British Prime Minister Tony Blair (left), French President Jacques Chirac (center), and U.S. President George W. Bush gathered with other Group of Eight leaders today during the summit at Sea Island, Georgia (AFP Photo/Tim Sloan). G-8 Leaders Set to Approve Nonproliferation Plan By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire SAVANNAH, Ga. — The leaders of the world’s top eight economic powers are expected to approve a nonproliferation action plan later today that includes a one-year freeze on the export of uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing capabilities, a U.S. senior administration official said yesterday...Full Story

Nonproliferation Effort Likely to Expand Beyond Russia by End of Year, Bolton Says By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire SAVANNAH, Ga. — An effort by the Group of Eight global economic powers to help fund nonproliferation projects within the former Soviet Union is likely to expand by the end of the year to include projects in countries other than Russia, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton told Global Security Newswire today (see related GSN story, today)...Full Story

European States Present IAEA Draft Resolution on Iran France, Germany and the United Kingdom yesterday sought support for a statement criticizing Iran for its failure to cooperate with international nuclear inspectors, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 7)...Full Story

	Wednesday, June 9, 2004

U.S. Set to Revise Data on Global Terror Attacks The State Department said yesterday that it underreported the number of worldwide terrorist attacks for 2003 in its annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report and would soon release an updated version, according to the Los Angeles Times (see GSN, May 26). The report — considered the authoritative accounting of international terrorist incidents around the world — was cheered in April by the Bush administration as proof of success in the war on terrorism. The new report could show that the number of significant terrorist incidents increased last year, perhaps to its highest level in two decades, according to several U.S. officials and terrorism experts. “It will change the numbers,” a State Department official told the Times. “The incidents will go up, but I don’t know by how many,” the official added. Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) requested the recount in a May 17 letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell. While he praised the agency’s decision yesterday, Waxman added that the Bush administration has not addressed his allegation that it manipulated data to claim victory against terrorism. “This manipulation may serve the administration’s political interests, but it calls into serious doubt the integrity of the report,” Waxman wrote in the May 17 letter to Powell. Citing analysis by two independent experts who used State Department figures, Waxman told Powell that the number of significant terrorist attacks since 2001 has actually risen by more than 35 percent. The 2003 count ended on Nov. 11, but several significant attacks occurred afterward that year, he said. Several Department officials denied the numbers were politically motivated. “That’s not the way we do things here,” said one senior official. Another senior official blamed the inaccuracies on clerical errors. The official said the recent shift of responsibility for the report from the CIA to the administration’s new Terrorist Threat Integration Center resulted in the problems (Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times, June 9). Back to top

G-8 Leaders Set to Approve Nonproliferation Plan By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire SAVANNAH, Ga. — The leaders of the world’s top eight economic powers are expected to approve a nonproliferation action plan later today that includes a one-year freeze on the export of uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing capabilities, a U.S. senior administration official said yesterday. The plan is set to be approved during this year’s summit of the Group of Eight — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — being held from yesterday to Thursday at Sea Island, Ga. The plan, which the senior administration official described as one of the “most significant” issues being considered by the G-8, includes several nuclear-related nonproliferation measures intended to follow up on proposals made by U.S. President George W. Bush earlier this year (see GSN, Feb. 12). During a Feb. 11 speech at the National Defense University, Bush called for the elimination of a “loophole” in the current nuclear nonproliferation regime that allows countries to develop a nuclear weapons program under the guise of seeking civilian nuclear power. Among the measures Bush proposed was a ban on the export of uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing capabilities, which can be used to develop both weapon-grade materials and civilian nuclear power plant fuel, to those countries that do not already possess such capabilities. The G-8 action plan set to be approved today includes a one-year freeze on new initiatives to export enrichment and reprocessing capabilities, as well as a one-year deadline to develop new guidelines for such transfers, the senior administration official said. The G-8 action plan is also expected to seek a mandate that countries sign Additional Protocols to their International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards agreements as a requirement to receive civilian nuclear equipment, according to the senior administration official. The Additional Protocol gives the agency the authority to conduct more intrusive monitoring of a country’s nuclear activities.  The issue of using the Additional Protocol as a prerequisite for transfers of nuclear equipment was discussed last month in Sweden at this year’s meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a multilateral export control regime that governs trade in nuclear-related technology, a U.S. State Department official told Global Security Newswire yesterday on the sidelines of the summit (see GSN, May 28). Group members then indicated support for requiring that the Additional Protocol be ratified and entered into force by countries seeking nuclear equipment, but no decision has yet been made, the State Department official said. Following Bush’s proposals earlier this year, the G-8 action plan is also expected to endorse the creation of a special committee of the IAEA Board of Governors responsible for strengthened safeguards and verification, the senior administration official said. The action plan is further expected to endorse the recusal of countries under investigation by the agency from both the IAEA board and the new special committee regarding their cases, the official said.  In addition to measures intended to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime, the G-8 action plan would also endorse several broader nonproliferation measures, according to the senior administration official. For example, the G-8 leaders are expected to announce today the addition of seven donor countries to the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, a G-8 initiative launched in 2002 to pledge $20 billion over 10 years to fund nonproliferation projects, primarily in Russia. The official said the new donor countries include Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand (see GSN, June 1), South Korea and the Czech Republic. The contributions of the new countries to the Global Partnership are expected to be initially modest, the official said. The official said that Canada and Russia are set to soon announce the signing of a bilateral agreement that would allow Canada’s pledged contribution of $739 million to be fully implemented in Russia. In addition, the European Union has indicated that it would increase by the end of the year its pledged contribution, which stands at more than $1 billion, the official said. In addition, the Global Partnership is also expected to be expanded to help fund the redirection of former Libyan and Iraqi WMD scientists to civilian research projects, the senior administration official said. The official said that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein maintained a cadre of as many as 1,000 scientists and technicians with the knowledge needed to relaunch Iraq’s nuclear weapons efforts, of which the United States has identified 400 to 500 who need to be redirected to civilian research (see related GSN story, today). The partnership aims eventually to add other former Soviet states as recipients of the G-8 program’s funds, and U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton today told GSN that such a development could take place by the end of the year (see related GSN story, today). However, this week’s summit is not likely to announce that decision, the senior administration official said yesterday. The G-8 action plan is also set to include an agreement to expand and strengthen the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S-led effort launched last year to interdict shipments of WMD-related cargo, the senior administration official said. The United States has recently called for the initiative to be expanded to target facilities that produce WMD-related materials and proliferation financiers, as well as WMD-related cargo shipments.  The senior administration official also said that the G-8 action plan would include an endorsement of U.N. Resolution 1540, which requires all U.N. members to criminalize WMD proliferation (see GSN, April 29). Back to top       Nonproliferation Effort Likely to Expand Beyond Russia by End of Year, Bolton Says By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire SAVANNAH, Ga. — An effort by the Group of Eight global economic powers to help fund nonproliferation projects within the former Soviet Union is likely to expand by the end of the year to include projects in countries other than Russia, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton told Global Security Newswire today (see related GSN story, today). In 2002, the G-8 nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — launched the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. They  agreed to pledge $20 billion over 10 years to help fund nonproliferation projects. Since its inception, a number of non-G-8 countries have joined the effort as donor countries, and seven new donors are set to be announced today during the G-8 summit at Sea Island, Ga. Prior to this year’s summit, U.S. officials indicated that the Global Partnership would also be formally expanded at the summit to include several new recipient countries, possibly including Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. A senior Bush administration official announced yesterday, however, that there were no plans to formally announce new Global Partnership recipients at this week’s summit. Russian officials and independent nonproliferation experts have expressed concerns over the possible expansion, noting delays in obtaining funding pledged through the effort. In an interview on the sidelines of the summit, though, Bolton told GSN that he was “reasonably confident” that at least one new partnership recipient from the former Soviet Union would be announced this year. Noting that all G-8 decisions are made by consensus, Bolton said that “a couple of states” had questions about expanding the partnership at this time. Even so, a majority of G-8 members support the partnership’s formal expansion to include projects outside of Russia, Bolton said. Bolton today also praised the progress made to date by the Global Partnership, noting an increase in Russian cooperation with nonproliferation projects since the effort was launched. The “main accomplishment” of the effort, Bolton said, was to double the amount the United States would spend over 10 years to help fund nonproliferation projects in the former Soviet Union. He also said that Japan is soon set to increase its pledged funding to the Global Partnership, which stands at $200 million. A.Q. Khan During his interview today, Bolton also discussed the investigation into the international nuclear network revealed by the confession of top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who acknowledged transferring nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. The investigation is proceeding on three fronts, Bolton said: U.S. efforts to follow-up on intelligence information; Pakistan’s own international investigation into the transfers, which Khan is obligated to fully cooperate with under his conditional presidential pardon; and U.S. cooperation with other countries, such as the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, where aspects of the nuclear network may have operated. As an example, Bolton noted the recent arrest in Malaysia of businessman Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan citizen with permanent Malaysian residency, for his role in the nuclear network (see GSN, June 1). The United States is satisfied with the cooperation Pakistan has provided in the investigation of the Khan network, Bolton said. He also said that there are no plans to impose sanctions or other penalties on Pakistan for Khan’s actions, because there is no evidence that the nuclear transfers occurred with the approval of the Pakistani government. Back to top       Iraqi Scientists Need Jobs, Bolton Says Upwards of 500 Iraqi weapons scientists must be given jobs to ensure they are not diverted into developing arms for other countries or terrorist organizations, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said yesterday (see GSN, May 14). “People are going to have to be creative to make sure that these people have something to do,” Bolton told Agence France-Presse during the G-8 summit on Sea Island, Ga. Between 400 and 500 scientists were left jobless after the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime, Bolton said. He did not know if any of the scientists had been offered jobs by entities seeking weapons of mass destruction. “The pattern we’ve seen is scientists from the former Soviet Union, as the economy collapsed, were without a livelihood and they were offered salaries in Iran and other places and they took it,” Bolton said. “It’s a perfectly natural reaction. We want to try to head that off in this case, and it’s a race against time,” he added, according to AFP. Bolton also said Iraq someday might be allowed to develop a civilian nuclear power program, though “that’s a ways down the road.” “When the day comes when there is a representative government, and the (U.N.) Security Council says that, in fact, Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction, a really transformed Iraq, there’s no reason, it seems to me, unlike some other countries, there’s no reason why you couldn’t contemplate a civilian nuclear power program,” Bolton said (Olivier Knox, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 8). Back to top       Senators Urge CIA to Declassify Critical Report on Prewar Assessments of Iraq The CIA should declassify and release the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the agency’s prewar performance on Iraq, the panel’s leaders said yesterday (see GSN, June 4). Senators Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) and John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the ranking committee members, told the New York Times they support the fullest possible disclosure of the agency’s performance on Iraq. “I feel very strongly that the great majority of this report should be made public,” Roberts said. “Our report is a good one.  It’s right, and the American people certainly deserve to see it,” he added. The agency has been reviewing the report for about a month, and Senate staff had expected the document to be returned by last week, the Times said. Roberts said the committee yesterday approved a set of recommendations to be included in the report during a closed meeting. While members had tentatively planned an approval vote on the report this week, the panel is not scheduled to meet again until next week. A senior intelligence official said yesterday there were “some things in the report that we know to be factually incorrect.” The official added that analysis was continuing. “It’s being done entirely by career civil servants whose job it is to determine what remains classified and what can be declassified,” the official said. He added that senior-level officials at the agency would ultimately have to approve the decisions. Government officials said the report details a number of mistakes the agency made by relying on uncorroborated sources of information about Iraq’s alleged WMD programs, such as those provided by defectors aligned with Ahmad Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress. Sources close to outgoing CIA Director George Tenet have speculated that the report may have hastened his resignation, which he announced last week. The report is one of three due this summer that are expected to be critical of the CIA’s performance on Iraq intelligence, the Sept. 11 attacks, or both (Douglas Jehl, New York Times, June 9). Back to top       Iraq War Fuels Terror Threat, SIPRI Report Finds While the invasion of Iraq might have deterred some countries from seeking weapons of mass destruction, it has heightened anger in the Arab world and fueled the international terrorist threat, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said today (see GSN, June 8). Using Libya as an example, the think tank report on weapons and international security said negotiations and the proven willingness of the United States and its allies to use force could slow the spread of unconventional weapons. “Perhaps luckily, evidence of past and present WMD problems in … Iran, Libya and North Korea was strong enough to maintain the momentum of international cooperation against the proliferation menace — and many states were motivated to work for less violent solutions,” wrote SIPRI director Alyson Bailes. However, the organization warned that some countries might believe they need to increase their arsenals to ward off an invasion, according to the Associated Press. Ongoing conflict in Iraq shows the coalition forces’ hold on the country remains tenuous, and instability could cause civil wars in neighboring nations, the think tank said (Matt Moore, Associated Press, June 9). Back to top

European States Present IAEA Draft Resolution on Iran France, Germany and the United Kingdom yesterday sought support for a statement criticizing Iran for its failure to cooperate with international nuclear inspectors, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 7). In circulating a draft resolution to members of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors, the three nations cited Iran’s failure to cooperate in a “complete, timely and proactive” way, said a diplomat quoting parts of the text. He added, however, that the document acknowledges that Iran granted IAEA inspectors access to key locations, including “defense industry” sites. The diplomat said the draft also called on Iran to reveal the full scope of its centrifuge program and urged Tehran to rethink plans to build a uranium conversion plant and heavy water reactors. Alluding to Pakistan, the draft calls for the “full and close cooperation of third countries” to clear up questions that remain regarding Iran’s program, the diplomat said. Diplomats close to the U.N. nuclear watchdog say Pakistan has refused to allow agency experts to take samples that could confirm Iranian assertions that traces of weapon-grade uranium found in Iran came from equipment bought from the nuclear smuggling network involving former Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. Another diplomat said the United States approved of the draft but would probably press for tougher wording in some sections. U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said yesterday the administration is studying the draft but otherwise had no comment. The IAEA board begins a quarterly meeting Monday and will review a report on Iran by agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, who has expressed many of the same concerns as the draft circulated by the three European nations (George Jahn, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 8). Meanwhile, Russia said yesterday that it would not yield to U.S. pressure to halt construction of an Iranian nuclear power plant near Bushehr, but added that that cooperation was conditional on Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 26). “We have cooperated with Iran and will continue to cooperate with Iran in nuclear power generation,” Sergei Prikhodko, a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said after talks between Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush at the Group of Eight summit in the United States (see related GSN story, today). “This is conditional on Iran fulfilling the International Atomic Energy Agency’s conditions and the extent to which we can, bilaterally, solve all remaining technical problems concerning construction of the Bushehr power plant,” he added. Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also discussed Iran’s nuclear ambitions at the G-8 summit. “Schroeder and Bush share a degree of skepticism about Iran’s intentions,” a senior U.S. administration official said, adding that Washington was lobbying other European G-8 members — Britain, France and Italy — on the issue (Richard Balmforth, Reuters/Yahoo!News, June 8). Elsewhere, Iran’s former IAEA envoy said today his country had no nuclear weapon aspirations because acquiring them would actually endanger Iran, Agence France-Presse reported. “Suppose we have a nuclear weapon, our nuclear weapon of course will not be as good as those developed by the Russians, nor will it be able to compete with the nuclear weapons of Israel and by extension of the U.S.,” Ali Akbar Salehi said. “A country like Iran cannot have prestige by acquiring nuclear weapons,” Salehi went on. “I think a country like Iran would raise more threats against it, and not get security, by having nuclear weapons,” he added (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, June 9). Back to top       Bush, Koizumi Discuss North Korean Nuclear Program By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire SAVANNAH, Ga. — U.S. President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi yesterday discussed efforts to resolve the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, including the Japanese leader’s observations of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a meeting last month, according to a U.S. senior administration official (see GSN, June 8). The meeting came during a summit of the Group of Eight global economic powers being held this week in Sea Island, Ga. Bush and Koizumi met with “a lot of good cheer and friendly conversation,” the senior official said. Koizumi told Bush that during his May trip to Pyongyang, he saw a shift in Kim’s position toward a realization of the possible benefits, such as economic aid and energy assistance, that North Korea could gain by verifiably ending its nuclear efforts, the official said. Koizumi also told Bush yesterday that Kim told him that his country did not want to possess nuclear weapons, the senior administration official said. While North Korea has made similar statements in the past, according to the official, they were also followed by claims that North Korea needed to develop nuclear weapons in response to tensions with the United States. The White House views the next round of multilateral talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis, set to be held in Beijing by the end of the month, as an opportunity to determine if North Korea has shifted its position regarding its nuclear efforts, the senior administration official said. The six-party talks, involve China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States. Koizumi reaffirmed yesterday Japan’s support for the six-party talks as the means for resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis, the official said. Kim has expressed a desire to conduct a bilateral dialogue directly with the United States, a Japanese government spokesman said here yesterday, adding that Koizumi did not give Bush any “specific advice” during their meeting regarding such a proposal. While the Bush administration has rejected bilateral talks with Pyongyang, U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2004 presidential election, has expressed support for direct talks with North Korea. “This problem is too urgent to allow China, or others at the table, to speak for us,” Kerry said last week (see GSN, June 2). According to the senior administration official, the “main advice” Koizumi gave Bush yesterday was to keep open the possibility that Pyongyang could receive benefits, such as economic aid, energy assistance and security guarantees if it were to end its suspected nuclear weapons program. Bush agreed that such benefits may be possible, but only if North Korea were to verifiably end its nuclear program, the official said. Meanwhile, China said yesterday that the United States is using allegations that North Korea is developing a uranium-based nuclear weapons program in addition to its publicly disclosed plutonium-based effort to hold up nuclear talks, the New York Times reported. “We know nothing about the uranium program,” Deputy Foreign Minister Zhou Wenzhong said in Beijing. “We don’t know whether it exists. So far the U.S. has not presented convincing evidence of this program,” he added. Zhou said the United States should stop making charges about the uranium program unless it could offer more conclusive evidence of its existence. “This is a problem,” he said. U.S. officials have based their case for North Korea’s uranium program on evidence obtained from Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who acknowledged selling nuclear technology to Pyongyang. Zhou said that the burden to compromise in the next round of talks would fall more heavily on the United States.  “The United States is accusing North Korea of having this or that, and then attaching conditions” to negotiations, Zhou said. “So it should really be the U.S. that takes the initiative,” he added. Zhou also suggested China was edging closer to North Korea on two other central disputes from the previous multilateral session, the Times said. He suggested it made little sense to insist that North Korea completely and unilaterally dismantle it nuclear program before the United States agreed to provide any benefits. He also suggested that China sympathized with North Korea’s desire to maintain a peaceful nuclear program. Back to top       U.S. Says India Should Adopt IAEA Safeguards The United States said Friday that India should place its nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and that India and Pakistan should refrain from additional nuclear weapons deployment, the Press Trust of India reported (see GSN, June 7). “We would like to see India place all of its civilian facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards,” said Mitchell Reiss, State Department director of policy planning. “We have urged both parties to maintain their nuclear moratoria, to refrain from assembling or deploying nuclear weapons, and to bring an early end to the production of fissile materials so as to avoid a costly and destabilizing arms race,” he added. India has repeatedly rejected further IAEA scrutiny of its nuclear program (Press Trust of India, June 8). Back to top       Former Pakistani Nuclear Official Suggests Greater U.S. Role for Nuclear Mediation With India The United States ought to play a greater role in nuclear crisis management between Pakistan and India, and should be given access to nuclear sites, a former official associated with Pakistan’s nuclear command said yesterday (see GSN, June 4). Brig. Feroze Hasan Khan, former director of arms control and disarmament affairs in the Strategic Plans Division of the Pakistani Joint Staff Headquarters, suggested that the United States might consult with “India and Pakistan regarding generic physical protection and material accounting practices of nuclear facilities,” Dawn reported. He added that the United States could share technology with both South Asian nations to prevent an accidental nuclear launch. Khan also suggested a nondeployment agreement for the two rivals’ nuclear forces (Dawn, June 8). Back to top

Bioshield Project Moving Forward Without Law By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire BALTIMORE — A top U.S. vaccine development official today expressed hope that President George W. Bush would sign the Project Bioshield initiative into law by month’s end but called the absence of such a law unimportant to the project’s progress (see GSN, May 20). Bioshield is designed to guarantee a government market for vaccines that drug makers otherwise would see as unprofitable and be reluctant to produce. The Senate and House of Representatives have passed separate versions of legislation to enact Project Bioshield, but no step has yet been taken to reconcile the chambers’ approaches and allow passage by the full Congress.  Bush, who first proposed the project early last year, would be expected to quickly sign the bill if congressional passage occurred. Despite Bioshield’s statutory nonexistence, Congress has appropriated funds for the project, a fact stressed today by top Health and Human Services Department vaccine adviser Philip Russell during a question-and-answer period after a speech he delivered at the University of Maryland Law School. “The latest rumor was that Congress would probably act and the president would sign it at the end of this month.  I hope so,” said the former head of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Army Medical Research and Development Command. Russell said Health and Human Services could be expected to begin spending appropriated funds within months irrespective of Congress’ progress on the legislation. “It really isn’t holding us up,” Russell said of the congressional delay.  He said proposals already issued would “hopefully” result in the award of a contract for vaccine production by August or September. Officials have said the first contract likely to be awarded under Bioshield would be for an anthrax vaccine (see GSN, June 8).  Russell today placed such a vaccine among top priorities for the project, along with anthrax treatments, a “next-generation” smallpox vaccine, botulinum antitoxin, recombinant plague vaccine and other products. Russell also underlined the danger of development of dangerous antibiotic-resistant biological agents.  “We have about five years to find a first-class solution to that problem,” he said, mentioning mass vaccinations as one such fix. Back to top

Mustard Leak Discovered at Deseret Chemical Depot Crews in protective gear discovered two leaking 155 mm projectiles in a storage igloo yesterday at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah after mustard agent vapor was detected in the structure, according to depot officials (see GSN, May 24). The crews sealed the leaking munitions in airtight containers (U.S. Army release, June 8). Back to top

Israel Develops Ground-Launched Cruise Missile Israel has developed its first surface-to-surface cruise missile, but details of its full payload potential remain a secret, according to the June 16 issue of Jane’s Defense Weekly (see GSN, Oct. 14, 2003). Israel Military Industries said the flight range of the Delilah-GL — a converted air-launched missile — is 250 kilometers, while Israeli defense officials put the range at more than 300 kilometers. The missile carries a 30-kilogram high-explosive warhead, but Israel Military Industries otherwise declined to detail the missile’s payload capabilities. The ground-launched Delilah is reported to include systems able to pinpoint targets at distances up to 16 kilometers and can “loiter” over target areas. The missile can also double as an unmanned reconnaissance vehicle. Israel is also looking at converting two other weapons systems into land-attack missiles with ranges of up to 300 kilometers (Alon Ben-David, Jane’s Defense Weekly, June 16). The military breakthrough comes after the United States twice refused to sell Tomahawk land-attack missiles to Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported yesterday (Douglas Davis, Jerusalem Post, June 8).       Back to top

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