Vieques bombing exercises set to resume

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- The number of protesters dwindled to a handful on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques on Monday morning as U.S. military bombing exercises were set to resume.

The scene outside Camp Garcia was laid back, with a smattering of protesters milling about as dawn broke -- a sharp contrast from past demonstrations when hundreds of protesters gathered daily to protest the military exercises that have taken place here since 1941.

The exercises 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. "There is no evidence of any protesters or trespassers out on the range. No boats have gotten close enough to drop people off."

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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 comprises 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.

In 2000, President Bill 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 October 1999, when a 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.