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U.S. Officials Provide Details on Work With Libyan Nuclear Materials By Joe Fiorill WASHINGTON — Since Libya’s Dec. 19 offer to dismantle its WMD programs, the United States has taken many of the most sensitive nuclear materials out of the African nation and continues to ship more materials, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance Paula DeSutter said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 26). “Significant and dangerous” nuclear weapon-related items and key missile guidance equipment are among materials taken to the U.S. Energy Department’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, DeSutter told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I haven’t had much of a chance to sit back and ponder these momentous changes, but I would have been amazed three months ago if someone had told me that much of the most sensitive Libyan nuclear material was in Tennessee and not in Tripoli,” De Sutter said. Testifying alongside Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns, DeSutter described the removal of “detailed nuclear weapon designs” acquired through the global black market led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan (see GSN, Feb. 24); containers of uranium hexafluoride; centrifuges for enriching uranium; parts, equipment and documentation for such centrifuges; and five Scud C guidance sets, “thereby making inoperable all of Libya’s existing Scud C missiles, produced with extensive assistance from North Korea.” More than 55,000 pounds of Libyan nuclear equipment and documents have been removed from Libya and taken to Oak Ridge, said Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). “We have already brought out of Libya much of the most proliferation-sensitive nuclear items,” said DeSutter, “but only a small percentage of the nuclear equipment by volume. Even as I speak with you today, for instance, our experts are working with Libya to inventory, pack and remove a large quantity of additional equipment related to Libya’s nuclear centrifuge program.” She added that the United States is helping Libya to convert its Tajura reactor into a low-enriched uranium facility and to retrain Libyan “WMD personnel” to do other jobs. An unusual feature of the Libya operation has been the removal to the United States of Libyan materials under International Atomic Energy Agency seal (see GSN, Feb. 6). Describing IAEA-U.S. cooperation on Libya, DeSutter said Libyan weapon designs under IAEA seal “are in U.S. custody,” adding that “some items of centrifuge equipment and the centrifuge documentation were placed under seal” and “segregated and stored separately upon their arrival in the United States.” “The IAEA was invited to be present when the seals were broken on the Libyan nuclear weapons designs a couple of weeks ago here in Washington. Two IAEA officials attended. The IAEA will also be invited to be present when seals are removed on other equipment or items removed from Libya, including the UF6 containers and some centrifuge components,” DeSutter said. With respect to chemical weapons, DeSutter said, Libya had large stockpiles of sulfur mustard and was working on nerve agent and binary programs (see GSN, Feb. 26). “There is no question this was an offensive chemical weapons program,” DeSutter said. According to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Libya was to begin destroying its chemical munitions today. DeSutter said Libya has begun consolidating chemical weapon stocks to better protect them. She said U.S. and British officials have been aiding Tripoli in preparing its first Chemical Weapons Convention declaration and that Libya last month conducted an initial destruction of two chemical bombs. Lifting Sanctions Tricky but Potentially Useful for Threat ReductionThe committee members and administration officials welcomed what they called extraordinary cooperation by Libya since its Dec. 19 announcement. “The success of Libya,” said DeSutter, “is a ray of light in the otherwise dark world of the WMD black market.” On the same day the Bush administration announced it was lifting some sanctions on Libya, the hearing participants stressed a need for caution in offering such rewards to Libya. The senators and officials expressed particular concern over Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanim’s recent claim that his country acknowledged responsibility in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing only for pragmatic purposes. In a statement issued through its official Jamahiriya news agency, Libya expressed regret Wednesday for Ghanim’s remarks. Although all expressed caution about lifting sanctions, some sanctions would have to be lifted for the United States to draw on major nonproliferation programs that are forbidden from operating in countries under sanctions. “The same restrictions that have so successfully imposed pressure on Libya greatly restricted our ability to conduct operations there in order to implement the trilateral elimination and verification program,” DeSutter said. Lugar said some sanctions must be lifted because the State Department’s Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund, the major source of funding for the U.S. efforts in Libya so far, lacks money to complete the task. “NDF is a relatively small program geared for short-term emergencies. It does not have the size, scope or experience to do dismantlement operations, to employ nuclear scientists or undertake longer-term nonproliferation efforts. Other programs will be necessary as we proceed in Libya, and these programs will require waivers or the lifting of some sanctions before they can be used. In particular, the Defense Department’s Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program is well-equipped to deal with Libya’s biological and chemical weapons,” Lugar said. “You’ve got sanctions, and if you have any sanctions, you can’t use Nunn-Lugar money there. Well, our feeling is we better lift those sanctions. In other words, to sit there and to say $50 million is unavailable, a very small State Department fund is all we can do, simply because we don’t have the gumption simply to get rid of whatever the sanctions are so that money can be used, defies common sense,” Lugar said. Top committee Democrat Joseph Biden (Del.) raised the possibility of amending the legislation that underlies the Cooperative Threat Reduction program in order to resolve the situation. “We keep talking about spending Nunn-Lugar monies or any other monies as if we’re doing other countries a favor, and the countries that have these weapons are countries that, as they say in southern Delaware, that ain’t got no money. … They ain’t got no money to destroy the weapons, to help them,” Biden said. “The president should think about … coming up with an agreement whereby we could amend Nunn-Lugar, that he would support with the political capital he has in this place now, to end this mindless debate. … There is a mindset about helping them or helping us, like this is a zero-sum game,” he said. Burns indicated the outlook is uncertain for the lifting of many U.S. measures against Libya, though. “Libya remains on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Before this changes, we will need to confirm that Libya has implemented a strategic decision to repudiate terrorism as a tool of foreign policy and to break with any residual ties it may have to any terrorist organization. This evaluation is ongoing,” he said.
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