Officials from China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States met today in Beijing to begin talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program (AFP photo/Greg Baker). U.S. and North Meet Separately as Multilateral Talks Begin in Beijing U.S. and North Korean officials met privately today in Beijing, after long-awaited multilateral talks on resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis began with statements from the six delegations, according to the Agence France-Presse (see GSN, Feb. 24)...Full Story

Reserve Judgment on Iraqi WMD Intelligence Until Search Ends, Tenet Advises By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Top U.S. intelligence officials said yesterday that the WMD hunt in Iraq could last another year and urged U.S. lawmakers to reserve judgment on the merits of U.S prewar intelligence until the search ends (see GSN, Feb. 24)...Full Story

U.S. Officials Say They Will Not Push Iranian Nuclear Issue to U.N. Security Council Recent disclosures about Iran’s nuclear activities are serious, but U.S. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration would not seek to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council (see GSN, Feb. 24)...Full Story

	Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Reserve Judgment on Iraqi WMD Intelligence Until Search Ends, Tenet Advises By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Top U.S. intelligence officials said yesterday that the WMD hunt in Iraq could last another year and urged U.S. lawmakers to reserve judgment on the merits of U.S prewar intelligence until the search ends (see GSN, Feb. 24). CIA Director George Tenet, along with the heads of the FBI and Defense Intelligence Agency, testified during an annual worldwide threat hearing held by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In his prepared testimony, Tenet only briefly touched on the issue of Iraq, saying the Iraq Survey Group needs to complete its search for weapons of mass destruction. Committee members, however, persistently questioned Tenet on the apparent discrepancies between prewar assessments of Iraq’s WMD capabilities and what has been found there so far. In response to many of the questions, Tenet reiterated the need for the WMD search in Iraq to be fully completed (see GSN, Feb. 5). “At the end of the day, we’re going to have to ask ourselves the question, do you think they made reasonable judgments, and do you think they could have come to different conclusions? And we need a little bit of time and patience to figure all that out,” Tenet said. DIA Director Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby said during yesterday’s hearing that the U.S. investigators still need to examine 17,000 boxes of documents — an effort anticipated to last about a year. Jacoby also said that the survey group is focusing on those documents most likely to be valuable to the WMD search. “In many cases we know where those documents came from, and so there’s a triage on the front end that prioritizes, and so the areas where we would logically find WMD materials move to the front of the line. And so the backlog and the timeline is far shorter for those more profitable areas of exploration,” Jacoby said. Both Jacoby and Tenet said U.S. investigators had the resources they needed, especially Arabic translators, and the funding needed to thoroughly examine the documents. In addition, the survey group is expected to hire additional Arabic linguists this month, Jacoby said. The group is also devoting some of its efforts to the search for Air Force Capt. Scott Speicher, Jacoby said. Speicher was shot down over Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War, and is believed by some to have survived and been taken prisoner. While Tenet mostly refused to comment on specific prewar assessments of Iraqi WMD efforts, he did say that there is still no consensus on the purpose of trailers found last year by coalition forces in Iraq (see GSN, Jan. 29). As late as last month, senior Bush administration officials continued to repeat the claim that the trailers had been intended for use as mobile biological weapons facilities, but former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq David Kay has said that the “consensus opinion” was that the trailers were not intended for such use. Yesterday, though, Tenet said he was “sitting right in the middle of a big debate” on the intended use of the recovered trailers. “I have analysts in my building who still believe that they were for BW trailers. I have Defense Intelligence Agency analysts who have posited another theory,” Tenet said. “We don’t have enough data and we haven’t wrestled it to the ground yet,” he added. Tenet also said that the prewar intelligence issue had not resulted in reduced support from foreign intelligence agencies or damaged the ability to develop independent contacts. “Nobody has changed their attitude towards us. People are as cooperative as they’ve been. We’re working towards a common framework. Many of our colleagues saw it the same way we did. And so, no, I see no diminution in the willingness of people to work with us in intelligence channels to get our job done,” Tenet said. Back to top       U.S. Firm, Others Fined After Illegal Chemical Exports The U.S. company Morton International Inc. and two of its foreign affiliates have agreed to pay a $647,500 fine for violating U.S. export control laws, including the unapproved export of a chemical controlled for “chemical and biological reasons,” the U.S. Commerce Department announced yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 31, 2003). Morton International had been charged with exporting thiodiglycol on one occasion and attempting to export the chemical on two other occasions in 1999 to Mexico without obtaining the necessary licenses, according to a Commerce Department release. Exports of thiodiglycol are controlled “for chemical and biological reasons,” the department said. The Chicago company and two of its affiliates, one based in France and one in Japan, were also charged with conducting numerous exports and re-exports of organo-inorganic compounds between 1997 and 2001 to several countries, including Israel, India and Taiwan, without receiving government licenses, the Commerce Department said. The export of organo-inorganic compounds is controlled for “national security reasons,” the department said (U.S. Commerce Department release, Feb. 24). Back to top

U.S. and North Meet Separately as Multilateral Talks Begin in Beijing U.S. and North Korean officials met privately today in Beijing, after long-awaited multilateral talks on resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis began with statements from the six delegations, according to the Agence France-Presse (see GSN, Feb. 24). In the longest and highest-level interaction between the United States and the North since October 2002, negotiators met for 2 1/2 hours, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Feb. 25). Earlier in the day, delegates from the United States, Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas took their places at a hexagonal table and made opening remarks, according to Reuters. They outlined their respective positions on the dispute, the latest stage of which began in the fall of 2002 with the United States accusing North Korea of secretly developing a uranium-based nuclear weapons program (John Ruwitch, Reuters, Feb. 24). In yesterday’s presummit bilateral talks between North and South Korea, Seoul presented Pyongyang with a three-phase plan that officials hoped could lead to compromise with the United States. Although the proposal was offered by South Korea, it was developed with close U.S. participation and was therefore presented with tacit U.S. support, according to the New York Times. “If it doesn’t cross what might be considered an objectionable red line of ours, then I don’t know that we would object to what another party might want to do,” a senior administration official said of the South Korean offer. The three-stage proposal calls for North Korea first to commit to dismantle all nuclear activities, then to freeze its nuclear activities. At that point the United States would begin taking measures to reward North Korea’s action. Then, North Korea would begin to dismantle all its nuclear programs in a verifiable manner, a move the United States would reward with energy assistance and a security assurance, the Times reported. Describing the plan, an Asian official said, “The metaphor that everybody is using is that if you are in forward gear … and you want to make [your car] go backward, you have to stop the car first. The U.S. thinks that you shouldn’t have to stop it for very long. We would like it to be a few months” (Weisman/Sanger, New York Times, Feb. 25). Meanwhile, Chinese political scientists are hypothesizing that Pyongyang is likely to stall any resolution until after the U.S. presidential elections, according to the Los Angeles Times. North Korea’s hope is that Bush will be defeated and his replacement will offer better security guarantees and terms for trade and aid. “I expect North Korea to make certain compromises in the six-party talks to keep them going,” said Li Dunqiu, a North Korea expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “But don’t expect any real progress before the U.S. elections,” Li added. Professor of international relations Pang Zhongying of China’s Nankai University added, “North Korea is waiting for its own regime change—in D.C.” (Magnier/Demick, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 25). The six countries are expected to hold a plenary session tomorrow morning for discussion of today’s opening statements, and will then break off into bilateral talks again in the afternoon, according to Kyodo News (Kyodo News, Feb. 24). Back to top       U.S. Officials Say They Will Not Push Iranian Nuclear Issue to U.N. Security Council Recent disclosures about Iran’s nuclear activities are serious, but U.S. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration would not seek to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council (see GSN, Feb. 24). In a report circulated yesterday, the International Atomic Energy Agency criticized Iran for failing to disclose the full extent of its nuclear program, noting among other things that Tehran did not reveal that it possessed designs and components for an advanced uranium enrichment centrifuge (Slevin/Warrick, Washington Post, Feb. 25). The “incriminating information” included in the report would be discussed next month at a meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Governors, a senior U.S. State Department official said (Douglas Frantz, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 25). A senior U.S. official said, though, “I don’t think we’re prepared to go to the Security Council yet, but every week, we’re peeling back another layer of the onion, and maybe that’s just as good.” While there is concern that Iran has not revealed all components of its nuclear program, another official said there is little reason to believe that the country might be close to developing a nuclear weapon. “Everyone believes that with the IAEA crawling over the country,” it would be difficult for Iran to do so,” the official said (Broad/Sanger, New York Times, Feb. 25). Outside experts also agreed on the seriousness of the IAEA report. “The report is a serious embarrassment for Iran. For the first time it presents evidence that suggests Iran has or had a nuclear weapons program,” said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security (Carla Anne Robbins, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 25). The report also appears to indicate that Pakistan might not have fully described the extent of the nuclear proliferation network revealed by the reported confession of top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, according to the Los Angeles Times.  A foreign intelligence agency said that Mohammed Reza Aref, first vice president of Iran, traveled to Pakistan yesterday to learn how much of what Khan told Pakistani authorities was passed on to the IAEA. “The Iranians need to know what ammunition has been provided to their rivals regarding their nuclear weapons program and their efforts to conceal it,” said a written analysis prepared by the intelligence agency (Frantz, Los Angeles Times). Back to top       Malaysia Resists Strengthened Export Controls, International Oversight A top Malaysian official said his country has no plans to sign an Additional Protocol to its nuclear safeguards agreement or to adopt more rigorous export controls, despite recent revelations that a Malaysian firm manufactured uranium enrichment equipment for a nuclear smuggling network used by Iran and Libya, according to the Agence France-Presse (see GSN, Feb. 24). Ahmad Sobri Hashim, director general of the state-run Malaysian Institute for Nuclear Technology Research, said that Kuala Lumpur lacks the ability to implement the protocol, which would permit the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Malaysian nuclear activities more closely. Furthermore, Hashim said that strengthening export controls was impractical because it was too difficult to train personnel to recognize the military potential of some exports. “If trained nuclear scientists find it difficult to identify, how much more for front liners like customs officials? At the moment we lack the capacity at that level,” Ahmad said (Agence France-Presse, Feb. 25). Meanwhile, the United States has been urging Malaysia to improve its nonproliferation measures. U.S. officials have “an ongoing discussion with the Malaysian government about strengthening export controls,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday. “We think these examples of what individuals or firms in Malaysia were able to do emphasize once again the importance for all governments of having solid export controls,” he said, but it remains unclear what Malaysia “will or won’t do” (State Department release, Feb. 24). Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday that Malaysia will allow a United Nations team to inspect a factory run by Scope, the firm at the center of the black market scandal involving Sri Lankan businessman Buhary Syed Abu Tahir and the prime minister’s eldest son, a partial owner of the company (Reuters/Dawn, Feb. 24). Back to top       IAEA to Support Peaceful Libyan Nuclear Programs International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei yesterday pledged support for Libya’s peaceful uses for nuclear energy once its nuclear weapons program is dismantled, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Feb. 24). ElBaradei yesterday wrapped up two days of talks with senior Libyan officials in Tripoli. After meeting with Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Shalgam, ElBaradei praised Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi and Libyan officials for their “complete openness and transparency” since deciding to abandon their nuclear weapons program. “Part of that program has already been eliminated, and we still have some work to eliminate other parts that are less sensitive,” ElBaradei said. He also said his talks with Libyan officials were “very helpful ... in providing information on routes of supply, extent (and) scope” of the international nuclear black market (Associated Press/USA Today, Feb. 25). Meanwhile, the Bush administration yesterday canceled a plan to lift the ban on U.S. travel to Libya after Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem made remarks seemingly denying Libya’s role in the 1988 bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, according to the Washington Post. Ghanem said Libya had accepted responsibility and paid almost $3 billion to the families of the 270 victims only to help end economic sanctions. “After the sanctions and after the problems we have (been) facing because of the sanctions, the loss of money, we thought that it was easier for us to buy peace,” he said. Ghanem’s remarks contradicted a letter Libya sent to the United Nations in August accepting formal responsibility for the bombing. The prime minister also made his remarks shortly before a scheduled U.S. State Department briefing to announce an end to the travel ban — an event that was canceled amid calls by U.S. officials for an immediate retraction by Libya. “We need to understand that the Libyan position is the one they stated authoritatively to the United Nations in writing for all the other steps to continue apace,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. “We basically conveyed the message that I’ve conveyed today, that it’s important for Libya to retract these statements and to make clear what their policy is as soon as possible,” he said (Robin Wright, Washington Post, Feb. 25). Back to top       Ukraine Border Guards Seize Nuclear Material Ukrainian police arrested a man carrying radioactive material earlier this week at the Ukraine-Hungary border checkpoint at Tisa, according to reports (see GSN, Feb. 10). The Ukrainian daily Segodnya cited anonymous sources as saying that some of the material was weapon-grade plutonium and that the smuggler was a former employee of the Soviet Union’s Main Intelligence Directorate, according to a report today by the BBC. Volodymyr Bedrykovsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s Main Directorate for Fighting Organized Crime, did not identify the material, but said that it was being carried in a Soviet-made container and had a Soviet certificate of quality (BBC Monitoring, Feb. 25). Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported today that the smuggler was carrying nearly a pound of uranium and told officials that it was intended for use in Hungary “by a dentist’s office,” according to Ukrainian border guard spokesman Yevheniy Bargman (Los Angeles Times, Feb. 24). Back to top

U.S. Army to Expand Biological Defense Labs The U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground plans to add four new laboratories beginning this spring to its live-pathogen facility used to test and detect biological warfare agents, the Tooele Transcript Bulletin reported today (see GSN, Dec. 13, 2001). The trailer-like modular labs are scheduled to be delivered to the Lothar Salomon Life Sciences Test Facility in May or early June, with each estimated to cost between $250,000 and $350,000. Three Biological Safety Level 3 modules will be used for the “cultivation and testing with hazardous organisms and toxins assigned to BSL-3 or below,” while the fourth BSL-3 certified lab will be used as a BSL-2 lab. BSL-3 pathogens are classified as germs such as anthrax, yellow fever and the West Nile virus that have “a potential for respiratory transmission, and which may cause serious potentially lethal infection,” according to a draft environmental impact statement issued by Dugway. BSL-4 agents include items such as Ebola, Lassa hemorrhagic fever and related agents for which there is no known cure. “Biosafety Level 3 work is the highest level of work performed at Dugway Proving Ground,” said Dugway spokeswoman Paula Nicholson. “All agents used in the lab have some type of immunization or prophylaxis for treatment,” she added. The modules are set be used at least temporarily in place of the planned annex to the Utah base’s biological test facility. There is presently no funding for the permanent structure, Nicholson said. Citizens Education Project Director Steve Erickson is concerned that Utah officials and the general public have not had time to assess the impacts of the lab expansion. “The state has essentially given permission to Dugway Proving Ground to do what Dugway does,” Erickson said. “People in the state are aware of what’s going on but no discussion takes place and there’s no (meaningful) public notification. The lack of state oversight is troubling,” he added. Utah Department of Health Deputy Director Richard Melton said Dugway is not required to report to the state when building a new lab. “We continue to work with Dugway to know what’s being done, but the facilities they’re building present no real problem,” Melton said (Tooele Transcript Bulletin, Feb. 24). Back to top       Giuliani Promises Cleanup at Site of First Anthrax Attack Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s consulting firm, along with the hazardous-waste cleanup company Sabre Technical Services, is preparing to disinfect the anthrax-infested American Media Inc. building in Florida, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, April 23, 2002). The 65,000-square-foot AMI building, former headquarters of the National Enquirer and the Sun, was abandoned in fall 2001 after an anthrax attack killed a Sun photo editor. The incident was the first in a series of still-unsolved anthrax attacks in New York, Washington and elsewhere that killed five people. AMI sold the Boca Raton building to a real-estate investor. Giuliani and his associates are leasing the building and plan to use it as the headquarters for a new antiterrorism venture called Bio-One, which will offer emergency-preparedness and disaster cleanup expertise to companies.  The AMI cleanup is expected to take months of preparation, but the disinfecting process itself could probably be completed in one day, according to the Times (Washington Times, Feb. 25). Back to top

Chad Joins Chemical Weapons Convention Chad has ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (see GSN, Jan. 22). Chad submitted its ratification to the United Nations on Feb. 13 and the treaty’s provisions will enter into force for the African nation on March 14. Chad will join 160 other nations in pledging not to produce, acquire, stockpile or use chemical weapons. Each member state also agrees to destroy any chemical weapons and chemical weapons facilities in its possession, or weapons that it abandoned. The African Union has called for a continent-wide ban on chemical weapons. Forty African nations have now ratified the treaty, including Libya (see GSN, Jan. 14; OPCW Release, Feb. 25). Back to top

Canadian Lawmakers Reject Bid to Block Missile Defense Program Canada’s House of Commons yesterday overwhelmingly voted down a motion to end negotiations with the United States to cooperate on the U.S. missile defense program (see GSN, Feb. 24). The Bloc Quebecois motion was defeated 155-71, but 30 members of the ruling Liberal party surprised the House by voting for the resolution. That number exceeded the dozen or so expected defections (Mike Blanchfield, Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 25). Yvon Charbonneau, parliamentary secretary to Public Security Minister Anne McLellan, joined at least six other Quebec Liberals to support the measure. “This vast [missile defense] program is somewhat ill-conceived and unjustified,” Charbonneau said. “I don’t see where these enemies are who would be targeted by this type of program,” he added (Toronto Star, Feb. 24). The U.S. missile defense system, scheduled to be operational this fall, has become the most divisive issue facing the government of Prime Minister Paul Martin, according to the Ottawa Citizen. Canadian Defense Minister David Pratt played down the significance of the party defectors, however, saying, “It shows there’s a freedom of thought within the Liberal party” (Ottawa Citizen).  Pratt has left open the possibility of basing radar stations and interceptor rocket launchers on Canadian territory (Toronto Star, Feb. 24). Back to top

White House Defends “Dirty Bomb” Suspect’s Legal Status White House counsel Alberto Gonzales yesterday defended the Bush administration’s policy of labeling detained terrorist suspects as “enemy combatants” who can be held indefinitely without being charged. “They need not be ‘guilty’ of anything,” Gonzales told a committee of the American Bar Association. “Nothing in the law of war has ever required a country to charge enemy combatants with crimes, provide them with access to counsel or allow them to challenge their detention in court,” he added. Two U.S. citizens have been designated enemy combatants, including Jose Padilla, who was arrested in 2002 on allegations that he was involved in a plot to detonate a radiological weapon, or “dirty bomb,” within the United States (see GSN, Feb. 23). Padilla has been detained without being charged with a crime since his arrest. In December, a federal appeals court ordered his release, but the U.S. Justice Department appealed the decision. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear the case in late April. Gonzales yesterday said the White House policy resulted from an “elaborate, careful process” over two years. In the Padilla case, there were lengthy consultations with several agencies, including the Justice Department, the FBI and CIA before U.S. President George W. Bush decided to designate a U.S. citizen as an enemy combatant, Gonzales said (Frank Davies, Miami Herald, Feb. 25). Back to top

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