Iranian demonstrators yesterday protested Tehran’s decision to increase its nuclear transparency and called for Iran to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (AFP/Getty). Iran Nuclear Disclosure Lacks Key Information After submitting a report on Iran’s nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency yesterday, an Iranian official acknowledged that the report does not identify the origin of some controversial uranium enrichment technology (see GSN, Oct. 23)...Full Story

U.S. Senate Panel Preparing Harsh Report on Prewar Iraq Intelligence Congressional officials have said that the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is preparing a harsh report on prewar U.S. intelligence on Iraq that criticizes CIA Director George Tenet, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 22)...Full Story

U.S. Looks to Loosen Export Restrictions on Computer Development and Production Technology By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Urged by the computer technology industry, the U.S. Commerce Department has proposed to significantly relax national security export controls on the technology to develop and build some of the most powerful computers and advanced microprocessors. The restrictions were originally created to prevent nations of proliferation concern from acquiring advanced computers...Full Story

	Friday, October 24, 2003

Ridge Announces New Maritime Security Regulations U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge yesterday announced a new set of maritime security regualtions designed to better improve U.S. ships and ports against a possible terrorist attack (see GSN, July 2). Under the new regulations, maritime vessel and facility operators will be required to conduct security assessments and to develop security plans that must be submitted to the U.S. Coast Guard for approval, according to a Homeland Security press release. In addition, vessels and facilities are required to increase security as the terrorism threat alert level increases. The regulations also require that security officers be designated for each vessel and facility and that Automatic Identification Systems be installed on all large ships, the department release said. The new regulations were published in the Federal Register Wednesday and replace interim rules that were issued in July. “With 95 percent of our nation’s overseas cargo carried by ship, maritime security is critical to ensuring our nation's homeland and economic security,” Ridge said (U.S. Homeland Security Department release, Oct. 23). All U.S. ports are required to have a security plan in place by July, Ridge said. Some maritime officials are concerned, however, with the economic and operational challenges they expect to face when implementing the new regulations, according to the Baltimore Sun. “There is not enough money to go around, yet the mandate is there,” said Helen Delich Bentley, a port consultant in Baltimore. “This is going to take an awful lot of doing,” she said. The Coast Guard has estimated that the required security improvements will cost $7.3 billion, the Sun reported. Only about $400 million in federal funding, however, has been allocated for maritime security (Meredith Cohn, Baltimore Sun, Oct. 24). Ridge yesterday acknowledged concerns over paying for the new security improvements, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We still have to conclude who’s to pay for what share of what,” he said. Ridge also said that his department would need to “look more aggressively” at businesses that use ports to help cover the cost of new security measures. “Now is the time for us to have that very important public discussion with regard to the balance between public and private dollars to pay for security around private-sector assets,” he said (Jennifer Lin, Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 24). Back to top

U.S. Senate Panel Preparing Harsh Report on Prewar Iraq Intelligence Congressional officials have said that the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is preparing a harsh report on prewar U.S. intelligence on Iraq that criticizes CIA Director George Tenet, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 22). Committee staff members were surprised by the large amount of circumstantial, single-source or disputed intelligence used to prepare key documents, such as the October 2002 national intelligence estimate on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, according to Democratic and Republican sources. Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) said the prewar intelligence was sometimes “sloppy” and inconclusive. “That’s a concern I have with the total report” on Iraq, he said, adding that U.S. President George W. Bush had been “ill-served by the intelligence community.” The Senate committee’s report on prewar intelligence will be more critical and better substantiated than the nearly completed report being prepared by the House intelligence committee, congressional sources said. The Senate committee’s staff interviewed more than 100 people who were involved in gathering and analyzing the intelligence used to base Bush administration claims on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the Post reported. CIA spokesman Bill Harlow defended the agency’s performance. “The NIE reflects 10 years of work regarding Iraq’s WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programs. It is based on many sources and disciplines, both ours and those of partners around the world,” Harlow said (Dana Priest, Washington Post, Oct. 24). A senior intelligence expert, however, has charged that the assessment was rushed. “The NIE was hastily done in three weeks,” the expert said. “It was a cut-and-paste job, with agencies and officials given only one day to review the draft final product when they usually take months. … Today they still disagree on the meaning of what came out,” the expert added (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, Oct. 24). Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel, has come under pressure by Senate Democratic leaders to force the committee into investigating whether senior White House officials, including Bush himself, exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq, according to the Post. It is unclear, however, if the committee has the jurisdiction for such a move, and the White House could claim executive privilege to avoid releasing information related to internal discussions, the Post reported. Rockefeller said that if committee Republicans refused to investigate the White House’s use of prewar intelligence, he had the five votes necessary under committee rules to begin such an investigation. “We’re going to get this one way or the other,” Rockefeller said yesterday. “If the majority declines to put the executive branch at risk, then they are going to have a very difficult minority to deal with,” he added (Priest, Washington Post). Back to top       U.S. Looks to Loosen Export Restrictions on Computer Development and Production Technology By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Urged by the computer technology industry, the U.S. Commerce Department has proposed to significantly relax national security export controls on the technology to develop and build some of the most powerful computers and advanced microprocessors. The restrictions were originally created to prevent nations of proliferation concern from acquiring advanced computers. The plan, which currently is in the proposal stage and was announced in today’s Federal Register, would continue an industry-backed trend of easing high-performance computer export restrictions that began in the early years of the Clinton administration and has continued into the Bush administration (see GSN, Jan. 3, 2002).  It differs from most past changes, though, by easing controls on the technology for developing and producing the computers in such countries, rather than on the actual computers. Under the regulation change, countries identified in federal regulations as “Tier 3” nations — those of proliferation concern, such as Algeria, China, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia — would be eligible to import the software and technology for developing and producing higher-performance computers without a Commerce Department security check and license. The plan calls for giving Tier 3 nations access to technology for developing computers that can process up to 75,000 millions of theoretical operations per second (MTOPS) without the Commerce scrutiny. Current regulations prevent most nations from acquiring U.S. development and production technology for computers that operate over 33,000 MTOPS without a Commerce license. The regulations would continue to allow Tier 3 countries to import actual computers capable of performing 190,000 MTOPS without Commerce issuing a license following a security check. U.S. President George W. Bush raised it to that level in 2002, from 85,000 MTOPS set by President Bill Clinton. Prior to 1996, such countries were not allowed to buy U.S. computers with a capability comparable to today’s desktop computers, about 2,000 MTOPS, without first receiving a Commerce review. The reason for having the restrictions, experts say, is that high-performance computers could be used to, among other things, develop new nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capabilities and conduct advanced encryption and code-breaking that could erode U.S. military’s qualitative advantages. “We still don’t seem to have learned the real lesson from 9/11 and that’s that we need to make export controls stronger, rather than weaker,” said Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. “In the past the GAO [General Accounting Office] has found that each time Commerce has relaxed controls on computers it was done to accommodate industry rather than on a rational basis.” The high-performance computer sector argues the proposed changes are a matter of practicality. “Industry has requested that BIS [the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security] raise the Composite Theoretical Performance (CTP) eligibility level for computer and microprocessor technology and software to correspond with that for equipment, in order to enable companies to provide access to this technology and software to foreign nationals working in their U.S. and foreign facilities,” the proposed rule says. Industry has advocated eliminating the MTOPS restrictions altogether. “The first step towards establishment of a more modern, effective system must be for Congress to remove the “MTOPS handcuffs,” says the industry-backed Computer Coalition for Responsible Exports in “talking points” posted on its Web site. The proposed rule is intended “to solicit public comments to assist [the BIS] in evaluating the effect of the proposed amendments,” said the proposed rule’s text. Changes for Other Countries The proposal also would ease similar restrictions for dozens of “Tier 1” countries that the United States does not consider to pose a proliferation threat, such as Argentina, Botswana, Congo, Iceland, South Korea, Peru and Zimbabwe. Those countries would be able to obtain U.S. software and production technology without prior Commerce scrutiny for computers up to 150,000 MTOPS. Under the previous Bush change, such countries already can import U.S. computers of any speed. For a select group of major developed countries in Tier 1, including the United Kingdom, France, Japan and South Korea, all licensing requirements could be waived. The high-performance computer sector has argued the MTOPS restrictions do not prevent the advancement of computer technology worldwide because countries can simply link up lesser computers together to make more powerful computers. The proposed rule also asks industry to suggest alternatives for a different parameter other than MTOPS for restricting sensitive computer exports. Back to top

Iran Nuclear Disclosure Lacks Key Information After submitting a report on Iran’s nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency yesterday, an Iranian official acknowledged that the report does not identify the origin of some controversial uranium enrichment technology (see GSN, Oct. 23). Speaking to reporters shortly after receiving the report, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said he hoped it would include all the information the IAEA sought. “We have asked … to know the origin of the equipment,” ElBaradei said. “I was assured that the report I got today is a comprehensive and accurate declaration,” he added. Iran’s chief IAEA delegate Ali Akbar Salehi, however, later said Iran did not disclose where it acquired some equipment. “How can you give the (equipment’s) origin … if you have taken it from the intermediaries on the foreign market?” he said. At issue are uranium enrichment centrifuges in which IAEA inspectors found traces of highly enriched uranium, suggesting the possibility that Iran has created nuclear bomb material in violation of its Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty commitments. Iranian officials have denied enriching any uranium and have said the IAEA findings must have resulted from activity conducted by the equipment’s previous owner (George Jahn, Associated Press/Arizona Republic, Oct. 24). Recent Finds A diplomat in Vienna said that IAEA inspectors have recently discovered other potentially hidden nuclear activities in Iran, including centrifuge work and laser technology development to enrich uranium. Some of the new discoveries were made during inspections at installations only recently opened to agency officials. A team of IAEA inspectors is scheduled to return to Iran tomorrow to confirm information contained in the recently submitted dossier. That process could take weeks, ElBaradei said (Douglas Frantz, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 24). Additional Protocol ElBaradei yesterday said that Salehi had told him to expect a letter from Iran “in the next few days” that would confirm Iran’s intention to sign the Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement. Once in effect, the protocol would “enable us to regulate all future nuclear activities in Iran,” ElBaradei said (IAEA release, Oct. 23). Meanwhile, 1500 Iranian hard-liners in Tehran today protested the decision to sign the protocol. They called for Iran to withdraw from the NPT and some wore white shrouds to indicate their willingness to die for their beliefs, according to the Associated Press (Associated Press/KPLC-TV.com, Oct. 24). Back to top       Top Chinese Official Scheduled for Pyongyang Visit A senior Chinese official is due to make the highest-level Chinese visit to North Korea in more than two years, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 23). Wu Bangguo, head of the Chinese legislature, will lead the delegation next week and some White House officials are seeing the visit as a step towards another round of six-nation nuclear negotiations, according to the Post. U.S. President George W. Bush last week laid out a plan that would offer North Korea a multinational security assurance, but Pyongyang has called the proposal “laughable.” U.S. efforts to spur another round of nuclear talks are “a very impudent artifice to sidestep the issue and evade its responsibility for its settlement,” according to North Korean state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun. U.S. officials said they expected officials at the North Korean U.N. mission in New York to establish contact and respond to the push for new talks. “The New York channel is not a negotiating forum,” said a U.S. official, adding that North Korea “can use it to deliver a response or a statement. That’s usually what they do when they’re feeling under pressure — they lay down a piece of paper” (Mike Allen, Washington Post, Oct. 24). Back to top       Pakistan Criticizes Report of Nuclear Cooperation With Saudi Arabia Pakistan today criticized a recent Washington Times report alleging that Islamabad had entered into an agreement with Saudi Arabia to help the kingdom develop nuclear weapons (see GSN, Oct. 22). In a letter to the Times published today, Talat Waseem, spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, said Pakistan was “disappointed” by the newspaper’s decision to run “such a fatuous story.” No U.S. officials have mentioned anything about such an agreement to their Pakistani counterparts, Waseem said. “Pakistan’s commitment to nonproliferation … is beyond question,” Waseem wrote. “No one does a service to nonproliferation or the war on terror by reflexively calling into question Pakistan’s commitments on these issues,” Waseem added (Talat Waseem, Washington Times, Oct. 24). Back to top

Postal Facility Free of Ricin After Vial Intercepted There is no evidence that a South Carolina postal facility became contaminated with ricin after a letter containing a vial of the toxin arrived there last week, FBI officials said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 23). The vial, found inside a letter at the facility in Greenville, S.C., tested positive for ricin last week, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The outside of the letter’s envelope carried the typewritten message: “caution-Ricin-poison,” according to a statement from the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office.  The full results of the facility tests were not expected to be available until this morning, according to U.S. Postal Service spokesman Gerry McKiernan. Postal officials would then decide whether to reopen the closed facility (Associated Press/CNN.com, Oct. 24). Back to top

U.S. Army Mishandled Community Outreach on Ohio Chemical Weapons Disposal Plan, Critics Charge The U.S. Army failed to recognize how much resistance Montgomery County, Ohio, residents would offer to an Army contractor’s plan to dispose of chemical weapons diposal byproducts in the county wastewater treatment system, environmental activists said this week (see GSN, Oct. 17). Parsons, the contractor responsible for disposing of the Army’s VX nerve agent stockpiles at Newport, Ind., last week cancelled plans to use a county firm to treat a chemical neutralization byproduct and dispose of the resulting mixture in the local sewage system. The cancellation followed the county’s refusal to issue a permit for using its system. At a U.S. congressional field hearing held Wednesday in Dayton, county officials and local activists criticized the Army and its contractors for failing to explain its plans. “I think the Army really underestimated the ability of the community to understand the information, make decisions and act for themselves,” said Jane Forrest Redfern, the environmental project director for Ohio Citizen Action. Parsons officials testified that the permit denial caused them to cancel their plans, not the public disapproval of their plans. Although the contract for disposing of the byproducts appeared to require a subcontractor to gain “public acceptance” of its plans, Parsons officials said they believed the subcontractor was only required to notify local officials and hold public awareness sessions to “establish a measure of public acceptance” (Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News, Oct. 23). Back to top

GMD Booster Test Suffers Additional Delay A planned test of a missile interceptor booster for use in the U.S. Ground-based Midcourse Defense system has been delayed, U.S. Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rick Lehner said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 10). The test, which would involve the first launch of a booster designed by U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, is now set to occur in the second half of November, Lehner said. The test had previously been postponed from September to October, according to Aerospace Daily. Lehner said the test was delayed because of Lockheed Martin’s desire to conduct more ground testing of booster components and the need to document the work done on the booster. “They’ll launch it when it’s ready to launch,” Lehner said. “We’re just being extra careful,” he added (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, Oct. 24). Back to top       Most U.S. Military Officers Ignorant of Missile Defense Capabilities Many U.S. military officers believe the United States has deployed national missile defense systems that are, in fact, only under development, according to a recent study by the Naval War College, the Wall Street Journal reported today. According to the study, only 37 percent of U.S. military officers know that the United States is not able to shoot down a ballistic missile with an airborne laser (see GSN, Sept. 3). More than 20 percent of officers believe that the United States has a sea-based national missile defense system, which is not the case (see GSN, Oct. 14). Forty-three percent said they did not know if the United States had a sea-based system. Naval officers scored lowest in the study and Marine officers scored highest (Jackie Calmes, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 24). Back to top

U.S. Firm Fined for Poor Nuclear Material Accounting The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined Nuclear Fuel Services $60,000 for violating nuclear material control requirements, the commission announced Monday (see GSN, Oct. 22). NRC Administrator Luis Reyes has informed the company that, after several NRC investigations, the commission has determined that NFS could not account for a “substantial amount” of nuclear material at a facility in Erwin, Tenn., for a six-week period in June 2001, according to a commission press release. While the material was later found in a secure storage vault and therefore posed no threat to company workers or the public, Reyes said in his letter that the violations related to the missing material were considered to be a “significant breakdown” in NFS’s ability to control nuclear materials. The commission said in its release that it was satisfied that NFS had taken the appropriate corrective actions. The commission has imposed a fine double that of the $30,000 base penalty for similar violations, however, because of concerns that NFS did not properly address the incident and because the company has been subjected to escalated enforcement in the past two years. NFS has 30 days from receiving Reyes’ letter to either appeal or pay the fine (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission release, Oct. 20).   Back to top

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

© Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.