ALBRIGHT LETTER

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@cpeo.org>]

Below is the letter referred to in today's early posting excerpted from
Defense Environmental Alert

Aimee Houghton
*****************

January 16, 1998

The Honorable Madeleine K. Albright
Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20520

RE: Executive Order 12114 -- overseas military related effects

Dear Secretary Albright:

Friends of the Earth is very concerned that the Department of State has
not applied Executive Order 12114 to the environmental effects of
military-related activities in host nations and overseas. Almost 20
years have passed since President Jimmy Carter signed the Executive
Order and there has been no procedures put into place. Serious
problems have arisen again and again, particularly since the end of the
Cold War, and the Department of State has neither developed appropriate
procedures nor implemented the required exchange program called for in
Section 2-2.

By this action, the Department of State has deprived key
decision-makers, including yourself, of a critical and elemental tool to
address military-related environmental problems outside our nation's
borders. Tensions with former and active host nations have reached the
point that they are bypassing the Department of State and the
Department of Defense and going directly to Congress -- even on as
basic an issue as information release.

Friends of the Earth would like to request a meeting with you to go
over these problems. The time has come to implement EO 12114 for all
active and closed host nation bases and ranges and other
demilitarization activities, including applying Section 2-3 (c)(1) to
the proposed marine floating heliport in Okinawa. The Department of
State must assure that decision makers are afforded the information
they need to reflect and make reasonable diplomatic, national security,
and international commercial, competitive and export promotion
decisions. And it is critical that the Department of State fulfill its
responsibility to facilitate information exchange between affected
nations and federal agencies.

Thank you for consideration of this issue so vital to the future of our
nation and the world. We look forward to meeting with you at your
earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Brent Blackwelder
President