U.S. representative to the IAEA Kenneth Brill. Following consultations Brill held with key European nations during the last few days, the IAEA Board of Governors is expected to approve a resolution on Iran’s nuclear program tomorrow (AFP/Getty). IAEA Board Will Not Yet Send Iran Case to Security Council By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors agreed informally yesterday not to refer Iran’s concealed nuclear programs to the U.N. Security Council for now, but appears likely to do so if any new disclosures of Iranian missteps emerge (see GSN, Nov. 24). France, Germany and the United Kingdom late yesterday formally submitted a draft resolution to fellow board members calling for the panel to “meet immediately to consider … all options at its disposal” if a new breach of Iran’s nuclear commitments were to become known. According to diplomats in Vienna, the board appears likely to pass the resolution tomorrow, when it reconvenes after a four-day adjournment...Full Story

White House Advances Nuclear Safeguards Protocol After Receiving Senate Pressure By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — While pressuring Iran to accept greater international monitoring of its nuclear activities, the Bush administration recently proposed long-awaited legislation to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency more access to peaceful U.S. nuclear facilities...Full Story

Jurors Set to Hear Closing Arguments Today in Professor’s Plague Trial Jurors are expected today to hear closing arguments in the case of Texas Tech University professor Thomas Butler, who faces almost 70 charges, including making misleading statements to FBI agents about the fate of vials of plague samples in a January incident, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Nov. 10)...Full Story

	Tuesday, November 25, 2003

U.S. Warns of Al-Qaeda Interest in Attacking Hazardous Materials Sites The U.S. Homeland Security Department last week issued a statement warning of al-Qaeda’s “continued interest” in using hijacked cargo aircraft to attack U.S. hazardous material facilities, such as chemical plants (see GSN, Nov. 24). The department said that a high volume of received reports indicating possible threats against U.S. interests during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan and the U.S. holiday season has created “an atmosphere of concern.” In response, the Homeland Security Department, along with the FBI and the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, has sent an advisory to state and local authorities and security personnel for critical infrastructure targets. The department also said that state and local law enforcement and homeland security officials have been reminded to “maintain a heightened level of awareness, especially during the busy holiday travel season.” There are currently no plans to modify the national terrorism threat alert level, which currently stands at yellow, indicating an “elevated” risk of attack, according to the department (U.S. Homeland Security Department release, Nov. 21). Back to top

IAEA Board Will Not Yet Send Iran Case to Security Council By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors agreed informally yesterday not to refer Iran’s concealed nuclear programs to the U.N. Security Council for now, but appears likely to do so if any new disclosures of Iranian missteps emerge (see GSN, Nov. 24). France, Germany and the United Kingdom late yesterday formally submitted a draft resolution to fellow board members calling for the panel to “meet immediately to consider … all options at its disposal” if a new breach of Iran’s nuclear commitments were to become known. According to diplomats in Vienna, the board appears likely to pass the resolution tomorrow, when it reconvenes after a four-day adjournment. The United States considers the “all options” provision to be a “trigger” that would almost certainly send Iran’s case to the U.N. Security Council ― a move likely to lead to sanctions or other action to isolate Iran ― in case of a new breach, according to a Western diplomat in Vienna. “‘All options,’ in reality, referred to the Security Council,” the diplomat said in describing negotiations on the language. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Akbar Salehi, told Agence France-Presse yesterday that Tehran is “looking for a peaceful resolution of the issue, and I think we are on the right track.” The Western diplomat, however, said a damning report on Iran issued earlier this month by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei (see GSN, Nov. 11) ― along with Iran’s threat last week to go back on its promise to sign the Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement, which would allow for more intrusive IAEA inspections in the country ― has created a climate in which “there would not be a great deal of hesitancy” among the 35 board members to send the matter to the Security Council in case of a new breach. In keeping with the U.S. suspicion that Iran’s recent disclosures reflect only part of its secret nuclear programs and that further revelations are probable, the board would also require under the draft that information provided to date by Iran be verified as “complete.” Washington, which has led the charge in accusing Iran of secret nuclear weapon development, had wanted the board’s current meeting to yield a referral of Iran to the Security Council. In seeking such a move, the United States sought to capitalize on ElBaradei’s report to the board this month indicating that Iran has acknowledged 18 years of systematic concealment of activities including small-scale production of plutonium and low-enriched uranium. The three European sponsors of yesterday’s resolution, though, obtained a promise from Tehran last month to sign up for more intrusive IAEA monitoring and to suspend uranium enrichment, and they floated an initial resolution last week at the board that was far weaker than what the United States had hoped for. The unexpected adjournment Friday gave Washington and the European drafters time to work out the compromise text tabled last night. The board begins meeting at 11 a.m. tomorrow and is expected to pass the current draft by afternoon, diplomats said. By passing the new text, obtained today by Global Security Newswire, the board would welcome Iran’s recent promises of transparency and cooperation but add that it “strongly deplores Iran’s past failures and breaches of its obligations to comply with the provisions of its safeguards agreement.” Use of the term “breach” has emerged as a generally acceptable substitute for a finding of “noncompliance” as sought by the United States. The board would also ask ElBaradei “to take all steps necessary to confirm that the information provided by Iran on its past and present nuclear activities is correct and complete” and endorse “the view of the director general that … the agency must have a particularly robust verification system in place.” “An Additional Protocol, coupled with a policy of full transparency and openness on the part of Iran, is indispensable,” the draft resolution says, adding that Iran must “undertake and complete the taking of all necessary corrective measures on an urgent basis to sustain full cooperation with the agency in implementing Iran’s commitment to full disclosure and unrestricted access.” In the measure’s key passage, the draft resolution says that the board “decides that, should any further serious Iranian failures come to light, the Board of Governors would meet immediately to consider, in the light of the circumstances and of advice from the director general, all options at its disposal, in accordance with the IAEA Statute and Iran’s safeguards agreement.” Options available in those two documents include formally finding Iran in noncompliance with its safeguards agreement and sending the matter to New York. Finally, the board would ask ElBaradei to report on implementation of the resolution by mid-February, ahead of the board’s meeting in March, “or to report earlier if appropriate.” “It’s a wait-and-see mode,” a diplomat said of key countries’ attitude toward Iran under the resolution. “They need to prove themselves. They need to prove their promises through action,” the diplomat said. “If they’re sincere, then that’s great,” the diplomat said, but “we have the trigger that clearly spells out to the Iranians what will happen if they have further breaches of their obligation.” Brookings Institution proliferation expert Michael Levi, however, expressed doubt about the strength of the trigger. “This bridges the immediate U.S.-European divide,” Levi said of the new draft, “but to bring the whole matter to a satisfactory conclusion, there’s going to have to be a lot more in the way of resolving differences between the U.S. and the EU-3 [France, Germany and the United Kingdom]. … There’s a lot of room for interpretation in this.” In particular, Levi cited the fact that further Iranian failures would have to be deemed “serious” under the resolution in order to trigger an emergency board meeting. “That’s a recipe for disagreement in the future,” said Levi. Back to top       White House Advances Nuclear Safeguards Protocol After Receiving Senate Pressure By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — While pressuring Iran to accept greater international monitoring of its nuclear activities, the Bush administration recently proposed long-awaited legislation to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency more access to peaceful U.S. nuclear facilities. The White House delivered its proposal to Congress to advance the U.S. Senate’s consideration the Additional Protocol to the U.S. nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The United States signed the protocol in 1998 and the Bush administration submitted the agreement to the Senate last year, but only Friday proposed legislation to implement the protocol’s requirements (see GSN, May 10, 2002). Senate approval of the protocol is necessary before President George W. Bush can ratify it and bring it into force. The administration faced pressure to submit the legislation from Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.), the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, who has been delaying a Senate confirmation decision on Jackie Sanders, President George W. Bush’s nominee for ambassador to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament. In an early Friday afternoon report, Reuters noted that the Bush administration has been demanding that Iran sign an Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement while the United States has allowed its own protocol adoption process to linger. Later that afternoon, the administration sent its proposal to the committee, but the timing was probably coincidental, a congressional staffer said. The text has not been publicly released. “Biden gets the credit for holding things up,” said David Culp, an analyst with the Friends Committee on National Legislation, adding that the Senate is expected to go out of session this week and so the Sanders confirmation risked delay until next year. U.S. Implementation Called Symbolic The protocols are agreements that parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty have been making to provide the nuclear watchdog agency with greater powers to ensure that non-nuclear states are not seeking nuclear weapons. The protocol was created following the 1991 Gulf War when U.N. inspectors discovered that Iraq had pursued an extensive nuclear weapons program while cooperating fully with the IAEA’s limited inspection powers. With respect to the United States, however, the protocol is largely symbolic because the country is permitted to possess nuclear weapons under the treaty. If ratified the protocol would require more than 100 nuclear-related commercial facilities to provide the IAEA with loose descriptions of their activities. Differing from the protocols for non-nuclear weapons states, the U.S. Additional Protocol permits the United States to prevent IAEA examination of defense-related nuclear activities. Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said the administration’s delay resulted from an interagency dispute over the language. “It has to do with the Pentagon’s concern about access,” he said. A Bush administration official said earlier this month the language had not been sent to Capitol Hill because it was still being reviewed for approval by various agencies. Agreement Viewed as Valuable Although the protocol makes few demands on the United States, Kimball said its adoption was important. “To the extent that the Pentagon or the executive branch or anybody on the Hill reserves the right to make certain exclusions, that’s only going to give other countries ammunition to press for the same thing,” he said. The Bush administration praised the protocol when it first submitted the document to the Senate in May 2002. “By taking this step, the administration underscores U.S. commitment to combating the potential spread of nuclear weapons, as well as demonstrates that that adherence to the Model Protocol does not place other countries at a commercial disadvantage,” the State Department said in a fact sheet. The Bush administration, suspicious of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, has been steadily pushing Iran to sign its Additional Protocol. That would help in “making certain that Iran is acting in a way that provides assurances to the international community of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities,” White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said last June. Iran announced earlier this month that it would sign the protocol, but it may be waiting for the outcome of an IAEA resolution on Iran expected to pass tomorrow (see related GSN story, today). Back to top       India, Pakistan Agree to Cease-Fire The Indian and Pakistani armies agreed to stop exchanging fire across their border, including on the disputed Kashmir frontier, starting at midnight today in the first formal cease-fire between the two nuclear-armed rivals since an Islamic militant insurgency began in India’s portion of divided Jammu-Kashmir in 1989, Associated Press reported. The beginning of the cease-fire marks the Eid al-Fitr festival that ends the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. “Our intent is for an indefinite period,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said. “This definitely is a positive development and validates Pakistan’s call for cease-fire along the Line of Control.” India has accused Pakistan of firing shots to provide cover for Islamic militants, who sneak into the Indian portion of the Himalayan region of Jammu-Kashmir to attack government forces and civilians (Ashok Sharma, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 25). U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday “warmly” welcomed the decision, saying in a statement released by his spokesman that he was “encouraged by recent efforts by the two countries to build confidence in their relations and to address outstanding problems” (U.N. release, Nov. 24). Back to top       North Korean Envoy in Beijing For Talks North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il met with Chinese officials in Beijing over the weekend to discuss six-nation talks on the Korean Peninsula’s nuclear standoff, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Nov. 24). Kim held talks on “bilateral relations and matters of mutual concern between Saturday and Monday,” Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said. Kim “met a member of the Chinese State Council Tang Jiaxuan, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and Vice Ministers of Foreign Affairs Dai Bingguo and Wang Yi,” KCNA added. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Kim indicated that North Korea is willing to scrap its nuclear weapons program. “During the consultations, the D.P.R.K. side reaffirmed the goal of denuclearization and was committed to make further efforts for the second round of six-party talks,” Liu said (Agence France-Presse, Nov. 25). Chronically underpowered North Korea, meanwhile, was able to export electricity to the Chinese border city of Dandong this year. “The sharp increase was attributed to the stable power supply by the D.P.R.K., which is helpful for the normal operation of Chinese factories,” Xinhua News Agency reported (Agence France-Presse II, Nov. 25). Back to top

Jurors Set to Hear Closing Arguments Today in Professor’s Plague Trial Jurors are expected today to hear closing arguments in the case of Texas Tech University professor Thomas Butler, who faces almost 70 charges, including making misleading statements to FBI agents about the fate of vials of plague samples in a January incident, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Nov. 10). In January, Butler reported that 30 vials of plague samples were missing and presumed stolen from his university laboratory. Butler later signed a statement, however, saying that he had destroyed the vials and had misled federal agents. Prosecutors in the case have said that Butler reported the vials as stolen because of a conflict he was having with Texas Tech’s Institutional Review Board, which oversees studies involving humans, according to AP.  Butler could face almost 470 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines if convicted on all counts. He is likely to receive a lesser sentence, however, under federal sentencing guidelines if convicted. Butler testified yesterday that he had no memory of destroying the vials and only said he had done so after an FBI agent had convinced him. “He convinced me it happened, even though I didn’t remember destroying them,” Butler said. “He wanted the concept, ‘I had made a mistake,’” Butler said (Betsy Blaney, Associated Press/Dallas Star-Telegram, Nov. 25). Back to top       U.S. Senator Asks for Review of Vaccine Program U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) plans today to introduce a resolution asking the Defense Department to reconsider its vaccine policy, United Press International reported (see GSN, Nov. 19). The Pentagon acknowledged last week that vaccines probably caused at least one soldier’s death, but defense officials said the program would not be altered. “There is a growing number of disturbing reports about how some of our servicemembers have contracted health problems shortly after receiving the anthrax and smallpox vaccines,” according to Bingaman’s prepared remarks. “These illnesses include mysterious pneumonia-like illnesses, heart problems, blood clots, and other medical conditions that have stricken otherwise young, healthy, and strong military personnel,” he added (Mark Benjamin, United Press International, Nov. 24). Back to top       CDC Issues Warning After Ricin Container Found The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned medical workers on Friday to be aware of possible ricin attacks after a package containing the dangerous agent was discovered at a mail processing facility in South Carolina (see GSN, Oct. 24). The package — which was sealed — was discovered Oct. 15 with a note that threatened to contaminate water supplies, according to the University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP News. Until the person behind the mailing is apprehended, “health care providers and public health officials must consider ricin to be a potential public health threat and be vigilant about recognizing illness consistent with ricin exposure,” the CDC said. Authorities have not found any environmental contamination at the South Carolina facility, according to the CDC (CIDRAP News (University of Minnesota), Nov. 20). Back to top       Biological Samples Stolen From Brazilian Biologist Armed robbers last week stole laboratory samples of cholera and typhoid fever from a Brazilian government biologist who was bringing the dangerous agents to a conference, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 19). The two samples were sealed but would be dangerous if they were removed from their package, according to police and medical officials. Silvio Valle, a biological security expert at the Brazilian government’s Fiocruz institute, appealed to members of the public to contact the research center with information on the missing biological samples.  A Fiocruz biologist was carjacked Thursday while transporting the samples and the car has since been recovered, but the samples are still missing, according to police. Security officials, however, said they believed the thieves were after the car and were not aware that they had stolen dangerous biological agents (Reuters, Nov. 21). Back to top

British Firm Possibly Stopped Potential Chemical Attack Last Year An unidentified British group attempted to buy 1,100 pounds of saponin last year and might have wanted the chemical to create an easily spread chemical weapon, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, Feb. 6). Officials at Amersham Biosciences grew suspicious because of the size of the order and links between the prospective buyer and Islamic organizations. The company stopped the order, which was being processed in Sweden, and alerted authorities. Saponin enhances the transmission of molecules through cells and might have been intended for use with a dangerous chemical such as ricin, according to experts. London police officials would not comment on the incident. The company’s policy is to “consider the potential risk of misuse” of its products and to question “when peculiar orders are placed with us whether we actually should allow them to be delivered,” said Lennart Arlinger, Amersham’s business development director (Associated Press/London Guardian, Nov. 22). Arlinger said the saponin might have been used “as an enhancer of a biological weapon.” Company officials were also cautious after the group claimed it was purchasing the saponin for use as “as fire retardant on rice intended for human consumption” (Stephen Fidler, Financial Times, Nov. 21). Back to top       Russian Chemical Weapons Disposal Plant Opens Lewisite Section The Russian chemical weapons disposal facility in the city of Gorny has begun destroying lewisite, RIA Novosti reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 18). The Gorny facility’s stockpile of more than 250 tons of the chemical weapons agent is expected to be destroyed by the end of 2005 (Alexander Lyogky, RIA Novosti, Nov. 24). Back to top

U.S. Forces in Iraq Investigating Security Lapse That Led to Cobalt Looting U.S. forces in Iraq are investigating the looting of two radioactive sources in September from a military testing site near Baghdad, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, May 12). In early September, Iraqi looters stole two capsules containing cobalt 60 from an Iraqi military test site that is believed to have been used by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime to test the effects of radiation on animals and possibly humans, according to the Times. The capsules were later discovered in the villages of Amiriya and Shamiya. While U.S. experts have said that the cobalt contained in the two capsules could have been used to produce a “dirty bomb,” U.S. military commanders in Iraq have said they believe the looters only wanted the metal for scrap. U.S. officers have said that the two-week delay in discovering the looting may have been caused by a work overload among spy satellite analysts, the Times reported. The head of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, has ordered an investigation into why the test site, which consists of eight 75-foot radioactive testing poles, was not more closely guarded after it was identified in May as a dangerous site, U.S. officials said. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has also taken a personal interest in the investigation, according to the Times. “He’s investigating this in great detail, and he’s personally engaged,” Lt. Col. George Krivo, spokesman for the U.S. command in Baghdad, said, referring to Sanchez. “We will get to the bottom of this,” Krivo said (John Burns, New York Times, Nov. 25). Back to top       Kazakh Authorities Block Radioactive Material Sale A Kazakh man has been given a three-year suspended sentence for attempting to sell small amounts of radioactive material suspected of having been stolen from industrial sites, RFE/RL NewsLine reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 21).  The materials, including curium 243 and cesium 137, were hidden in the man’s apartment and could have been used to produce a “dirty bomb,” a National Security Committee official said (RFE/RL NewsLine, Nov. 24).     Back to top

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