Navy resumes bombing on Vieques

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- U.S. Navy jets resumed bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques on Monday after protesters claimed they had broken into the training ground.

In Washington, Pentagon officials said the start of the military training exercises was delayed for a few hours, while the Navy made sure there were no protesters at the on the Camp Garcia range on the far eastern end of the island.

Earlier, protest leaders said between 10 and 20 colleagues had broken onto Navy property. Police said they arrested eight people.

Monday's exercises were met with a small number of protesters compared with previous demonstrations, when hundreds of protesters gathered daily to protest the military exercises that have taken place on the bombing range since 1941.

VIDEO CNN's Bill Schneider says the key player in this week's Vieques political drama is Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderon (June 15) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tells CNN's Jamie McIntyre the Pentagon will find a suitable replacement for the Vieques training range (June 15) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   ALSO Florida eyes Navy training switch from Puerto Rico     TRANSCRIPT England on Vieques

The exercises planned for Monday will involve F-14s, F-18s and EA-6B Prowlers from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.

"We expect to use the range all day," said Lt. Cmdr. Katherine Goode of the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command.

The range where the bombing exercises will take place makes up just 3 percent of this island of 33,000 acres. The training is just a small part of 19 days of exercises for the USS Theodore Roosevelt battle group, which includes 11 vessels and about 10,000 sailors.

Monday's bombing runs on the tiny range are the first since the Bush administration announced last week that the exercises will end on Vieques in May 2003.

On Sunday, the administration defended its decision. Demonstrators allege that the island's residents are at higher risk of cancer and are exposed to dangerous levels of noise. The Navy has responded that the critics' claims are unproven. "I think the secretary of the Navy has come up with a pretty good solution, that is to say, we use Vieques for another two years or so, and during that two-year period, we'll come up with alternatives," Secretary of State Colin Powell said on ABC's "This Week."

The administration's announcement has been strongly criticized by conservative lawmakers in Congress, who dismissed it as a political decision, and by opponents of the bombing, who want it to end immediately.

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, repeated his criticism that key lawmakers were not consulted about the decision.

"I thought that this was not handled the smoothest way possible, and I've said so," Lott said on "CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer." Asked about Bush's rationale that local residents "don't want us there," Lott said he was concerned that could establish a "dangerous precedent" for U.S. military training.

Lott and administration officials faulted the prior Clinton administration for agreeing to submit the issues to a referendum in Vieques.

Former President Clinton had agreed to stop live-fire exercises on the island if, in a referendum, the people of Puerto Rico decided they wanted them to stop. In that November referendum, the islanders were to decide whether to accept a package of economic incentives in return for allowing the Navy to continue using the range after May 2003.

Until then, the Navy is using only inert ordnance on the island. Last week, Bush administration officials said the referendum was no longer needed in light of the latest announcement.

"They need a place where live ordnance can be delivered, and, of course, where it's convenient enough for the forces to be able to get there," retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Eric McVadon told CNN.

Controversy over use of the island for bombing practice has grown since April 1999, when an off-target bomb killed a civilian security guard. In late April, about 180 protesters were arrested at the main gates of the Navy facility on the island during the Navy's resumption of exercises.