NEWS - Sydney 2000 to Ban U.S. Anti

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Subject: NEWS - Sydney 2000 to Ban U.S. Anti-Drugs Czar -Paper

Sydney 2000 to Ban U.S. Anti-Drugs Czar -Paper

2.06 a.m. ET (717 GMT) November 13, 1999
SYDNEY, Australia - Australian Olympic officials have demanded that 
U.S. drug  czar Barry McCaffrey be banned from Sydney 2000 Games venues 
during his visit  to the city next week, a newspaper reported Saturday. 
Australian Olympics Committee president John Coates has told officials 
to refuse  McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National
Drug Control,  access  to Olympic Park for media conferences and tours,
the Weekend Australian newspaper said. 
McCaffrey is to arrive in Sydney on Sunday to attend a major conference
on the  use of drugs in sport. 
Coates fears McCaffrey will use the conference to continue attacking a 
newly  created world anti-doping agency, which is to include 16
Olympics  movement  representatives and 16 government representatives,
the newspaper said. 
The World Anti-Doping Agency or WADA, to be headed by Canadian  lawyer
and  IOC member Dick Pound, was formally established by the
International  Olympic Committee in Switzerland Wednesday. 
WADA is expected to begin operations early next year and should be 
fully  operational by the Sydney Olympics in September. 
McCaffrey, a former U.S. army general, has been lobbying for an
alternative  agency. 
"As far as I'm concerned, McCaffrey may be a four-star general, but he 
does not  even rate one star in the drugs-in-sports arena," Coates said
in a letter  to the  premier of New South Wales state, the paper
reported. 
The attempt to ban McCaffrey threatens to embarrass Australia's prime
minister,  John Howard, who had invited him to play a key role in the
conference. 
Ministers and officials from 27 countries, including China, Russia and
the United  States, are to meet in Sydney next week for the
International Summit on  Drugs in  Sport, at which the future of WADA is
expected to be the main point of  discussion.
Australia Thursday welcomed the creation of an IOC-led anti-doping 
agency but  said it must have a strong mandate on drug testing and full
government  involvement.