U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday that his past claims that Iraq had developed mobile biological facilities might have been based on incorrect information (AFP photo/Benoit Doppagne). Iraqi Mobile Biological Facilities Claims May be Wrong, Powell Says U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday that his claims to the U.N. Security Council in February 2003 of prewar Iraq’s alleged mobile biological weapons facilities might have been based on incorrect information, Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 2). Powell said that he worked to verify many of the allegations included in the administration’s case for military action against Iraq before he spoke to the Security Council. The claim that prewar Iraq had developed mobile biological facilities was among the most dramatic, Powell said, “and I made sure that it was multisourced” (see GSN, March 29)...Full Story

Brazil Refuses Nuclear Inspections U.N. nuclear inspectors are being blocked from examining a uranium enrichment facility being built in Brazil, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 23)...Full Story

13 Firms Sanctioned for Alleged Aid to Iranian WMD, Missile Programs By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The United States has imposed sanctions against 13 companies, academic institutions and individuals in several countries for allegedly aiding Iran’s WMD and missile efforts, the U.S. State Department said Friday (see GSN, April 1)...Full Story

	Monday, April 5, 2004

Iraqi Mobile Biological Facilities Claims May be Wrong, Powell Says U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday that his claims to the U.N. Security Council in February 2003 of prewar Iraq’s alleged mobile biological weapons facilities might have been based on incorrect information, Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 2). Powell said that he worked to verify many of the allegations included in the administration’s case for military action against Iraq before he spoke to the Security Council. The claim that prewar Iraq had developed mobile biological facilities was among the most dramatic, Powell said, “and I made sure that it was multisourced” (see GSN, March 29). Intelligence that two trailers were being used to develop biological weapons now appears not to have been “solid,” Powell said. “Now, if the sources fell apart we need to find out how we’ve gotten ourselves in that position,” Powell said. “I have discussions with the CIA about it,” he added (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 4). Iraq’s alleged mobile biological facilities most likely “did not exist,” Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said yesterday, adding that the Bush administration’s use of flawed intelligence on such facilities was “embarrassing for everybody.” The committee’s inquiry on U.S. prewar intelligence on Iraq examined the issue of the mobile biological facilities, Roberts said during an appearance on CNN’s Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer. While the committee’s report is not yet finished, “I think there is a preponderance of evidence that those mobile labs did not exist, in regards to any kind of biological weaponry,” he said. Roberts blamed the error on what he called an “assumption train” by U.S. and other intelligence agencies, in which all information was interpreted to indicate that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We have a real systemic problem on our hands,” he said. A CIA spokesman yesterday refused to comment on either Powell’s or Roberts’ remarks, the Times reported (Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, April 5). Bush Urged Blair to Support Iraq War Soon After Sept. 11 Attacks Meanwhile, the London Observer reported yesterday that U.S. President George W. Bush asked British Prime Minister Tony Blair shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to support the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (see GSN, March 22). Bush and Blair discussed the issue during a private White House dinner held nine days after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the former British ambassador to Washington, Christopher Meyer. During that dinner, according to Meyer, Blair told Bush he should focus on combating al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. According to Meyer, Bush told Blair, however, “I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first.  But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq.” In a Vanity Fair article to be published this month, Meyer said that he took Bush’s comments to mean “that when we did come back to Iraq it wouldn’t be to discuss smarter sanctions” (David Rose, London Observer, April 4). Kay Says He Knew Iraq Had No WMD Stockpiles Soon After Arriving In remarks also to be published in Vanity Fair, former U.S. chief weapons inspector in Iraq David Kay said that he knew shortly after arriving in Iraq last year that Hussein was no longer developing WMD stockpiles, according to the New York Daily News. Kay said that in early July 2003, he sent an e-mail to CIA Director George Tenet saying “that it looks like as though they did not produce weapons.” It was not until early this year, however, that Kay told Congress that U.S. intelligence had been wrong about Iraq’s WMD efforts. Kay also said that while he was ready to leave Iraq in mid-December, Tenet told him to remain.  “If you resign now, it will appear that we don’t know what we’re doing and the wheels are coming off,” Kay quoted Tenet as saying. “So I said, ‘Fine, I’ll wait,’” Kay said (James Gordon Meek, New York Daily News, April 5). Back to top       13 Firms Sanctioned for Alleged Aid to Iranian WMD, Missile Programs By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The United States has imposed sanctions against 13 companies, academic institutions and individuals in several countries for allegedly aiding Iran’s WMD and missile efforts, the U.S. State Department said Friday (see GSN, April 1). Five Chinese entities were sanctioned for violating the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2002, as were two from Macedonia, two from Russia, and one each from Belarus, North Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates, deputy department spokesman Adam Ereli said.  The sanctioned Chinese companies were the Zibo Chemical Equipment Plant, China North Industries Corp. (NORINCO), China Precision Machinery Import/Export Corp. (CPMIEC), Oriental Scientific Instruments Corp. (OSIC) and the Beijing Institute of Opto-Electronic Technology (BIOET), a Bush administration official told Global Security Newswire today in a written statement (see GSN, Sept. 19, 2003).  The administration official also identified among the sanctioned entities the Russian company Baranov Engine Building Association Overhaul Facility, Russian national Vadim Vorobey, the Belarusian entity Belarus Belvneshpromservice, the Macedonian company Mikrosam, Macedonian national Blagoja Samakoski, the Taiwanese company Goodly Industrial, the North Korean Changgwang Sinyong Corp. and the United Arab Emirates company Elmstone Services and Trading FZE (see GSN, July 25, 2003). The sanctions, which went into effect April 1 and are to expire in two years, prohibit the U.S. government from entering into contracts with or providing assistance to the entities, as well as from selling to the entities items listed on the U.S. munitions list. In addition, new export licenses are to be denied and existing licenses suspended for the transfer of controlled items to the entities. The 13 entities were sanctioned, Ereli said Friday, “because there was credible information indicating that these companies had transferred to Iran, since Jan. 1, 1999,” equipment and technologies controlled under multilateral export control regimes, similar items capable of being used in prohibited programs that fall below the control list parameters of multilateral export control regimes or other items “with the potential of making a material contribution to proscribed programs.” Several of the entities sanctioned last week have been previously punished for alleged proliferation activities. The Changgwang Sinyong Corp. was sanctioned twice in 2001 and again in 2003 for violating the Iran Nonproliferation Act, Ereli said. He also said that NORINCO, the China Precision Machinery Import/Export Corporation and the Zibo Equipment Plant were also previously sanctioned in the last two years for violating the act. Last year, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance Paula DeSutter went so far as to label NORINCO as a “serial proliferator.” In addition, the United States imposed sanctions late last year against Mikrosam and Samakoski over alleged missile technology proliferation activities involving a non-Missile Technology Control Regime member (see GSN, Dec. 29, 2003).  Ereli said Friday that the sanctions only apply to the companies themselves and not to their respective governments. In a later press release, the State Department said that the respective governments had been informed of the sanctions. In a statement Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the U.S. decision. “Russia rejects the very principle of the imposition by one state of sanctions on some structures of other states. As far as genuinely nonproliferation aspects of such matters are concerned, we want to emphasize that Russia has a strict internal export control legislation conforming to high international standards that enables effectively cutting short any unapproved activities involving the trade in sensitive materials,” the ministry said. Last week, the United States announced that sanctions imposed against four Russian entities during the late 1990s for alleged aid to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programs had been lifted. Ereli said Friday that those sanctions were lifted because there was “no evidence” that the entities were continuing the activities for which they had been previously sanctioned. There is no connection, though, between last week’s decision to lift proliferation-related sanctions against some Russian entities and to impose sanctions on two others, the administration official said today. Back to top       Support Seen Building for U.N. Security Council Resolution A “positive groundswell” is forming around a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to nonstate actors, and Security Council discussions could begin this month, German U.N. Ambassador Gunter Pleuger said Friday (see GSN, April 1). Germany holds the council presidency this month. Pleuger said he believes the United States is “absolutely right” in believing there is a deficiency in international law governing nonstate actors. Pleuger said the Security Council felt there is an “imminent threat” that needed to be quickly addressed. He added that the 176 other members of the General Assembly should have the opportunity to examine the resolution, “because in the end it is not enough to adopt a Security Council resolution with legitimacy and acceptance. It is also important that the resolution is being implemented.” (U.N. release, April 2). Back to top       Justice Department Drops Case On China Lab Suspect A Colorado businessman will not face charges that he provided U.S. technology to a laboratory in China believed to have links to proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the Denver Post reported today. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver, in a Feb. 25 letter, told Chinese-American businessman Lee Yu that it was “closing the investigation” because “we feel we cannot, after investigation, prove the matter beyond a reasonable doubt.” A naturalized U.S. citizen who grew up in China, Yu admits to purchasing a high-speed video camera used by physicists and engineers and capable of recording 2,000 frames per second. He also admits to helping send the $50,000 camera to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology’s 14th Research Institute in Beijing, otherwise known as CALT 14, the Post reported today. Yu said the equipment was not sent to CALT 13, a facility listed on the U.S. Commerce Department’s “Entity List,” a database of foreign facilities suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction and therefore banned from receiving U.S. goods. The United States received information that CALT 13, which is also in Beijing, in November 2001 received a camera such as the one Yu admitted to providing to CALT 14. Commerce Department agents “were clumsily investigating a legal transaction,” said Trip Mackintosh, Yu’s attorney. “All the paperwork says CALT 14,” he added. Mackintosh also said the type of camera Yu admitted to transferring is not considered sensitive technology by the U.S. government. Such a camera has the same export classification as a “stapler or a table lamp,” according to Mackintosh (Jim Hughes, Denver Post, April 5). Back to top

Brazil Refuses Nuclear Inspections U.N. nuclear inspectors are being blocked from examining a uranium enrichment facility being built in Brazil, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 23). Brazilian officials in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is headquartered, said the facility near Rio de Janeiro will produce low-enriched uranium for power plants, not weapon-grade material. The agency has sent inspectors to the Resende plant in recent months, according to diplomats, but walls had been built and equipment shrouded, preventing thorough examination. The agency wants to inspect Brazil’s nuclear facilities for two primary reasons: to guarantee that Brazil is not producing highly enriched, weapon-grade material, and to continue its investigation of the global nuclear black market, including the network established by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. An IEAE report on Brazil is expected in June, according to the Post. Ostensibly peaceful nuclear programs like the one in Brazil create fears that a new nuclear race has begun, with development of nuclear technology that could quickly be switched to a weapons effort, the Post said. Projects such as Brazil’s, when intended for peaceful use, are legal under the 1970 Nonproliferation Treaty, to which the South American nation is a party. However, U.S. President George W. Bush on Feb. 11 proposed that countries not already producing uranium should not be allowed to begin production; instead they could receive nuclear fuel at a reasonable cost if they submit to rigorous IAEA inspections. A Brazilian official said Bush’s proposal is unacceptable. “We don’t like treaties that are discriminatory in their intent,” said the official, adding that the proposal was “unacceptable to Brazil, precisely because we see ourselves as so strictly committed to nonproliferation, to disarmament, to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.” Washington has not been openly critical of Brazil’s nuclear pursuits to date. “We hope that Brazil will be part of the solution,” said a senior State Department official. “We’re not trying to describe them as part of the problem. We understand they’re going to establish an enrichment capability (for nuclear energy). It will be safeguarded,” the official added. Some analysts, however, said that permitting Brazil to pursue the type of uranium production program Bush seeks to limit would severely undermine the effort. “It makes mincemeat of the president’s speech,” said Henry Sokolski, director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Washington. “It sets a hell of a precedent if [Brazil goes] through with an enrichment facility,” he added. “Brazil going forward could give cause to countries like Iran to do the same,” said Lawrence Scheinman of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, during his presidential bid, criticized the 1970 Nonproliferation Treaty as unfair for prohibiting some nations from developing a nuclear deterrent. “If someone asks me to disarm and keep a slingshot while he comes at me with a cannon, what good does that do?” da Silva asked in a speech. He has since said that Brazil has no nuclear arms ambitions. However, Brazil announced it will expand uranium enrichment programs, for its own power plants and for the sale of low-enriched uranium to other countries for nuclear power generation. Brazil’s nuclear enrichment technology dates back to the 1970s, and the country has one of the largest uranium deposits in the world. Brazil ships raw uranium to Canada and then to the United Kingdom for processing. If Brazil completed its own fuel cycle, the government estimates that it could save $10 million to $12 million per year and move forward on selling the material to other nations, the Post said. “It’s a very rich market that runs into the billions each year,” said a Brazilian diplomat (Peter Slevin, Washington Post, April 4). Back to top       U.N. Nuclear Chief Heads to Iran as Suspicions Grow International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei will meet with senior Iranian officials in Tehran tomorrow amid mounting evidence Iran might be pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program, according to Associated Press (see GSN, April 2). ElBaradei will “consult on outstanding issues relevant to the IAEA’s verification of Iran’s safeguards agreement” during talks tomorrow and Wednesday, according to an IAEA official (George Jahn, Associated Press, April 5). Meanwhile, Iran yesterday denied having any hidden nuclear facilities after a Vienna-based diplomat cited intelligence from the United States and another unnamed country suggesting that Tehran transferred nuclear programs to less detectable locations, “There is no nuclear facility existing in Iran that we have hidden from the IAEA inspectors,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said (Ali Akbar Dareini, AP/CNews, April 5). However, Vienna-based diplomats said today that suspicion is mounting that Iran has not disclosed all its nuclear activities. “There is a growing feeling that the Iranians are playing games instead of honoring pledges of full disclosure,” one diplomat said (Jahn, AP). Back to top       Seoul Official Says North Korea Willing to Deal North Korea would give up all nuclear projects in exchange for undefined “corresponding measures,” according to a South Korean official, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, April 2). The official said Pyongyang made the statement last month during a visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing. “I learned the North said it had an intention to give up its ‘nuclear power industry’ as well as its nuclear weapons, if corresponding measures are appropriately provided to them,” the official said. “The success of the six-party nuclear talks hinges on how to agree on measures corresponding to a nuclear freeze and dismantlement by the North,” he added. Pyongyang previously made a vague offer of a nuclear freeze in exchange for security guarantees and economic aid from the United States (Agence France-Presse/Daily Times, April 5). Back to top       Pakistan Proposes CBM Talks With India Next Month Pakistan today officially proposed holding talks next month with rival India on nuclear confidence-building measures, according to Agence France-Presse (see GSN, March 11). “Pakistan has today proposed 25-26 May as the dates for hosting expert-level talks on nuclear CBMs (confidence-building measures),” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The talks would be held as part of a peace dialogue being conducted by the two nuclear-armed rivals (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 5). The dialogue is set to finish with a summit in August between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers (Xinhua News Agency, April 5). Back to top       Nuclear Whistleblower Seeks to Renounce Citizenship Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has reportedly asked to renounce his citizenship to prevent the Israeli government from forcing him to remain in the country after his release from prison later this month, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, March 11). Vanunu is expected to be released from prison April 21 after serving 18 years for providing pictures and descriptions of alleged Israeli nuclear weapons facilities to the London Sunday Times in 1986. On concerns that Vanunu might have more information on Israel’s long-assumed nuclear program, which the CIA believes consists of up to 400 weapons, Israeli officials are working to limit his travels once he is freed, according to AP. Israel’s Channel Two television station reported Saturday that Vanunu sent a letter to the Israeli Interior Ministry seeking to formally renounce his citizenship. A ministry spokeswoman refused to comment on the issue, AP reported (Jason Keyser, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 3). Back to top

CDC: Doctors Unprepared to Recognize Signs of Outbreak Without better diagnostic tests, U.S. doctors are “woefully unprepared” to recognize a release of toxic chemical, according to a U.S. health official, Bioterrorism Week reported today (see GSN, June 12, 2003). Doctors need improved tests to detect unusual diseases and stop massive toxic exposure or disease outbreaks, said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  “We need much more capability to rapidly diagnose exposure to these emerging threats,” Gerberding said (Bioterrorism Week, April 5). Back to top

U.S., Russian Officials to Discuss Weapons Disposal Russian Audit Chamber head Sergei Stepashin is to discuss cooperation on eliminating Russia’s chemical weapons stockpile with U.S. General Accounting Office head David Walker during talks beginning today in Washington, according to ITAR-Tass (see GSN, March 17). During the talks, to be held through Wednesday, Stepashin and Walker will also discuss antiterrorism cooperation and other issues, ITAR-Tass reported (ITAR-Tass, April 4). Back to top       Australian Report Warns of Possible Additional WWII-Era Weapons Estimates that more than 1,000 World War II-era chemical weapons were dumped off the northeastern coast of Australia might be too low, Australia’s Townsville Bulletin reported today (see GSN, April 22, 2003). At least 700 30-kilogram and 320 45-kilogram mustard agent bombs were dumped off the coast of Townsville at the end of World War II, the Bulletin reported. A new Australian government report says, however, that there may be even more weapons, given poor record keeping during the dumping and incomplete cataloguing of old archives. Inventories show that one Townsville chemical weapons depot contained about 16,000 mustard gas bombs, according to the Bulletin. The government paper says that it was “very unlikely” that those munitions were transported to other dumping sites in the state of Queensland. The Australian and U.S. militaries left at least 21,030 tons of chemical warfare munitions in Australian seas after the war, the report states. The paper also says that the risk to the public from the chemical weapons is “virtually nil” and that recovery of the dumped munitions was unnecessarily risky (Roberta Mancuso, Townsville Bulletin, April 5). Back to top

Japan Denies Reports of U.S. Missile Defense Plan Japan denied a report the United States was considering deploying missile interceptors in Japan before Tokyo completes its own missile defense system, AFX News reported today (see GSN, March 25; AFX News I, April 5). Earlier, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the United States informally raised the issue of deploying Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile interceptors in Japan to protect U.S. bases in the event of an imminent attack. Japan, which is set to deploy its own missile defense system in 2008, was reportedly planning to discuss the proposal, according to AFX News (AFX News II, April 5). Both the Japanese Defense Agency and the Foreign Ministry, though, denied the Yomiuri report, AFX News reported today. “It is not true that the U.S. side has consulted our government on the possible early PAC-3 deployment,” a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said (AFX News I, April 5). Back to top

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