Iran’s Russian-built nuclear power plant under construction at Bushehr. Russia announced this week that it would continue nuclear aid to Iran despite an international report disclosing that Iran has concealed an extensive nuclear program for years (AFP/Getty). Iran Plays Down IAEA Report Describing Hidden Nuclear Activity Iranian officials dismissed an International Atomic Energy Agency report circulated this week that concludes that Tehran concealed an extensive nuclear program for years, Reuters reported today. The report, however, says the agency has not discovered evidence of a nuclear weapons program (see GSN, Nov. 12)...Full Story

U.S. Senate Approves Syria Sanctions Bill By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate yesterday voted 89-4 to pass a bill that would enact economic sanctions against Syria if it failed to end its suspected efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and its alleged support for terrorist organizations (see GSN, Nov. 5)...Full Story

North Korea Threatens Seizure of Nuclear Construction Equipment, Materials North Korea said yesterday that it would seize equipment from the site where an international consortium has been building two nuclear power plants unless the United States pays a “penalty” for suspending the project (see GSN, Nov. 11)...Full Story

	Wednesday, November 12, 2003

U.S. Senate Approves Syria Sanctions Bill By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate yesterday voted 89-4 to pass a bill that would enact economic sanctions against Syria if it failed to end its suspected efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and its alleged support for terrorist organizations (see GSN, Nov. 5). The bill, the Syria Accountability Act, would prohibit U.S. military and dual-use exports to Syria. It would also require the president to impose at least two of six additional sanctions included the bill, such as a freeze of Syrian assets and a downgrading of U.S. diplomatic representation. The sanctions could only be lifted if the president certified that four conditions were met, including that Syria no longer provides support for terrorism, that Syria removes all military, intelligence and security personnel from Lebanon and that Syria ceases the development of biological and chemical weapons and the development and deployment of medium- and long-range ballistic missiles. Under the Senate version of the bill, the president would have the authority to waive both the military and dual-use export ban and the additional sanctions for national security reasons. The nearly identical House version of the bill, overwhelmingly approved last month, would only allow the president to waive the six additional sanctions. According to the New York Times today, Senate supporters of the bill have said that the House would support the expanded waiver authority. During yesterday’s debate on the bill, senators from both parties spoke in favor of the legislation, as reported in the Congressional Record. “Had our years of entreaties to the Syrians not fallen on deaf ears, and had promises from Syria over the last several years not turned out to be little more than empty rhetoric, this bill might not have been necessary,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).  “However, it appears to many of us that the point where we can continue to sit back and hope for Syria to change course has passed. The time has come to show Syria that continued inaction will no longer be tolerated and will come at a price,” he said. “I do not know if this bill will motivate Damascus to cross the fence and joined the antiterror coalition of civilized nations. I suspect that to believe so would be Pollyannaish. But I do believe that the way we act today will declare to the Damascus dictatorship that there are costs to being on the wrong side of the fence in the war on terror,” Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said. Syria today criticized the Senate’s approval of the bill, according to reports. “The Senate voted as expected for economic and diplomatic sanctions against Syria because of its support for the resistance of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation,” Agence France-Presse today quoted the official SANA news agency as saying. The four senators who voted against the bill yesterday were Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.). During yesterday’s floor debate, Byrd said he opposed the bill because of concerns it could lead to a U.S. invasion of Syria. “The findings, statements of policy and sense of Congress provisions in the Syria Accountability Act could be used to build a case against Syria that could too easily be hyped to imply congressional support for pre-emptive action against that rogue state,” Byrd said. Back to top       Indian Naval WMD Defense School to Expand The Indian Navy’s NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) Defense School is preparing to expand to better train Indian military personnel to respond to WMD attacks, the Express News Service reported today. In addition to the planned expansion, there will also be increased coordination in the school’s training exercises involving Air Force, Army and Navy personnel, according to Express News Service. The school was commissioned in 1953 and trains more than 3,000 people every year (Express News Service/PUNE Newsline, Nov. 12). Back to top       U.S. Senate Set to Approve Fiscal 2004 Defense Authorization Bill The U.S. Senate is expected to approve soon the completed fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill, with a vote expected as early as today, according to the New York Times (see GSN, Nov. 11). The bill was completed by House-Senate negotiators and approved by the full House of Representatives last week. The bill contains the entire Bush administration request of $451 million for the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which assists efforts to destroy WMD stockpiles in the former Soviet Union. The House had proposed cutting $29 million in funding from the program’s efforts to assist in chemical weapons disposal (David Firestone, New York Times, Nov. 12). The bill would also authorize more than $9 billion in missile defense spending, the Associated Press reported (Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press, Nov. 12). Back to top

Iran Plays Down IAEA Report Describing Hidden Nuclear Activity Iranian officials dismissed an International Atomic Energy Agency report circulated this week that concludes that Tehran concealed an extensive nuclear program for years, Reuters reported today. The report, however, says the agency has not discovered evidence of a nuclear weapons program (see GSN, Nov. 12). “The failures attributed to Iran are insignificant and are at the level of gram and microgram of nuclear materials,” said Iran’s IAEA representative Ali Akbar Salehi (Reuters/Jordan Times, Nov. 12). The report says that recent Iranian disclosures “clearly show that in the past, Iran had concealed many aspects of its nuclear activities, which resulted in breaches of its obligations of the safeguard agreement” (George Jahn, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 11). Iranian President Mohammad Khatami also dismissed the infractions as minor, Reuters reported. “Naturally during 20 years of nuclear activities there were some failures. But that does not mean we violated or moved outside the framework of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,” Khatami said. “We have repeated so many times, myself, the (Supreme) Leader and other officials, that we are not following the path of pursuing nuclear weapons. It’s not important what machinery we have, it’s important that we are not pursuing nuclear weapons,” he added (Reuters, Nov. 12). Salehi said the “matter is closed” because the report cites failures that “correspond to the past (and) corrective measures have been taken.” The allegations concern “experiments in laboratories which we should have declared to the agency,” Salehi added (Kessler/Warrick, Washington Post, Nov. 12). The United States has accused Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons, but some international officials agreed with Iran that the report lifts some pressure off of Tehran. “In some ways the report is so damning that it strengthens the U.S. position but in other ways it weakens it because Iran is now doing things and other board members might say, ‘let’s not spook them,’” a Western diplomat in Vienna said (Khalaf/Dempsey, Financial Times, Nov. 12). Another diplomat in Vienna, however, said that it looks as if Iran was developing nuclear weapons. “What are the Iranians doing producing plutonium when all they supposedly want is a light water reactor,” which uses low enriched uranium, the diplomat said (Anton La Guardia, London Telegraph, Nov. 12). U.S. officials and proliferation experts said the report was damning. “Iran’s nuclear weapons program and its now well-documented pattern of Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty safeguard violations are deeply troubling,” said a senior State Department official. “The United States will work with other IAEA board members to ensure that the Nov. 20 board meeting in Vienna takes the appropriate action,” the official added. The official said that the report “reinforces our concerns,” and that “Iran has no peaceful need for uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing” (Tom Carter, Washington Times, Nov. 12). According to the IAEA report, Iran developed a program to purify uranium with lasers. That method can theoretically be used to produce fuel for commercial reactors but it is not traditionally used because it is extremely expensive and uneconomical. “The technology and physics are not easy,” said Steve Fetter, a physicist at the University of Maryland. “It’s probably the most difficult of all the enrichment techniques to master,” he added. The report said that Iran explored laser enrichment technology between October 2002 and January 2003. Iranian officials said the plant was taken apart in May. U.S. experts, however, were skeptical of claims that Iran’s nuclear development was entirely for civilian power. “It’s dumbfounding that the IAEA, after saying that Iran for 18 years had a secret effort to enrich uranium and separate plutonium, would turn around and say there was no evidence of a nuclear weapons program,” said Thomas Cochran, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. “If that’s not evidence, I don’t know what is,” he added. Paul Leventhal, president of the Nuclear Control Institute, said the IAEA was turning a blind eye to Tehran’s true motives. “Iran is an example,” he said, “of what happens when you let the rhetoric of Atoms for Peace take precedence over the hard realities of a nation that supports terrorism going nuclear” (Sanger/Broad, New York Times, Nov. 12). The United States, reportedly, will urge the IAEA Board of Governors to push the Iran issue to the U.N. Security Council, the Financial Times reported. Some European officials are opposed to this option. “We would lose all leverage over Iran if it was referred to the Security Council. Vienna must remain the place for negotiations,” a European Union diplomat said (Khalaf/Dempsey, Financial Times). Khatami said that he does not expect the issue to go to the Security Council. “I am sure there will be no problem if they handle the case technically and legally. If the case is handled in a politically motivated way, we consider it our right to adopt different measures, but I am optimistic,” he said (Reuters, Nov. 12). British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw broke with his U.S. allies and emphasized Tehran’s recent progress. “We should be reacting calmly to the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Straw said. “This report, which certainly is very worrying in terms of what it discloses, also shows a pretty high level of cooperation,” he added (Reuters II, Nov. 12). Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Moscow would continue providing nuclear assistance to Iran. “I can see no obstacles to nuclear cooperation with Iran in this situation,” Putin said (Seth Mydans, New York Times, Nov. 11). Back to top       North Korea Threatens Seizure of Nuclear Construction Equipment, Materials North Korea said yesterday that it would seize equipment from the site where an international consortium has been building two nuclear power plants unless the United States pays a “penalty” for suspending the project (see GSN, Nov. 11). The facilities were being built to provide civilian energy to power-starved North Korea, but the United States, South Korea, Japan and the European Union decided to suspend the project because of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons development. Some U.S. officials have indicated that the suspension is, in effect, the end of the construction effort. “The U.S. should pay damages for the breach of contract without delay,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said. “We will never allow the U.S. to take out facilities, equipment and materials for the light-water reactor construction and technical documents now in the Kumho area unless the U.S. pays a penalty,” the spokesman added. Washington has asked North Korea to allow the removal of the equipment, the Associated Press reported (Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, Nov. 12). A panel of experts in Washington last week said that North Korea would not gain any nuclear knowledge or equipment by seizing the site. There is “nothing sensitive” at the construction site, said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security. “It’s a threatening comment,” Albright said, “it’s North Korea demonstrating its displeasure.” John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, agreed that North Korea had little to gain by seizing the site. “It’s a big hole in the ground,” Pike said, adding that there is “nothing there of significance” (David McGlinchey, Global Security Newswire, Nov. 12). Date Set for Next Talks? A new round of six-nation talks on the nuclear standoff, meanwhile, is expected to be held in Beijing from Dec. 10 to Dec. 13, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence France-Presse, Nov. 12). South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan said that he expects talks this year. “Opinions of related countries appear to be converging in that direction,” Yoon said. “At this point, I think there is a considerable possibility of (the nuclear talks) taking place this year,” he added (Yonhap News Agency/BBC Monitoring, Nov. 12). Back to top       Eritrea Joins Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Eritrea yesterday submitted its ratification to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to the CTBTO Organization (see GSN, Nov. 3). To date, 170 countries have signed the CTBT and 108 have ratified it, including 32 of the 44 nations whose ratifications are necessary for the treaty to enter into force (CTBT Organization release, Nov. 12). Back to top

U.S. Senator Accuses Administration of Failing to Conduct Laboratory Security Checks U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) has charged the Bush administration with failing to conduct required security reviews on U.S. laboratories and scientists that work with dangerous biological pathogens, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Nov. 10). In a letter sent last week to three Cabinet secretaries, Lieberman said that “it appears that the administration has not acted forcefully and expeditiously” to meet the Nov. 12 deadline — set by the 2002 Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act — to conduct the background and security checks. According to Lieberman, as of last week U.S agencies had not yet certified any laboratories or researchers as being in full compliance with the law and that 5,400 out of 9,000 security reviews of scientists had been conducted, the Post reported. He also wrote in his letter that the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments had not assigned adequate staff to conduct the security checks. A Bush administration official attributed the delays to the number of agencies involved, according to the Post (John Mintz, Washington Post, Nov. 12). Back to top       Smallpox Vaccine Provides Some Protection for at Least 50 Years The human body’s “immune memory” from a smallpox vaccination lasts for at least 50 years, suggesting that people inoculated before the smallpox eradication program ended in the early 1970s still have some protection against the disease, researchers at Emory University announced Monday (see GSN, Aug. 18). Emory Vaccine Center Director Rafi Ahmed led the study, published this week in the Journal of Immunology, which concluded that the smallpox immunity declines after a vaccination but then plateaus and maintains the same level for about 50 years. “Our findings my be useful as decisions are made about reinstituting a smallpox vaccination program,” Ahmed said. Shane Crotty, a professor at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, was the first author on the study. “Our findings may help assist health authorities in their decision-making process about updates or changes to the smallpox vaccination program,” Crotty said. “Our work has not shown that these people would be protected, because that cannot be directly tested, and this is an important point. But, our study does show that people maintain immune memory against smallpox for many decades, and hopefully those levels of immune memory would provide at least some amount of protection against smallpox,” he added (Emory University release, Nov. 10). Back to top

Missile Defense Agency Happy With Simultaneous Booster Development U.S. Missile Defense Agency officials have said their decision to have two companies simultaneously develop a missile interceptor booster rocket was vindicated when one of those firms suffered major setbacks, Aerospace Daily reported today (see GSN, Nov. 10). The agency decided last week to first use a booster developed by Orbital Sciences, instead of one by Lockheed Martin that was delayed by accidents at a rocket fuel production facility. “You never know what kind of contingency’s going to come up, and it paid off for sure this time,” said MDA spokesman Rick Lehner. Despite the setback, Lockheed Martin would still be asked to develop its booster, according to Lehner. “We’re certain they’ll come back,” he said. “It’s just a matter of them finding (a) facility for propellant mixing, which they’ll certainly do, so we fully intend to use their missiles down the line,” Lehner added (Rich Tuttle, Aerospace Daily, Nov. 11). Agency officials are also trying to test the recent progress made in developing the battle command management and control system that will direct the initial national missile defense system due to be fielded late next year.  The MDA is having trouble, however, because it is proving difficult to conduct a test which simulates the flightpath that a North Korean would be expected to fly, Inside Missile Defense reported today. The U.S. aim is to test the Cobra Dane early warning radar system in Alaska, but the agency is unable to launch a mock target from East Asia (see GSN, Sept. 23). “The hard part is to get a target that comes in the right direction toward Cobra Dane, because that is not a launch site for us,” a Defense Department official said. Officials are investigating the possibility of launching the target from an aircraft or a sea-based platform. “Cobra Dane is particularly problematic because of where it is,” the official said. “There are a lot of things you can do not in an end-to-end fashion. There are foreign missile launches that Cobra Dane can see that can stimulate the radar, and you can understand how the radar sees that launch and you can simulate the rest of the engagement. But those aren’t (missiles) we would intercept,” the official added (Thomas Duffy, Inside Missile Defense, Nov. 12). Back to top

Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site Is on Schedule, Abraham Says By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Monday that he was “confident” that the Energy Department would meet a December 2004 deadline for the next stage in the department’s efforts to build a long-term nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada (see GSN, Nov. 6). During remarks at the National Press Club here, Abraham said the department would be able to meet its deadline for submitting a licensing application for the planned repository to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He warned, however, that “this will not be easy.” Abraham noted the “mechanical challenges” and funding concerns still facing the planned repository, which is currently scheduled to begin operation in 2010.   “We haven’t received the funding levels which have been requested, and then we’re criticized when we don’t meet deadlines that were dependent on having sufficient funds to conduct the work that’s required,” he said. Last week, House and Senate negotiators approved a compromise fiscal 2004 energy appropriations bill that provides $580 million for the Yucca Mountain project. The Bush administration had initially requested $591 million for the project, and the House of Representatives and the Senate had respectively approved $765 million and $425 million in their respective energy spending bills.   Yucca Mountain supporters in Congress have said the compromise funding is adequate to keep the project on track, according to reports. “The experts say we have a number that will keep the project right on schedule,” Energy Daily last week quoted Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) as saying. In his remarks, Abraham said the department had not finalized the transportation routes that would be used to ship nuclear waste from around the country to Yucca Mountain by road and rail. That process could be further delayed if the project receives inadequate funding, he said. “I can’t give a specific date, but I will also say that doing it right will also require sufficient funding. And so, it’s an important thing for us to have the funds we require for these programs, or else it takes longer to do them,” Abraham said.   Back to top

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