Top European Union officials Bernard Bot (second from left) and Javier Solana (right) signed a joint declaration on nonproliferation with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (not picured) during an EU-China summit yesterday at The Hague. Also pictured are Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (left), Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (center) and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (AFP photo/G. Boulougouris). China, EU to Increase Nonproliferation Cooperation By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — China and the European Union yesterday agreed to strengthen their cooperation in a number of areas related to arms control and nonproliferation (see GSN, Nov. 26). Increased collaboration was the focus of a seven-page joint declaration released today following a summit at The Hague between top Chinese and EU officials. The declaration was signed by Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Li Zhaoxing, EU Council of Ministers President Bernard Bot and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana...Full Story

CIA Operative Sues Agency, Claims He Was Pressured to Falsify Prewar Iraq WMD Reporting A fired CIA operative has filed a lawsuit claiming that he was punished after refusing requests by senior agency managers to falsify reporting on prewar Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 22)...Full Story

U.S. Senate Approves Final Intelligence Reform Bill By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday in favor of legislation that would create a national director to oversee the U.S. intelligence community (see GSN, Dec. 8)...Full Story

	Thursday, December 9, 2004

U.S. Senate Approves Final Intelligence Reform Bill By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday in favor of legislation that would create a national director to oversee the U.S. intelligence community (see GSN, Dec. 8). The Senate voted 89-2 to approve the bill, which would also create a national counterterrorism center to perform counterterrorism-related intelligence analysis and operational planning. Both the creation of a national intelligence director and counterterrorism center were among the key recommendations put forth this summer by the Sept. 11 commission. “This is an historic day for our country and a great achievement for the American people.  We are enacting the most comprehensive overhaul of our nation’s intelligence agencies in more than 50 years,” Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine) and top committee Democrat Joseph Lieberman (Conn.) said in a joint statement yesterday. The bill came under fire yesterday, though, from Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who reiterated on the Senate floor prior to the vote his long-held stance that Congress was moving too fast on intelligence reform. “Nobody can say with any confidence or certainty as to how this new layer of bureaucracy will affect our intelligence agencies or the security of our country. We don’t know if it will enable them to better guard against a terrorist attack or whether it will cause a host of unforseen problems. And we are failing, in yet another misguided rush to judgment, to take the time and effort to find out,” Byrd said in seven pages of remarks posted on his Senate Web site. Byrd and Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) were the only two members of the Senate to vote against the bill. The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 336-75 to approve the bill, which was the result of weeks of work by House and Senate negotiators to resolve the differences in their separate measures. With the Senate vote yesterday, the bill has been sent to President George W. Bush for final signature into law.  “I commend the Congress for passing historic legislation that will better protect the American people and help defend against ongoing terrorist threats,” Bush said in a statement yesterday. “We remain a nation at war, and intelligence is our first line of defense against the terrorists who seek to do us harm,” he said. “I look forward to signing this landmark piece of legislation into law.” A public signing ceremony is likely to be held next week, according to White House press secretary Scott McClellan.  With the bill approved by Congress, questions have begun to arise on its implementation, including who will be chosen as the new national intelligence director. According to reports, a wide range of names has been put forward, including new CIA Director Porter Goss, National Security Agency Director Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, House intelligence committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) and former Sept. 11 commission Chairman Thomas Kean. Hoekstra said yesterday that the new position requires “someone who needs to be able to function as a chief executive officer.” “This is the conductor, the orchestrator of putting this vision for a new intelligence and an effective intelligence community together,” he said. “This is someone who needs to be able to develop a strategic plan and make sure that the people who are reporting to them are working together, are working on implementing this vision that this person has developed in consultation with the president and consultation with Congress.” Senator Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said yesterday that what was needed was someone who would be “viewed by all as a nonpartisan leader of the intelligence community.”  “In order to effectively carry out the enormous responsibilities created in this bill, the new director cannot be seen as pursuing a political agenda or forcing the intelligence community to support a particular policy,” Rockefeller said in a statement. “We need a director who will speak truth to power and present what the intelligence community knows, does not know, or believes, in a timely and objective way.  I strongly believe the president must nominate an individual to serve as the first director of national intelligence who embodies these qualifications,” he added. Back to top       U.S. Critical Sites Database Behind Schedule The U.S. Homeland Security Department’s effort to create a comprehensive list of potential terrorist targets in the United States is behind schedule and facing withering attacks by some lawmakers, USA Today reported yesterday (see GSN, May 25). President George W. Bush last year ordered the department to develop a database of sites such as chemical plants and skyscrapers, and to set priorities for securing them. The project was expected to be largely completed by this month, but instead could take years to complete, according to USA Today. Some lawmakers who have seen parts of the classified list of some 80,000 sites said it includes miniature golf courses and water parks but omits some high-profile targets. “Their list is a joke,” said Representative Ernest Istook (R-Okla.), a member of the House homeland security committee. He referred to the project as “an exercise in full employment for bureaucrats, rather than a realistic way to make the country safer.” Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) also criticized the effort following a briefing Tuesday. “I honestly don’t know what they’ve been doing over there,” she said. “I think you could take the average mayor or member of Congress and give them a month, and they would come up with a better list.” It might take years to compile the list, acknowledged Robert Liscouski, head of infrastructure protection at the Homeland Security Department. He said the agency relies on state and local governments and private industry in identifying sites for the list. Sometimes the department receives a surplus of information, other times it is not given enough for preparing the catalog, he said. In a July memo, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge wrote that that local officials “lack clear guidelines and standards” from his department to help them determine which sites to include. “Absent such clear delineation, it is impossible to justify any item contained on the national list,” Ridge wrote. Liscouski, however, said officials have started analyzing the information. “We have a good handle on what the top targets in the United States are,” he said. “It’s not going fast, but it’s coming along” (Mimi Hall, USA Today, Dec. 8). Back to top

China, EU to Increase Nonproliferation Cooperation By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — China and the European Union yesterday agreed to strengthen their cooperation in a number of areas related to arms control and nonproliferation (see GSN, Nov. 26). Increased collaboration was the focus of a seven-page joint declaration released today following a summit at The Hague between top Chinese and EU officials. The declaration was signed by Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Li Zhaoxing, EU Council of Ministers President Bernard Bot and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. “The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their means of delivery poses a serious threat to international peace and security,” says the declaration, which warns of the “real” threat of terrorists obtaining such weapons. Such a threat, the declaration says, adds “a renewed urgency of concerted and more focused actions and cooperation.” The detailed nature of the declaration is an indication of the growing value China places on nonproliferation in its foreign policy, said Evan Medeiros, a China expert at the RAND Corp. Nonproliferation was “clearly a prominent part of the dialogue” at yesterday’s summit, he said today. In the declaration, China and the EU noted several times the need to prevent the “illicit trade” of items related to weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. Accordingly, the two parties agreed to improve their respective export-control systems, the declaration says, noting that the EU welcomed China into the Nuclear Suppliers Group — a multilateral export-control regime that governs trade in nuclear-related technology. The EU also supports China’s efforts to join the Missile Technology Control Regime, a multilateral export-control system that seeks to establish common rules for exporting ballistic missiles and related technologies. China and the EU have decided to hold a joint export-control workshop in China “shortly after the summit,” the declaration says. While China has made progress in developing a national export-control system, there have been continued concerns over Beijing’s enforcement of its export regulations. The United States this year has imposed sanctions on a number of Chinese entities for allegedly transferring WMD- and ballistic missile-related technologies abroad. In addition, the CIA last month included China among a list of “supplier” countries in a report on states seeking WMD-related items (see GSN, Dec. 3).  Concerns over the alleged proliferation activities of Chinese entities are believed to have played a role in Beijing’s failure to join the MTCR this year (see GSN, Oct. 4). The focus on export controls in the declaration was likely tied to Beijing’s desire to have the EU lift its 15-year-old embargo on arms sales to China, according to Medeiros. He said the declaration’s provisions concerning export control were probably intended as a “reassurance measure” by China that were the embargo to be lifted, EU technology would not be retransferred to another nation or entity. The arms embargo was imposed following the 1989 massacre of protesters at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and its removal has been conditioned on China’s progress on improving human rights. The United States has so far been opposed to the lifting of the embargo. The declaration also seemingly takes swipes at two nonproliferation initiatives put forward by the Bush administration. One is the Proliferation Security Initiative — a U.S.-led effort to interdict WMD-related cargo shipments. While the United States has sought China’s membership in the effort, Beijing has expressed concern that PSI interdictions may violate international law (see GSN, Nov. 4). “Efforts should be made to address proliferation issues through political and diplomatic measures and international cooperation within the framework of international law,” the declaration says. The declaration also says that China and the EU “agree” that proliferation prevention “should not hamper international cooperation in materials, equipment and technology for peaceful purposes.” The Bush administration proposed early this year a ban on transfers of enrichment and reprocessing technologies to those countries that do not already possess them as a means to prevent nations from developing nuclear weapons under the guise of civilian programs. The declaration also says, though, that “goals of peaceful utilization should not be used as a cover for proliferation.” China and the EU also praised each other’s efforts to help resolve the crisis surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, with special emphasis placed on an agreement reached between Iran, France, Germany and the United Kingdom for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment activities. The declaration also notes the EU’s support of China’s role in efforts to resolve the crisis surrounding North Korea’s nuclear program, and reaffirms that the Korean Peninsula should be free of nuclear weapons (see related GSN story, today). China and the EU pledged yesterday to work together to ensure the full implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540, which requires countries to prevent terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction. China and the EU also agreed to promote international nonproliferation and disarmament regimes, such as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention. The declaration notes that both China and the EU also “stress the importance” of the universilization of the Hague Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation — an agreement launched last year that calls on subscribers to exercise “maximum possible restraint” in developing and deploying ballistic missiles. Beijing, however, is not among the code’s more than 100 subscribers. Back to top       CIA Operative Sues Agency, Claims He Was Pressured to Falsify Prewar Iraq WMD Reporting A fired CIA operative has filed a lawsuit claiming that he was punished after refusing requests by senior agency managers to falsify reporting on prewar Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 22). In the federal lawsuit filed Friday, the senior operative claims that the CIA punished him by withdrawing a promotion and by launching investigations into whether he had sex with a female intelligence asset and whether he stole money intended to pay human assets, according to the Post.  The investigations were “initiated for the sole purpose of discrediting him and retaliating against him for questioning the integrity of the WMD reporting … and for refusing to falsify his intelligence reporting to support the politically mandated conclusion” of matters that are blacked out in the lawsuit, the suit says. The 23-year CIA veteran was fired in August “for unspecified reasons,” according to the lawsuit. The operative was not identified, the Post reported. He has asked that his employment, salary and promotions be restored and that the CIA pay legal fees and compensatory damages. CIA spokeswoman Anya Guilsher refused to comment on the lawsuit. “The notion that CIA managers order officers to falsify reports is flat wrong. Our mission is to call it like we see it and report the facts,” she said (Dana Priest, Washington Post, Dec. 9). Back to top

Iranian Negotiations Set for Brussels Next Week Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani is scheduled to travel to Brussels on Monday for talks on Iran’s nuclear program with French, German and British foreign ministers, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Dec. 8). “The aim of this trip to the headquarters of the European Union is to start negotiations on implementing the Paris accord,” Ali Agha Mohammadi of Iran’s National Security Council told AFP, referring to the uranium enrichment activities suspension deal negotiated between Iran and the European powers last month leading up to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors meeting (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 8). Iran secretly approached the United States last year in hopes of negotiating an agreement on its nuclear program, Gary Samore of London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies said Tuesday in a lecture in Abu Dhabi. “After the Iraq war, Iran felt vulnerable to U.S. pressure and secretly approached Washington to negotiate an agreement on the nuclear issue. However, this happened after the May 2003 al-Qaeda bombings in Riyadh, which Washington traced to senior al-Qaeda officials residing in Iran. Tehran’s overtures were spurned,” said Samore, according to the Khaleej Times. It remains to be seen what will happen with next week’s Iran-EU negotiations, Samore added. “On the one hand, Iran would clearly prefer to complete its enrichment program, which would give it a nuclear weapons capability within a few years. As a result, Tehran will resist European efforts to obtain a permanent cessation of its fuel-cycle program in exchange for various political and economic inducements. On the other hand, Tehran has been reluctant to risk a confrontation with the great powers, all of whom prefer to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. As a result, it has been willing to cooperate with the IAEA and ‘temporarily’ suspend its enrichment program in order to avoid referral to the Security Council,” he said. “A key factor in the ultimate success or failure of the EU-3/Iran talks will be whether the U.S. is prepared to endorse and support an agreement,” Samore added (Muawia Ibrahim, Khaleej Times, Dec. 9). Back to top       China Has Little Influence Over North Korea, According to Kim Jong Il Schoolmate China does not have as much influence over North Korea as some believe, a North Korea expert and old friend of dictator Kim Jong Il said in the wake of U.S. requests this week that Beijing pressure Pyongyang to return to multilateral talks on its nuclear program (see GSN, Dec. 8). “Kim Jong Il doesn’t listen to anybody. China has at times tried to force him to do this or that, but the results have not been good. It had the opposite effect,” Cui Yingjiu, a retired Beijing University professor and former Kim schoolmate who runs a research center on North Korea, told Agence France-Presse. “There’s nothing China can do. It cannot interfere with North Korea’s internal politics. It can only wait.  It can only persuade,” he said. Kim would prefer to negotiate directly with the United States instead of through the six-party format, which also includes China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, according to Cui. “Kim prefers improving relations with the United States directly so that it can sideline China and play the U.S. against China to its benefit as it played China and Russia against each other in the past,” he said. While the United States supports regime change in Pyongyang, China does not, despite reports that Beijing was harboring defecting North Korean generals in case Kim was deposed, he said. Beijing’s influence has been strongest in showing that a socialist regime can adopt economic reforms without losing political power, Cui said. He cited Kim’s 2000 trip to Beijing, which prompted him to begin his own experiments with economic reforms. “He realized reform didn’t necessarily lead to collapse,” Cui said. Kim in the long run is likely to cooperate with Washington, he added. “They don’t want to give up nuclear weapons, but they realize that if relations with the U.S. remain frozen, nothing will work. It will not be able to get money from the World Bank, loans from Japan, or attract foreign investors,” said Cui. “So now they are simply waiting to see what the U.S. can offer in terms of security guarantees or economic assistance,” he added (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Dec. 9). Back to top

France Seeks International Group to Combat Bioterror In an interview published today, French Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy proposed the creation of an international organization to coordinate the fight against biological terrorism, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (see GSN, Nov. 8). Such an organization would either be based in France or Canada, Douste-Blazy said. He also said he would discuss his proposal with health ministers from the world’s top industrialized nations during a meeting on biological terrorism set to be held today in Paris. Douste-Blazy also told the daily Le Parisien that France has enough smallpox vaccine to protect everyone in the country, plus another 5 million doses it could provide to countries in need (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Dec. 9). Back to top       Tajik Lawmakers Ratify Biological Weapons Convention The lower house of the parliament of Tajikistan yesterday ratified the Biological Weapons Convention, according to Tajik Web site Avesta (see GSN, Nov. 15; Avesta/BBC Worldwide Monitoring). Back to top       Anthrax Building Cleanup Stalled by Tabloid Photos; Congress Proposes D.C. Mail Irradiation Center The completion of cleanup at the former Florida headquarters of a supermarket tabloid publisher that received tainted mail during the 2001 anthrax attacks is being delayed by photographs of Bat Boy and other tabloid staples, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, July 13). Attorneys for several photographers have informed cleanup contractor Bio-ONE that David Rustine’s $40,000 purchase of the Boca Raton site and its contents did not include boxes of pictures kept in the building. The attorneys said that Rustine has no authority to destroy the photographs — including images of Elvis in his coffin and alien kidnappings — which appeared in publications such as the Weekly World News, Star and National Enquirer.  No one is willing to pay Bio-ONE to decontaminate the files in the boxes, which is costlier than simply destroying the boxes, said Bio-ONE Chairman John Mason. The presence of the boxes would also prevent authorities from lifting a quarantine placed on the building in the wake of the anthrax attacks. “We can only do that for someone that has true ownership,” said Karen Cavanagh, Bio-ONE’s chief operating officer and general counsel. However, Bio-ONE officials said they still plan to move into the building before the end of the year (Associated Press/ABC Action News, Dec. 9). Meanwhile, Congress has allocated $507 million for a mail irradiation building to be located at Washington, D.C.’s Brentwood postal facility, site of two anthrax-related deaths in 2001, AP reported. The new facility would speed delivery time for mail sent to federal agencies in Washington, which has been rerouted to New Jersey for irradiation ever since the 2001 attacks. “Right now, for government mail, the delivery time is extended by 48 hours,” said U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Deborah Yackley. The agency hopes to open the facility in 2006, Yackley said (Associated Press, Dec. 8). Back to top

Bangladesh to Enact Chemical Weapons Ban Bangladesh is finalizing a law that would outlaw the development, stockpiling or use of chemical weapons in the country, The Daily Star reported today (see GSN, June 17). Parliament is expected during its next session to consider a bill prepared by the prime minister’s office, according to the Star. “As a signatory to the [Chemical Weapons Convention], we have to enact a law to implement the convention,” said Mahbubur Rahman, former army chief and defense advisor to the prime minister. The draft bill proposes punishment of up to 14 years in prison and fines of up to $838 for the violation of any provision of the act, according to the Star. The proposed Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act-2005 also calls for formation of an agency to supervise governmental and private use of chemicals. The agency would work with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to ensure Bangladesh complies with all aspects of the treaty, Mahbub said (Shakhawat Liton, The Daily Star, Dec. 9). Back to top       Nerve Agent Successfully Transferred at Blue Grass The Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky successfully transferred roughly 100 gallons of nerve agent to new containers last weekend, the Richmond (Ky.) Register reported (see GSN, Nov. 22). Depot personnel and a 12-person team from the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas over three days moved a mixture of sarin and decontaminant from an eroding bulk container into two new containers, said Lt. Col. George Shuplinkov, commander Blue Grass Chemical Activity. No toxic material escaped into the outside atmosphere, he said. The transfer was “the most significant mission the Chemical Activity has carried out in 20 years,” Shuplinkov said. He said the move increased the safety to depot workers and the public (Ryan Garrett, Richmond Register, Dec. 8). Back to top

Japan’s Ruling Liberal Democratic Party Endorses Cooperation on U.S. Missile Defense Program Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party today backed an overhaul of the country’s defense program that would include development and production cooperation with the U.S. missile defense effort, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 22). The Japanese Cabinet is expected to decide tomorrow whether to approve the defense plan, according to Japanese media. Japan’s defense policy review comes in the wake of threats of possible terrorist attacks and continued concerns about neighboring North Korea’s suspected long-range missile and nuclear weapons programs, according to AP (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Dec. 9).     Back to top

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