It's like me telling you that I'm going to stop beating you in the head with a hammer in two years."
Mr. Rangel called the two-year deadline a "very embarrassing thing" for Governor Calderón, who has campaigned heavily on a Navy pullout.
Governor Calderón released the following statement tonight: "The information being disseminated this afternoon over the military maneuvers in Vieques is not official."
Her office, she added, "should not make any statements about it for the moment."
A defense official said the Pentagon began seriously studying ways to leave Vieques after President Bush said in an interview broadcast in early May by Univision, the Spanish- language network, that the United States needed to find another base for its Atlantic live-fire training.
The official said that after May 2003, the Navy would return the Vieques range to the Department of Interior, which would then determine how to clean up or otherwise dispose of the land, which is uninhabitable because it is littered with shrapnel and unexploded shells.
The Navy has conducted exercises on the eastern tip of the island for more than 50 years. Military officials have maintained that live-fire training at Vieques, including both aerial bombing and ship-to-shore shelling, is the only way to verify that its aircraft and ships are combat-ready.
Many in the Pentagon, already unhappy with the administration's failure thus far to increase the military budget sharply, are likely to complain that the Vieques decision was made for political reasons to the detriment of combat readiness. The Pentagon calls the Vieques range, which is also used by the Marine Corps, "the best in the Atlantic."
Mr. England, a longtime executive in the defense industry, came into his job with a mandate to solve the problem. A senior White House official said Mr. England will "get outside experts, including some retired officers, to determine alternative sites that the Navy can use."
Also involved in today's meeting was Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz, who had promised to take a new look at the issue after the Clinton administration refused to act on Puerto Rico's demand that the exercises be suspended.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is serving a 90-day prison sentence for protesting on the island. Three other politicians got 40-day sentences: Assemblyman JosERivera of New York, Councilman Adolfo Carrión Jr. of New York City and Roberto Ramirez, the Bronx Democratic Party chairman.
Mr. Carrión, Mr. Ramirez and Mr. Rivera issued a joint statement last night condemning the two-year deadline as "completely unacceptable."
Fernando Ferrer, a Puerto Rican who is the Bronx borough president and a candidate for New York mayor, said, "Thanks for nothing. I continue to call for an immediate end to the bombing."
In April, a federal judge refused to block naval bombing on Vieques, saying there was insufficient evidence that residents would be irreparably harmed in the absence of such an order. At least one study has shown a high incidence of heart problems among the fishermen and children on the island, chiefly a disorder known as vibroacoustic disease. It is linked to loud noises like those from jet engines or explosions.
Two referendums on the Navy's activities in Vieques have been scheduled for later this year. The first vote, the July referendum, is being held by the government of Puerto Rico to determine whether residents want the Navy to stay in Vieques, to remain but stop using live ammunition, or halt all training and leave immediately.
A November referendum is to be held by the Navy itself.
That referendum was set up last year, when the previous governor of Puerto Rico struck a deal with the Clinton administration that allowed bombing to resume in exchange for a vote that would give Vieques residents a choice between ending the bombing in May 2003 or receving $90 million in aid. Governor Calderón repudiated that agreement in January, saying she wanted the bombing to stop immediately.
Mr. Serrano said the White House hoped to eliminate the need for either referendum and to avoid a political embarrassment.
"Everybody suspects the vote would be a landslide for the Navy to get out altogether," he said.
The decision today could also affect operations in the Pacific. The Marines are under intense pressure on the Japanese island of Okinawa, where training exercises have long brought protests. Mr. Bush will have to explain to Japan why a decision made for an American territory would not also apply to American training on foreign soil.
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
P.O. Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Telefax 787 741-0716 E mail:bieke@coqui.net
13 JUNE, 2001

Report from Peace and Justice Camp

Last night we heard military aircraft for the first time since the April maneuvers. Around 11PM jets were heard in the skies over Vieques. At 6PM, aprox. 200 Puerto Rico policemen and women arrived at the gate to the navy base here - Camp Garcia - in front of the Peace and Justice Camp (PJC). They marched in formation, creating a line of police until the Luisa Guadalupeabout mile South on the road that runs parallel to the Navy's perimeter fence. Police officials indicated they are present to protect the Navy fence from protesters who in April cut down large sections. Those present at the PJC manifested their indignation at this exaggerated police presence and the use of PR police as security guards for the Navy.
Today, June 13th. The calm before the storm. Police agents watch over the Navy fence from the civilian sector highway while a growing number of military personnel, prepared with riot gear - helmets, gas masks, shields, etc. - "protect" the perimeter from the other side of the fence.
From 9AM today and at any moment during the next 24 hours you can participate in the virtual sit-in pro Vieques:
http://www.freespeech.org/provieques

Tonight we will hold an ecumenical service at the PJC. Religious leaders and members of the community will meet to reflect and prepare spiritually to confront the next 18 days of navy exercises, violenca and provocation
The Navy has not yet posted the warning to fishermen about danger and restricted zones on the east end of the island, warning that must be given 48 hours before bombing begins.
The Governor, Sila Maria Calderon is arriving on Vieques as we finish this report. We have requested a meeting at the PJC to discuss the situation and denounce the use of PR police against our protest.
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
P.O. Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Telefax 787 741-0716 E mail:bieke@coqui.net
PRESS RELEASE

Ricky Martin Fan Club holds pro Vieques protest in Rome

RIC, the Ricky Martin Italian Club, on Wednesday, June 13, will stage a protest in front of the United States Embassy in Rome, Via Veneto, from 2:00 in the afternoon (9:00 a.m. Eastern), to coincide with the new round of bombing by the U.S. Navy in Vieques. City authorities in Rome gave their permission on Saturday, June 9.
In this way we want to show our support and visible solidarity for our friends and comrades of Vieques and Puerto Rico, and to express our opinion and our request to the representatives of the U.S. in Italy that they cease operations now, and to let them know that in Italy we recognize the violation of human rights that the Navy and the U.S. government are perpetrating in Vieques.
The protest will include posters demanding peace for Vieques and to stop the bombings, and informational handouts regarding the situation on the Isla Nena. Additionally, the Club is sending press releases to the Italian press, radio and television media requesting coverage of the protest in the hope and with the objective that it be visible in our country. During the day we will take photos and the material will be made available to the media in hopes that it will be useful in the cause of our Viequense brothers and sisters.
We want to clarify that our action has no political objectives; our support to Vieques is a voluntary, humanitarian act. We thank Ricky Martin through whom we learned of the situation in Vieques, but we wish to make it clear that he did not manipulate the Club to this end nor did he request any action on our part, even though he thanked us.
PEACE FOR VIEQUES
Antonia Gizzi
In charge of the Ricky Martin Italian Club
Roberta Iliceto, Francesca Corsello
Coordinator and promoter, Ricky Martin Italian Club
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
P.O. Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Telefax 787 741-0716 E mail:bieke@coqui.net
11 JUNE, 2001

STATEMENT FROM THE JUSTICE AND PEACE CAMP

Our people are getting ready to face the bombings announced by the US Navy to start on June 13. Just like in April, when our forces held up the naval exercises at several moments, during the upcoming maneuvers we will also resist this military force that enslave us in the name of "freedom", violate our human rights while "defending" democracy. There is no turning back for us. The mayor, the parish priest, our women, youth and fishermen, in short:
our people, have decided that the US Navy will not fire any more bombs without the community resisting through pacifist civil disobedience. Neither threats from two hundred Puerto Rican police members, nor tear gas, nor rubber-bullet shotguns can tame these people who have taken control of their future to ensure a free and healthy Vieques for the next generations.
For the past three weeks there have been workshops and orientations about civil disobedience on the main island and in Vieques. The PR Bar Association,
Todo Puerto Rico con Vieques, el Congreso Nacional Hostosiano, the Caribbean Project for Justice and Peace, and Law Students with Vieques, along with the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques have prepared a handbook for Practical Workshops for Civil Disobedience in Vieques. Several comrades from the main island, including our Luz Nereida Perez, gathered at the Justice and Peace Camp last Friday to discuss the handbook and the workshop's procedures. Six members of the Juventud Viequense Unida (Vieques Youth United) shared information about their own acts of civil disobedience last August, about the arrest, and about a pamphlet that they put together in order to train the next disobedients.
Juan Vera, Bishop of the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico, was a special guest at this Saturday night's vigil, and so were a great number of officials of the Church who participated this week in the celebration of the centenary of the Methodist Church in Vieques. Bishop Vera read a resolution that was unanimously accepted by the Methodist Assembly, which supports civil disobedience and the struggle for peace in Vieques. During the vigil, we received three solidarity phone calls that we transmitted live to the area where the vigil was being held, thanks to the technical assistance of Andres Nieves, our audiovisual specialist. The first phone call was from Ernesto Pero, prisoner from Vieques, artist, and artisan. Aside from his own inspiring message, Pero read messages that were given to him by Paco Saldano -another Viequense civil disobedient who is in the federal prison- and by Ruben Berros, president of the PR Independence Party. The second phone call was from members of the Equipo Cristiano en Acción por la Paz (Christian Peacemakers Team) in Indiana, where they were holding a vigil simultaneously with ours. Four members of the Equipo Cristiano will be tried on the 28th of this month for their entrance to the restricted military zone during Navy exercises here in April. A third phone call of solidarity was from Blanch Rivera, wife of the NY State legislator JosERivera, one of the "Vieques quartet" of civil disobedients incarcerated in NY for the cause of Vieques. The "quartet" also includes Reverend Al Sharpton, NY City Councilor Alfonso Carri**, and President of the Democrat Party in the Bronx, Roberto Ramirez.
Blanche offered a statement about the health and spirits of the four prisoners and about the commitment that they show with the struggle for Vieques.
You may write to them at :
MDC Guaynabo
PO Box 2147
San Juan, PR 00922-0692147
The full list of names of the prisoners for the peace of Vieques is available at viequeslibre.org or via our email.
The CRDV covers costs and coordinates transportation for family members of Vieques prisoners so they can get to the federal prison for weekly visits and return to Vieques the same day. Also, we deposit funds for Vieques prisoners needing aid in their prison account for purchases in the prison store and for phone calls. Our Committee also maintains a support camp outside the federal prison next to camps set up by the PIP and the University Students / Friends of Vieques and the Carolina Giants. Maintain the CRDV camp in support of our prisoners, transport people from Vieques to participate in activities at the camp represents another cost for the struggle. Therefore, we ask for your donation in funds or materials for the Peace and Justice Camps. R. Rabin, CRDV

A Letter from Lenny Siegel: Director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight

At the beginning of May, 2001, as protesters and the media focused their attention on the Navy's renewed bombing on the eastern end of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, a significant milestone was reached on the western half of the island. On May 1, as provided by the Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2001, the Navy transferred about 4,000 acres from the Naval Ammunition Support Detachment (NASD) to the Municipality of Vieques. The process under which that transfer took place provides important lessons, for all parties, that should help conduct a better transfer when the Navy vacates the range areas on the eastern third of the island.
The transfer of the western side was not as clear-cut as most Puerto Ricans had hoped. The Navy has retained a radar site, a telecommunications site, and supporting infrastructure, and it has retained easements to ensure access and support while preventing the installation of incompatible activities adjacent to those facilities.
Furthermore, about half the NASD property was (or is being) transferred to the Interior Department and the Puerto Rican Conservation Trust for management as conservation zones.
The residents of Vieques, most of whom had heard of the saber-rattling by conservative members of the U.S. Congress, were surprised that the transfer actually took place. When I visited Vieques, a little more than a week before the transfer, many of them expressed disbelief when I told them, simply, "It's the law."

THE CLEANUP PROCESS

In preparation for the transfer, the Navy's cleanup team from the Navy Facilities Engineering Command, or NAVFAC had accelerated its examination and documentation of the environmental condition of the transferring property. Its task was aided by the Congressional decision to turn over to the Interior Department what appears to be the most contaminated section of the NASD property, the 439-acre former Open Burning/Open Detonation (OB/OD) area on the western tip of Vieques.
The Navy identified potentially contaminated areas, put up fences to discourage entry into the worst areas, and prepared a Finding of Suitability for Early Transfer (FOSET). It has established a community relations program and formed a Technical Review Committee with numerous participants from the local community. Though it's possible that other localized contamination will be found, it appears that overall the contamination in the NASD is minor compared to typical transferring military property.
Thus, the process for dealing with the NASD is perhaps more important as a precedent for the environmental response on the east side than it is in directly protecting the public and the environment. I have two concerns.
First, because the property is not on the "Superfund" National Priorities List, the Puerto Rican Environmental Quality Board (EQB) is responsible for regulating the Navy cleanup under CERCLA, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. U.S. EPA is visible, but it's really there by invitation of the Navy. Yet the Puerto Rican regulators appear not to be on the case full time. I suspect it's due to the lack of dedicated resources. Though Puerto Rico signed a Defense State Memorandum of Agreement (DSMOA) with the Defense Department in 1991, it apparently never negotiated a follow-up cooperative agreement. Most states and at least two territories have such cooperative agreements, which are designed to reimburse their oversight expenses equal to about one percent of the military's cleanup costs within the state or territory.
To oversee environmental restoration on both sides of the island, Puerto Rico's Environmental Quality Board needs to line up a DSMOA cooperative agreement. However, such reimbursement on the east side may turn out to be less significant. Because cleanup on the east side of Vieques is being pursued under the Corrective Action provisions of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, U.S. EPA has lead authority for cleanup there.
Second, there was no effective public participation in the consideration of the FOSET. That is, there were no public comments because the public didn't know about the document until too late. Public notification of the availability of the draft FOSET met the bare statutory minimum and probably did not satisfy the April 24, 1998 Department of Defense guidance on the Environmental Review Process. Members of the members of the public who were following the proposed transfer - including those of us who had commented on other transfer-related documents - were unaware of the draft FOSET until 30 days after its official publication date. No effort was made to contact individuals who had clearly expressed interest.
When parcels on the Vieques training range are proposed for transfer from federal ownership, the Navy - as well as state and federal regulators - should ensure that all interested parties have the opportunity to review all key documents in time to provide constructive comments.

THE DEED

When I visited Vieques in April, I brought a briefcase full of environmental documents, the type that I normally review. I assumed that other people, lawyers retained by the municipality, were reviewing legal transfer documents. Normally, at closing military bases, local governments or reuse authorities receive planning funds from the Pentagon's Office of Economic Adjustment, and they hire specialized attorneys to carefully review transfer documents. However, the people with whom I met on Vieques knew nothing of such documents.
After I left, just a few days before the Congressionally mandated transfer deadline, I learned that the Navy had prepared a lengthy Quitclaim Deed. It presented it to the Vieques and Puerto Rican government with little time for review. The Mayor of Vieques was taking part in demonstrations against the bombing. As far as I know, the municipality had no direct legal representation. The Navy kept revising the document, but as far as the Puerto Ricans were concerned, they had to sign by April 30 or risk aborting the entire transfer.
Most of the 60-page final documents consists of metes and bounds, detailed physical descriptions of the property to be transferred as well as the access, use, and environmental easements. Three substantive elements of the Deed, however, suggest that Navy lawyers were fully prepared to take advantage of the underrepresented Viequensians, particularly since they felt they had no bargaining power in negotiations over the language.
First and foremost, one of the drafts contained the following paragraph on unexploded ordnance (UXO): "Government [that is, U.S. federal government acting through the Navy] and Grantee [the Municipality of Vieques] recognize that there is a potential for unexploded ordnance to be found on the Premises. The Government hereby agrees that it will assist Grantee regarding the removal and disposal of discovered unexploded ordnance if and to the extent required by then-applicablefederal laws and regulations and then-applicable Navy and Department ofDefense policies, and subject to Congressional authorization and the availability of appropriated funds."
No reuse authority in the fifty states would take such language seriously! The Navy was offering to promise less than it was required to do by law. It sought to give Vieques primary responsibility for responding to UXO discoveries. While there is currently no evidence of UXO on the transfer parcel, it might be found later. Since, on the eastern side, even those sections that are not officially designated as impact areas contain ordnance, a similar approach there could be a public safety disaster. It would transfer significant costs and liability to the local government.
At the request of the Puerto Rican side, the Navy slightly modified the language in the final Deed, saying "The government hereby agrees that it will remove and dispose of discovered unexploded ordnance ..." But that's not much better. The military routinely sends out emergency response teams when military ordnance is discovered, almost anywhere within the U.S. But on Vieques, an island used by the military for the use, storage, and disposal of ordnance, it chose not to promise to conduct a systematic search and response, should discoveries indicate a need..
The second and third problems are similar. Instead of the longer periods that normally apply at contaminated facilities undergoing closure and transfer, the Navy wrote the Deed to allow only 90 days for the municipality to seek additional response action - that is, the cleanup of previously unidentified contamination - or to file for indemnification. As I understand it, federal statute provides up to two years, following the discovery of contamination, for both processes.
I know that some Defense Department lawyers don't like those particular provisions of law, but I consider it an article of bad faith that the Navy proposed - and achieved in the final document - time periods much less than those provided by Congress.
Assuming that Vieques will receive the major portion of the ranges on the eastern side of its island in the not-too-distant future, the municipal government needs to be prepared. It can't count upon the Navy, led by people angered and frustrated by Puerto Rican opposition to training that they consider essential, to look out for its interests.
The Pentagon needs to provide the type of financial help that it provides to other closing bases, and the municipality needs to obtain expert legal advisers to commence negotiations long before any anticipated transfer date.

PLAN AHEAD

Furthermore, when Congress passed special legislation mandating the transfer and cleanup of the Hawai'ian island of Kaho'olawe, some critics felt that Sen. Daniel Inouye, the architect of the legislation, had compromised too far on the environmental requirements. However, Vieques, which has no Senators of its own, could learn from the Hawai'ian experience, and there are Senators and Representatives with extensive Puerto Rican constituencies. Without Congressional mandates, it's unlikely that much will be done to make the more dangerous portions of Vieques safe for public use. Puerto Rico's legislative supporters are still focusing on stopping the Navy's training exercises; someone needs to pay attention to what is likely to happen next.
Similarly, few people are paying attention to the properties being transferred to the Interior Department and the Puerto Rican Conservation Trust. Typically, when such transfers are carried out at base closures in the 50 states, there is an extensive public involvement process designed to weigh the land management goals of preservation, public visitation, and resource-based industries (such as fishing). Admittedly, the Interior Department has been helping the Navy manage its conservation zones, but the Navy's exit calls for the re-examination of management strategies. Interior needs to devise a process, and Congress needs to fund it. Particularly because Congress has directed that the eastern Vieques Impact Area be turned over to Interior if the Navy vacates, it's essential to plan ahead. The conversion of hazardous areas into wildlife refuges without resources and rules is an invitation to disaster.

Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
http://www.cpeo.org

Vieques Has Its Own Show of Force
Protesters on Puerto Rican Island Brace for Continuation of Navy Exercises

By Sue Anne Pressley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 12, 2001; Page A03

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico -- The protesters who say they will storm Camp Garcia when the military bombing exercises commence again soon are busy making shields.
Fashioned of plywood, with plastic windows, the shields say a lot about the escalation of the long-running controversy here with the U.S. Navy: Things are getting more confrontational -- and more camera-ready.
For 60 years, this picturesque island of 9,000 people -- and its surrounding turquoise waters -- has been used by the Navy to train the Atlantic Fleet in live shelling, amphibious assaults, submarine warfare and ship-to-ship combat.
There always have been residents disturbed by the dominating military presence. But in the past two years, since a civilian guard was accidentally killed during a bombing exercise, tensions have soared with each new training session. The protest groups have attracted more supporters, more worldwide headlines -- and lately, more well-known names from Hollywood and Washington willing to be arrested for the cause. "The struggle of Vieques has been internationalized," said Emilio Garcia Cordero, 51, a lifelong resident of the island who helps maintain a Vietnam veterans "camp of passive resistance" near the entrance to Camp Garcia.
As both sides gear up for what likely will be a hostile showdown later this week, the fallout from the last training session and series of protests, staged in late April, is still reverberating in Washington. Last week, the largely Democratic Congressional Hispanic Caucus heard from a House member, several members of the Puerto Rican senate and actor Edward James Olmos about the conditions endured by protesters at the hands of Navy personnel.
Although the 180 people arrested were mostly charged with federal trespassing, a misdemeanor, they allege they were treated like armed criminals -- strip-searched and deprived of water in the heat for long periods. College students fell ill after being doused in pepper spray, they said, and protesters who refused to give their names were forced to kneel on rocky soil for hours. "We understand if we engage in civil disobedience, we're going to be arrested, we're not going to be taken to a hotel for room service," Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said in an interview last week.
"But conversely, we don't expect to be held in dog kennels with rain and lizards coming in, or . . . forced to kneel in the rocks for hours. We were peaceful. They said, 'Sit,' we sat," said Gutierrez, who related his experience at Vieques at the Washington hearing. Protesters have long contended that naval operations contaminate the local environment, hurting the fishermen who make their living here and endangering the health of residents, who record a higher-than-average cancer rate. No other place in America, they say, has endured 60 years of bombing by its own government, and they vow not to leave until the Navy does.
Two-thirds of Vieques, one of the "daughter islands" of Puerto Rico, is owned by the Navy, and ironically, it is the military's presence that has helped preserve the island's natural beauty. Winding country roads are canopied in lush green, dotted with the bright orange flowers of the flamboyan trees, and goat herds and wild horses roam freely through the meadows.
Vieques has two small towns, Isabella Segunda and Esperanza, still friendly and rather rustic, and not yet discovered by any fast-food chains. In recent years, the slogan that has become the rallying cry of the protest movement has been painted on car windows, building walls and crosswalks throughout the towns: "Paz Para Vieques" (Peace for Vieques), as if the island were engaged in war. Facing the prospect of another confrontation this week, both the Navy and the protesters appear equally determined to advance their positions -- come what may.
"We are getting ready for whatever happens," Ishmael Guadalupe, a leader of the eight-year-old Committee for the Rescue & Development of Vieques, said as he stood on the porch of the house protesters have rented directly across a narrow road from Camp Garcia's main entrance. "All our forces, all our energy, are going to obstructing the maneuvers." The wooden shields, a gladiator-like symbol designed to play well in photographs, are one of the latest tactics, said Guadalupe, 56, a retired drama teacher. Guadalupe said he expects more hard-line reactions from the Navy. "That's their function. They're prepared for war, not peace."
Organizers are sure that pictures of the protesters, with their wooden shields facing Navy personnel in riot gear, will underscore the David versus Goliath aspects of the showdown that have garnered sympathy for the protesters around the world.
Navy officials say that the training that occurs at Vieques is vital to national security and the combat-readiness of American sailors and Marines. Since the death of civilian guard David Sanes Rodriguez in 1999, only inert bombs -- dummy bombs that do not contain explosives -- have been used in the exercises. Officials say they will do what the law requires to violators who try to stop the training sessions. "The penalties are getting stiffer," said Lt. Corey Barker, a spokesman for the U.S. Naval Resources Southern Command. "Hopefully, that's going to deter more vandalism and illegal entry into Camp Garcia."
Asked about allegations of abuse during the last confrontation, Barker referred a reporter to a briefing last week at which Rear Adm. Stephen R. Pietropaoli, the Navy's chief of information, defended the Navy's actions.
"I don't think very many people who wind up in custody with law enforcement and security people have a particularly fond memory of that experience," Pietropaoli said about statements given at the Washington hearing. "But it is a necessary element of detaining individuals who have broken the law that you maintain some control. Therefore, they are searched, they are handcuffed, in this case with the flexible wire-wrap cuffs."
He denied that there were any strip searches or body-cavity searches, as some protesters have maintained.
In recent years, more than 1,500 protesters have been arrested on Vieques. The demonstrations have attracted the likes of activist Al Sharpton, who is one of about 50 people who have been sentenced since the last confrontation. Sharpton, serving 90 days in a Brooklyn detention center, is on a hunger strike to raise public awareness about Vieques.
Last month, Puerto Rican Gov. Sila Maria Calderon, angry about the upcoming training exercises, announced that she will give Vieques residents a chance to vote in July on whether the Navy should stop training there immediately -- a vote that may have limited meaning because the law allows the Navy to remain in Vieques two more years. The get-out-now option is not included in a November referendum on the Navy's future here that has been agreed to by the Navy.
The relationship between Vieques residents and their military neighbor was not always so uneasy. Older residents, such as Rosa Cruz, 68, remember a time when the Navy created a pipeline to bring water from the main island and provided jobs; her family washed and ironed clothes for Navy personnel. "They gave a lot to Vieques," she said. In recent years, however, as relationships have deteriorated, Navy personnel have kept more to themselves.
Too many other Vieques residents, however, recall only the jarring sensation of living in a periodic combat zone and brace themselves for another round of battle: House foundations have sometimes cracked, tables skitter across the floor. The sounds of warfare can be heard in most parts of the slender island.
"Sometimes people say, 'Why do you stay here? Why don't you leave?' " said Garcia Cordero, as he kept vigil at his protest camp. "But here we were born, here we were raised. This is our land."

Letter From Vieques
Navy's Plans Could Hasten End of Island's Equine Charm

Saturday, June 23, 2001; Page A03

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico
This little-traveled island is best known for its role as a training site for the U.S. Navy over the past 60 years, a sliver of land that has been strafed and bombed by countless military jets in exercises like the ones this week.
But for its 9,000 islanders, and the 5,000 tourists who visit each year, something else provides Vieques' special quality. Wild horses roam here, peering out of the tropical forests, eating mangoes by the roadside, prancing down the narrow highways.
They reflect the still-rustic rhythms of life here -- and probably have the most to lose should this bit of rural paradise be discovered and, as many expect, developed, now that the Navy has declared it will end its training and close its base by 2003.
Already the horses, known as Pasofinos, pay a high price for their contact with people. Unlike the ponies of Chincoteague, Va., which remain aloof from the hordes, the Pasofinos mingle with residents and tourists who visit Vieques each year.
They have the battered look of old prizefighters: foreheads cross-stitched with scars from the barbed-wire fences that exist in abundance here (but don't seem to contain very much); flanks gouged from run-ins with branches and briars and the small jeeps that cruise the island. Andrea Kaufman of the Vieques Humane Society & Animal Rescue Inc., the island's only veterinarian, says she sees about one traffic casualty a month, and hopes for a time when Vieques residents will put up stouter fencing. Last summer, Vieques officials approved the first cattle-crossing signs for the island and briefly considered horse warnings, too, before nixing the idea, figuring they would only be stolen. Now some are worried that as Vieques inevitably changes into a tourist venue -- its first resort is about to open -- the horses will be reined in or put in harm's way more often.
"I see a lot of the old wise ones . . . hanging on doing the best they can," Kaufman said. ". . . I would hate to see them go, but I want it to be safe for them."
The name "Pasofino" means "delicate step," a reference to the horses' distinctive four-beated gait, a feature that gives them a dainty, hurrying look. Brought to the island by Spaniards several hundred years ago, the horses have run loose as long as anyone can remember -- keeping the roadsides clipped with their grazing and wandering as far as they can on an oval of land that is only 21 miles long and 5 miles wide.
Island youth, too young to drive, rope and ride them as a rite of passage, and while most residents see nothing remarkable about the horses' presence, tourists are usually thrilled.
They encounter the horses on isolated dirt roads, where the animals appear to look them in the eye before fading back into the thickets, or on the few main highways, where they seem to show motorists their backsides as they haughtily take control of traffic flow. One thing Pasofinos have is attitude.
"Sometimes they act like 'We own this, don't bother us, this is our road,' " said Fernando Nunez, acting manager of the 3,100-acre Vieques National Wildlife Refuge, who thinks the horses "bring some character to the island."
"It's different from the rest of Puerto Rico," he said.
Kaufman hopes microchips will one day be embedded in the animals to identify them. She also says that more of the male horses should be castrated to control the growing population, now estimated as well over 1,000.
"They're good horses, they have good temperaments," Kaufman said. "They're easygoing, easy to break, nice riding horses. Everybody has varying opinions about them. Some say round them up in one place, but if you do that, an owner will show up." Though the animals roam free, many are owned by island residents.
Vieques cattle, which tend to be the bone-colored, droopy-faced, hump-backed Brahman variety, do not excite the emotions as the horses do, although they also can play havoc with traffic when a herd goes slouching down the road, pausing every few steps in confusion. Stephen Earson, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service here, says the ever-grazing horses may not be as harmless as they seem, given the island's fragile ecosystem. Its tropical plants may be tasty, but they are also rare, he said.
"From a biologist's standpoint, they are not naturally here," he said, "and that means they can affect those species that are supposed to be here."
For that reason, Earson and others try to keep the horses away from the wildlife refuge, which is covered in mangrove swamps anyway. The animals also are prohibited by strong fences from some of the property owned by the Navy, which lays claim to two-thirds of Vieques.
But for now, the horses are seen almost everywhere on the island, in threesomes and foursomes, often including a mother and a young colt. The latest young patient to come to Kaufman was recuperating at the seaside humane society on a recent morning, but not alone. The colt had cut itself terribly, carving a huge flap out of its chest when it ran into the rough edge of a sheet of corrugated metal.
At first, workers had taken the mother home -- the owner was found after the usual round of island inquiries -- but the colt became so upset that they were forced to bring the older horse back. The two stood quietly under a mango tree, protected for the moment from the changes that may be coming here.
-- Sue Anne Pressley