Washington briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 14, 2001

Admiral receives "Greeneville" report

HONOLULU -- The admiral's court of inquiry into the sinking of a Japanese fishing vessel by a U.S. submarine submitted its report Friday to the commander of the Pacific Fleet, who will determine the submarine captain's future.

Adm. Thomas B. Fargo received the 2,000-page document Friday afternoon. He has 90 days to decide whether to order courts martial or take other disciplinary action against the commander of the USS Greeneville, Cmdr. Scott D. Waddle, and other crew members.

Nine Japanese crewmen and students drowned when their ship, the Ehime Maru, was ripped open by the Greeneville, a nuclear attack submarine, during an emergency surfacing drill on Feb. 9.

The court of inquiry sought to determine whether Waddle should be charged with dereliction of duty, improper hazarding of a vessel and negligent homicide.

Waddle was relieved of his command on Feb. 10.

But when the Greeneville went back to sea on Wednesday, after $2-million in repairs at a Pearl Harbor dry dock, two of the officers who had been the subjects of the admirals' inquiry were still aboard: Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer, the submarine's executive officer, and Lt.j.g. Michael J. Coen, who had been the officer of the deck on the day of the collision.

Spy case prompts more changes at FBI

WASHINGTON -- FBI Director Louis Freeh has quietly established two new security practices that many experts believe could have exposed the activities of spy suspect Robert Hanssen years before he was arrested.

According to an internal memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Freeh has ordered senior agents at headquarters and in the 56 field offices to tell the FBI's counterintelligence division if they are working on a case that might involve spying. Freeh also ordered the agents investigating those sensitive cases to begin checking who else is looking at the case computer files.

Hanssen is charged with passing 6,000 pages of extremely sensitive classified information to the Russians. During the 15-year period when he allegedly did so, Hanssen had virtually unmonitored access to FBI files on U.S. spies and spying. He also never took a polygraph test.

Freeh has ordered that agents handling counterintelligence cases must undergo a polygraph test every five years. He also has agreed to take one himself.

Greenpeace activists protest near Bush ranch

CRAWFORD, Texas -- In a made-for-TV demonstration, three Greenpeace activists scaled a water tower near President Bush's ranch Friday to protest his environmental policies. All were arrested.

The two women and one man hung a 30-foot-tall yellow banner off the water tower. It read, "Bush the Toxic Texan -- Don't Mess with Earth."

The tower is in Crawford, the tiny town a few miles from Bush's ranch. The tower is also across the street from a school where the news media covering Bush work when the president travels to his ranch.

With little other news here, dozens of reporters and photographers lined the street to capture the protest. As sheriff's deputies blocked the street to traffic, Greenpeace campaigns director Andrea Durbin distributed press kits to reporters. The literature attacked Bush's proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and his opposition to an international global warming treaty.

Greenpeace identified the protesters as Rani Riber, 24, and Melissa Riber, 28, of Washington, and Kelly Osborn, 31, of Flower Mound, Texas.

Mayor Robert Campbell and sheriff's deputies urged the demonstrators to come down, but they refused.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer declined to comment on the protest other than to say, "It's a free country."

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