A U.S. C-17 transport plane (such as this one) arrived in the United States yesterday loaded with materials from Libyan nuclear weapons and ballistic missile efforts (U.S. Defense Department photo). Libyan Nuclear, Missile Components Arrive in United States A shipment of materials from Libya’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs arrived in the United States yesterday as part of Tripoli’s pledge to dismantle its WMD efforts, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 27)...Full Story

Recent Evidence Shows That Iraq Secretly Destroyed Some WMD Stockpiles U.S. forces in Iraq have found new evidence that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime secretly disposed of some biological and chemical weapons stockpiles in the mid-1990s, former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq David Kay said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 27)...Full Story

Experts Warn of Accidental U.S., Russian Missile Launches By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The United States and Russia unnecessarily continue to maintain thousands of strategic nuclear missiles on high alert for mutual deterrence, heightening the possibility of a catastrophic, unintended launch, an expert said this week at a nuclear arms control conference here...Full Story

	Wednesday, January 28, 2004

FBI Counterterrorism Official Warns of Terrorism Risks to U.S. Ports By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — An FBI counterterrorism official warned U.S. lawmakers yesterday of the risk posed by terrorists to U.S. seaports (see GSN, Jan. 20). During a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing, officials from the FBI and the Homeland Security Department’s Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection Bureau described U.S. efforts to improve maritime and port security. Such efforts were needed, said Gary Bald, acting assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, because of the “inherent risk” of a terrorist attack on a U.S. port. “Ports, because of their accessibility to both water and land, together with the chemical and natural resource storage facilities that are often located within close proximity, are inherently vulnerable,” Bald said. According to Coast Guard Rear Adm. Larry Hereth, the closure of a major U.S. port for one month because of a terrorist attack could result in up to $60 billion of economic damages. In his testimony, Bald outlined several FBI efforts to help improve port security, such as “Operation Drydock,” which is a review of more than 200,000 U.S. merchant mariners for suspected terrorists. Already, the effort has identified 11 merchant mariners with having connections to terrorism matters, and those people have been placed on U.S. watchlists, Bald said. In addition, another 700 merchant mariners have been found to have issues related to law enforcement and maritime concerns, he said. The FBI has also worked with the cruise ship industry to develop a protocol for domestic cruise lines to electronically send all passenger and crew lists to the U.S. Terrorist Screening Center six hours prior to departure, Bald said. The center allows the lists to be matched against a single government terrorism database, he said. Robert Jacksta, executive director of border security and facilitation at the Customs bureau, said progress was also being made in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), an effort to urge private industry to develop improved cargo shipping containers. The Customs bureau is currently working with five C-TPAT firms to implement the first phase of the Smart Box initiative, which seeks to prevent legitimate cargo from being used by terrorists to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the United States, Jacksta said. As of Jan. 5, the five C-TPAT companies began adhering to new container sealing standards and incorporating container security devices into their overall security, he said. Jacksta also said that the Customs bureau is working to deploy nuclear and radiological detectors at all U.S. ports of entry, with a goal of “screening 100 percent of all containerized imported cargo for radiation” (see GSN, March 3, 2003). In their testimonies, the officials identified several remaining challenges facing U.S. port security. For example, state and local agencies still face a limited amount of resources to help improve port security, Bald said. Hereth said there was a need to provide Coast Guard personnel working to secure waterfront facilities with the authority to arrest those who commit federal offenses onshore, and to carry firearms onshore while participating in law enforcement-related duties. He called on the subcommittee members to support currently pending legislation that would provide such authority. Back to top

Libyan Nuclear, Missile Components Arrive in United States A shipment of materials from Libya’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs arrived in the United States yesterday as part of Tripoli’s pledge to dismantle its WMD efforts, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 27). According to McClellan, a C-17 transport plane left Tripoli Monday night and flew to an airport outside of Knoxville, Tenn., early yesterday morning. Onboard the plane were both sensitive documents and “about 55,000 pounds” of equipment related to Libya’s nuclear weapons and missile development efforts, McClellan said. The shipment also contained uranium hexafluoride, uranium enrichment centrifuge components and guidance sets for longer-range missiles. Yesterday’s shipment follows one last week of “the most sensitive documents” related to Libya’s nuclear weapons program,” McClellan said. He added that the equipment that arrived yesterday is now being stored at a secure facility in Tennessee. “While these shipments are only the beginning of the elimination of Libya’s weapons, these shipments, as well as the close cooperation on the ground in Libya, reflect real progress in Libya meeting its commitments,” McClellan said. Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi   “made a courageous decision to give up his weapons, and through this transparent process, the world can see that Colonel Qadhafi is keeping his commitment,” McClellan added (White House release, Jan. 27). A senior Bush administration official said a U.S. transport plane would be sent to Libya early next month to bring back another shipment of nuclear materials, according to CNN.com. “They had a lot of stuff,” the official said. “We have more plans to take materials out, but this is quite a step forward,” the official added (Elise Labott, CNN.com, Jan. 27). In addition to removing equipment and materials from Libya, McClellan said that U.S. officials have started to destroy “unfilled chemical munitions” in Libya (White House release). Asked if Libya’s cooperation so far would aid efforts in restoring ties with the United States, the senior administration official said, “Given what we got out in the last planeload and (that) their cooperation has been excellent, it is time to consider it” (Labott, CNN.com). McClellan said yesterday, though, that there were no plans yet to reward Libya’s cooperation. “Libya is on the road. They’re moving in the right direction. This reflects real progress, but there is more to do, as well,” he said (White House release). One Bush administration official also said that it has not been proved that Libya has ceased its support for terrorism, according to the Associated Press. Therefore, the U.S. State Department is not ready to remove Libya from the list of terrorism-sponsoring countries, and as a result some economic sanctions will remain, the official said (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Jan. 27). Back to top       Recent Evidence Shows That Iraq Secretly Destroyed Some WMD Stockpiles U.S. forces in Iraq have found new evidence that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime secretly disposed of some biological and chemical weapons stockpiles in the mid-1990s, former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq David Kay said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 27). In an interview with the Washington Post, Kay said the Iraq Survey Group has discovered “contemporary documents” that Iraq destroyed some weapons of mass destruction in the 1990s without notifying U.N. inspectors. According to Kay, Iraqi scientists did not have complete records to support their claims because of pressure to keep the destruction effort hidden from U.N. weapons inspectors. In addition to the recovered documents, the Iraq Survey Group also interviewed Iraqi scientists who confirmed some, but not all, of the destruction, Kay said. “That will be impossible, and there will always be some doubts,” he said. Kay, who testified today before the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Post that the fact that Iraq destroyed some of its WMD stockpiles in secret has led him to believe that Hussein had bluffed about possessing such weapons to achieve a deterrent effect. “Saddam wanted to enjoy the benefits of having chemical and biological weapons without having to pay the costs,” Kay said. While Kay has previously heaped most of the blame for the poor assessments of prewar Iraq’s WMD efforts on U.S. intelligence, in his interview yesterday he broadened his criticism. “Everyone was wrong. Outside experts like myself and other intelligence agencies … including the Germans and French believed he (Hussein) had weapons,” Kay said (Pincus/Milbank, Washington Post, Jan. 28). Some Bush administration officials said yesterday that Kay’s criticism of prewar intelligence on Iraq was becoming an increasing political problem for the White House. Two officials said that a debate has begun within the administration over whether President George W. Bush should issue a call for intelligence reform. They added that Bush’s aides were seeking a way acknowledge intelligence problems without blaming either the CIA or its director George Tenet. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday appeared to back off their persistent claims that weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq. “I think it’s very important for us to let the Iraq Survey Group do its work, so we can find out the facts and compare the facts to what was thought,” Bush said at an appearance with visiting Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski (David Sanger, New York Times, Jan. 28). “There’s still work to be done to ascertain exactly what’s there, and I am not prepared to make a final judgment until they [the Iraq Survey Group] have completed their work,” Cheney said (Wagstyle/Dinmore, Financial Times, Jan. 27). Bush yesterday also continued to defend that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was justified. “There is just no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was a grave and gathering threat to America and the world,” Bush said. “There is just no doubt in my mind. And I say that based upon intelligence that I saw prior to the decision to go into Iraq, and I say that based upon what I know today,” he said (Sanger, New York Times). Kay yesterday also said during an appearance on NBC’s Today that the invasion was justified, citing concerns that terrorists were seeking to obtain Iraqi WMD capabilities. “I think, at the end of the inspection process, we’ll paint a picture of Iraq that was far more dangerous than even we thought it was before the war. It was of a system collapsing.  It was a country that had the capability in weapons of mass destruction areas and in which terrorists, like ants to honey, were going after it,” Kay said (FNS transcript, Jan. 27). British Inquiry Clears Government of Role in Weapons Expert’s Death Meanwhile, an inquiry into the suicide of British weapons expert David Kelly cleared the British government today of any role in his death, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, Sept. 11, 2003). Kelly killed himself after his identity was leaked as the source of a BBC report that that the British government had exaggerated information contained within a September 2002 dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. In his ruling, Brian Hutton said that notes of BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan did not back up his report’s assertion that the Kelly had said that the British government had exaggerated the information contained within the dossier (Glen Frankel, Washington Post, Jan. 28). Hutton also ruled that while the dossier’s claim that Iraq had the ability to deploy biological and chemical weapons within 45 minutes may be proven wrong in the future, the BBC report’s claim that the government knew it was wrong when the dossier was published was “unfounded” because intelligence officials believed their source for the claim was reliable, according to the London Guardian. In a speech before the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that Hutton’s ruling discredited allegations that his government falsified intelligence on Iraq. “The allegation that I or anyone else lied to this House, or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence on WMD, is itself the real lie, and I simply ask that those that made it, and those who have repeated it over all these months, now withdraw it, fully, openly and clearly,” Blair said (Simon Jeffery, London Guardian, Jan. 28). Back to top       China, France Agree to Form Nonproliferation Task Force China and France agreed yesterday to establish a joint task force on arms control and nonproliferation (see GSN, Jan. 27). In a joint statement signed yesterday in Paris by visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao and French President Jacques Chirac, the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to the importance of preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles. To that end, China and France agreed to form an arms control and nonproliferation task force “within the framework of [a] bilateral strategic dialogue,” as well as to increase cooperation in arms control, export controls and nonproliferation, the joint statement says. According to the statement, France also “welcomes” Chinese efforts to develop a national export control system (see GSN, Dec. 29, 2003), and supports China’s membership in the Missile Technology Control Regime “at the earliest possible date.”  In their statement, both China and France called on other countries to observe international nonproliferation regimes, including the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Both countries also agreed to work for the entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (see GSN, Sept. 5, 2003; Xinhua News Agency, BBC Monitoring, Jan. 28). Back to top       Malaysia Extends Detention of Al-Qaeda Operative Suspected of WMD Efforts Malaysia has moved to detain for an additional two years a captured al-Qaeda operative suspected of trying to establish chemical and biological weapons programs in Afghanistan, a Malaysian official said today (see GSN, Jan. 27). Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi signed a detention order effective Friday to hold Yazid Sufaat, a former Malaysian army officer, for an additional two years, extending an original two-year sentence set to soon expire, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Sept. 11, 2002). Under the Internal Security Act, the two-year detention orders can be renewed indefinitely (Jasbant Singh, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Jan. 28). Back to top       Top Democratic Lawmakers Call for GAO Investigation Regarding Leak of CIA Operative’s Identity By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Top Democratic lawmakers earlier this week sought to open another official inquiry into the leak of the identity of a CIA operative, requesting that the U.S. General Accounting Office become involved in the matter (see GSN, Jan. 23). The U.S. Justice Department is currently investigating the leak of the identity of the wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Last summer, Wilson publicly criticized evidence offered by the Bush administration to justify going to war with Iraq on the grounds that Iraq was seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction. Soon after Wilson aired his criticism, though, his wife’s identity and CIA status were made public in a column by Robert Novak. Wilson has alleged that the leak of his wife’s identity was meant as an intimidation tactic by the Bush administration to prevent further criticism of its handling of prewar intelligence on Iraq (see GSN, Oct. 6, 2003) In a letter sent to the GAO Monday, six top Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), asked the office to investigate whether the White House complied with administrative requirements to protect information about Wilson’s wife’s “covert identity” prior to the leak, as well as whether the White House complied with requirements to ensure that leak was investigated after it had occurred. “Serious doubts have been raised about whether the White House complied with these basic administrative procedures in protecting [Wilson’s wife’s] … identity and responding to the leak. We believe a GAO investigation of these issues is essential to restoring public confidence in the integrity of the White House,” the letter says. On the Senate floor yesterday, Daschle warned that the unresolved leak of Wilson’s wife’s identity has helped to create a “cloud of uncertainty” over the U.S. intelligence community. “No American, Democrat or Republican, can afford to allow this affair to be swept under the rug,” he said, as reported in the Congressional Record. “Intelligence agents report growing fear that the community is increasingly viewed as a political tool rather than as an instrument of independent and objective discovery and analysis,” Daschle added. A GAO official yesterday declined to comment on the Democrats’ request, but said that most requests for investigations are responded to within 10 days. The White House yesterday did not return calls for comment. Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, said yesterday in a written response to Global Security Newswire that it was uncertain whether the GAO would agree to the Democrats’ request. He said that the office could choose not to on the basis that the request was only made by Democrats, or because the leak is already the subject of a criminal investigation. In their letter to the GAO, though, the Democratic lawmakers sought to differentiate their request for an investigation from the Justice Department’s efforts. “We are not asking GAO to assess whether any criminal statues have been violated,” they wrote.  The Democrats’ call for a GAO investigation follows close on the heels of an attempt by House Democrats to obtain a congressional inquiry into the leak. Last week, Representative Rush Holt (D-N.J.) introduced a resolution of inquiry, which would request the president and other Cabinet officials to provide all documents related to the leak, such as telephone and e-mail records, to the House of Representatives. Such a resolution, Holt said last week, was the “best tool at the disposal of the House” to determine how the leak occurred and who was responsible. The House Select Committee on Intelligence today, though, voted to adversely report the resolution. It still faces consideration by the House Armed Services, International Relations and Judiciary Committees. In a press statement today, Holt criticized the House intelligence panel for voting against the resolution. “A majority of the House Intelligence Committee failed to stand up for the men and women in the intelligence community who put their lives at risk to keep our nation safe,” he said. “I am severely disappointed at the lack of bipartisan cooperation on a matter so fundamental to the national security of this country.  I am hopeful that members of the Judiciary, International Relations, and Armed Services committees will stand up where too many Intelligence members did not,” Holt added. Daschle yesterday noted the need for an expanded inquiry into the leak of Wilson’s wife’s identity. “We think that at three levels — the Justice Department, the congressional level and of course the General Accounting Office — all three levels ought to be engaged with regard to ascertaining the facts and making some final judgment,” he said. According to Aftergood, though, the Democrats’ continued attempts to expand the leak investigation indicates an increasing interest of the issue’s potential value as a political tactic against the White House. “Clearly the issue has risen to the highest ranks of the Democratic leadership. They have evidently decided that this is a weak spot for the administration,” he said. Back to top

Experts Warn of Accidental U.S., Russian Missile Launches By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The United States and Russia unnecessarily continue to maintain thousands of strategic nuclear missiles on high alert for mutual deterrence, heightening the possibility of a catastrophic, unintended launch, an expert said this week at a nuclear arms control conference here. “All of the thousands of U.S. and Russian launch-ready weapons only represent an accident waiting to happen and a temptation to terrorists to gain control over them,” said Center for Defense Information President Bruce Blair, speaking Sunday at a conference sponsored by the Nuclear Policy Research Institute (see GSN, Jan. 26). Blair said U.S. early warning and decision-making procedures and the weapons themselves have been kept on a “hair trigger.” When U.S. satellites detect a possible rocket launch, U.S. crews at the North American Aerospace Defense Command near Colorado Springs, Colo., have only three minutes to determine if the incident is an actual missile attack or a nonmilitary event, such as a space launch, wildfire or solar reflection off of oceans or clouds, he said. Such nonmilitary events occur daily, he said. If a strike is suspected, then the president and his top advisers convene a telephone briefing during which an officer is given 30 seconds to brief the president on his retaliatory options and their consequences, he said. The president then would have a few minutes to select his response to ensure that U.S. nuclear attacks could be effectively launched by underground and undersea crews minutes later, Blair said. The majority of U.S. missiles — deployed on land, in the air and at sea — are intended for mutual deterrence against a Russian or U.S. attack, a situation Blair said has been unnecessary since the end of the Cold War. “The dirty little secret of America’s current nuclear policy is that 99 percent of the nuclear weapons budget, planning, targeting, and operational activities still revolves around this one anachronistic scenario,” he said. “The rationale is a throwback to the Cold War, but however absurd, it still is the axis of current nuclear operations,” he said. “Scratch Russia from the list of enemies, as it should be, and all justification for maintaining a large U.S. nuclear arsenal evaporates,” Blair said. Blair and other experts charged that the size of the current U.S. arsenal was kept unnecessarily large in part because of persisting Cold War suspicions within the U.S. military and also because of institutional inertia. “A small fraction of the current U.S. arsenal of 10,650 bombs would amply cover all plausible nuclear threats to the American homeland, U.S. allies and interests overseas, if only the idea of fighting a large-scale nuclear war with Russia received the ridicule it deserves,” Blair said. Back to top       Pakistani Probe Finds That Scientists Used Covert Network to Provide Aid to Iran, Libya Pakistani investigators have determined that two nuclear scientists — Abdul Qadeer Khan, the “father” of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, and Mohammed Farooq — used a covert network to provide nuclear weapons technology to Iran and Libya, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Jan. 27). According to three senior Pakistani intelligence officials, the two scientists provided aid, such as blueprints for uranium enrichment equipment, both directly to Iran and Libya and through a network of middlemen. For their efforts, which began in the late 1980s and lasted till the early 1990s, Iran placed millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts controlled by Khan and Farooq, the officials said. The network of middlemen, from countries including Germany, Sri Lanka and South Africa, also offered the scientists’ assistance to Syria and Iraq, but those deals never advanced, the officials said.  One of the three intelligence officials said that the most concrete evidence against Khan and Farooq was provided by Iran and Libya to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which then passed it on to Pakistan. “The governments of Iran and Libya have exposed the racket,” one of the officials said. “They made no attempt to hide their sources, as if they wanted to settle score with Pakistani scientists,” the official added. The information provided by the IAEA was so concrete that it led to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf personally confronting Khan in late November, according to a senior official. “For the first time ever, I saw tears in the eyes of the president, who thought that it was the worst-ever breach of the nation's trust,” the official said (Kamran Khan, Washington Post, Jan. 28). Meanwhile, a Pakistani government lawyer yesterday failed to answer a judge as to why nuclear scientists were being detained without charges being filed, according to the Los Angeles Times. Under Pakistani law, a person cannot be detained for more than 24 hours without the approval of a magistrate, the Times reported. A magistrate can then allow a detention of a maximum of 14 days without charges being filed. Farooq, however, has been in detention for almost two months without charges, according to the Times. “They are acting as if there is the law of the jungle in Pakistan,” Mohammed Ikram Chaudhry, a lawyer for the detainees, told High court Justice Maulvi Anwar ul-Haq. “There is no law.  There is no constitution,” Chaudhry said. Ul-Haq ordered last week that the Pakistani government explain in writing yesterday why the scientists were being detained. Tariq Shamim, the government’s lawyer, asked the court yesterday, though, for a fourth adjournment, saying he needed more time to obtain the information. Shamim also said that that “in a few days’ time, this matter will be over.” The hearing is expected to continue today, the Times reported (Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 28). Pakistan said yesterday that it would continue to further enhance its nuclear weapons capabilities, according to HiPakistan.com. “There should be no doubt that we will pursue our nuclear program,” a Foreign Office spokesman said (HiPakistan.com, Jan. 28). Back to top       U.S. Opens Nuclear Lab Contracts to Competition By Amelia Gruber Government Executive WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department plans to place four more nuclear facility management contracts up for bids, officials announced Tuesday (see GSN, Dec. 10, 2003). As required by a fiscal 2004 budget measure enacted last month, the department will open contracts to run Ames, Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore laboratories to competition. The department has already said it will place the University of California’s contract to operate Los Alamos National Laboratory up for bids once that agreement expires in 2005. The University of California runs Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore laboratories in addition to Los Alamos. University officials were not surprised to see those facilities added to the list of labs vulnerable to competition, university spokesman Chris Harrington said Tuesday. While Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham formally announced the move in a Jan. 27 Federal Register notice, the department’s 2004 budget, signed into law on Dec. 1, 2003, gave him little choice but to place the contracts up for bids, Harrington said. Under that legislation, Energy cannot spend 2004 budget dollars on “noncompetitive” management contracts. The University of California has never been forced to defend its contracts to manage Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley or Lawrence Livermore. University officials have not decided whether they will submit a bid to renew the contracts, Harrington said. But the university is ensuring that it would be well-positioned to compete, should it choose to do so, he added. As part of a continuing effort to improve management at Los Alamos, university officials are seeking advice from industry, Harrington said. Recently, university officials have entered into discussions with two potential “industrial partners,” he said, that would like to “team with the university to strengthen business and operations.” They would offer expertise in areas including financial management, procurement, supply chain management and human resources, he said. In 2002, two Los Alamos investigators accused lab managers of covering up widespread government purchase card abuse and obstructing investigations. Managers allegedly warned the investigators, Glenn Walp and Steven Doran, that they risked losing their jobs if they made the University of California look bad by exposing theft and fraud (see GSN, Aug. 21, 2003). A former computer analyst at Los Alamos in April 2003 claimed managers at the New Mexico facility purposely thwarted an e-mail monitoring program designed to prevent security leaks, at the university's request. The proposed industry partnership is one means of solidifying lab management and would help prepare the university to compete, should it attempt to renew its contracts, Harrington said. University officials will likely hold off on this decision until Energy publishes a request for proposals, he said. Energy has not yet decided on a time line for running the competitions, according to the Federal Register announcement. Under the 2004 budget law, the department could extend existing contracts up to two years in order to allow enough time to run a competition. Iowa State University, which runs Ames Laboratory, and the University of Chicago, which manages Argonne National Laboratory, will also need to defend their contracts against competitors. Ames laboratory is one of the smaller facilities on the list, and is unique among the laboratories in that it is located on the state university’s campus, said spokesman Kerry Gibson. Many of the laboratory staff members are also on the university faculty, he said. The university has run the lab since its founding in 1947. “Given the logistics and the long history, I don’t think that there’s really much possibility of anyone else [besides Iowa State] running it,” Gibson said. “At the same time, I think the university is taking the contract bidding quite seriously.” Back to top

Progress Delayed at Los Alamos Biological Defense Laboratory U.S. Energy Department efforts to conduct more sophisticated biological defense research were set back recently, when the department announced it would reassess the environmental impacts of one its planned facilities, Energy Daily reported today. The department is planning to establish Biosafety Level 3 research facilities at the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories. That safety level would permit scientists to work with deadly infectious agents, such as anthrax, plague and botulism. The United States is seeking to increase the number of Biosafety Level 3 facilities — as well as the most secure Biosafety Level 4 laboratories — to improve U.S. defenses against biological weapons (see GSN, July 7, 2003). Environmental groups have sued the department, however, arguing that it conducted inadequate safety and environmental assessments. When planning the Los Alamos facility, the department determined that the facility would have no significant impact on the environment and therefore that no environmental impact statement was required. The lawsuits charged otherwise, and judge suspended parts of the work in December pending a hearing scheduled for April (see GSN, Dec. 17, 2003). In a Monday press release, the department announced it would now conduct a more thorough environmental assessment at Los Alamos. The release did not specify why the action was taken, saying only, “the new environmental assessment will analyze new circumstances that were not considered in the original environmental assessment because they arose after the preparation of the original environmental assessment.” Representatives from the litigating environmental groups claimed credit for the Energy’s Department’s decision. “We are elated that our lawsuit has persuaded DOE to abandon its inadequate environmental assessment,” said Nuclear Watch Director Jay Coghlan. “The public can now have better assurance that a stringent risk analysis will be completed before bioweapon agent research begins at a secret nuclear weapons lab with a shoddy environmental, safety and security record,” he said. The groups plan to maintain pressure on the department to more thoroughly review its Livermore plans as well, where the department intends to test aerosolized biological agents on small mammals, according to Energy Daily (George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, Jan. 28). Back to top

Switzerland Commits to Supporting Russian Chemical Weapons Destruction Russian and Swiss officials signed a deal today in Moscow to provide Russia with about $12 million over five years to aid the destruction of Russia’s chemical weapons arsenal (see GSN, Nov. 26, 2003; Swisspolitics.org, Jan. 28). Russian Munitions Agency Director General Victor Kholstov and Swiss charge d’affaires in Moscow Ann Boti inked the agreement that marks Switzerland’s participation in multinational effort to support WMD destruction in the former Soviet Union. Switzerland announced in June that it would join the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Nuclear Weapons, an effort begun by the Group of Eight global economic powers in June 2002 (Itar-TASS, Jan. 28). The Swiss parliament last year approved spending more than $13 million on global efforts to destroy chemical weapons (Swisspolitics.org). Back to top

U.S.-European Missile Defense Cooperation Grows U.S. and Polish defense contractors signed a missile defense cooperation agreement Monday in Washington that is intended to lead to joint efforts to develop radar and other technologies for missile defense systems (see GSN, July 26, 2002). The memorandum of understanding was signed by representatives from Lockheed Martin and Przemyslowy Instytut Telekomunikacji, a leading Polish defense electronics firm. “This MOU paves the way for our companies to cooperatively develop technologies that will improve the effectiveness of our nations’ defenses against the growing threat of ballistic missile proliferation,” said Lockheed Martin Vice President Dave Kier, who is also managing director for missile defense programs (Lockheed Martin release, Jan. 28). The agreement was the latest in a series of deals formalized between U.S. and European firms (see GSN, Oct. 14, 2003). “Allied participation in the ballistic missile defense system is beginning to occur,” said Mitch Kugler, director of strategic initiatives at Boeing Missile Defense Systems. Boeing has recently received U.S. permission to exchange detailed information with three major European defense firms and Kugler predicted that trends toward growing cooperation would continue (De Selding/Ferster, Space News, Jan. 26). Back to top       France Awards Early-Warning Satellite Contract France has awarded a $156 million contract to Astrium to build a demonstration early-warning satellite system, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported this week (see GSN, Nov. 17, 2003). The planned system is part of a program to deploy an extended-theater missile defense system within the next 10 years (Aviation Week & Space Technology, Jan. 26).   Back to top

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