Senators Pat Roberts (R-Kan) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va., shown in a July photo), the leaders of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, testified yesterday before a Senate committee on the issue of intelligence reform (AFP photo). Intelligence Chief Should Have Personnel, Budget Authority, Senate Panel Chairman Says By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate intelligence committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said yesterday that he is set to provide colleagues this week with draft legislation creating a national director with substantial budgetary and personnel authority over the U.S. intelligence community (see GSN, Aug. 16)...Full Story

U.S. Senator Calls Missile Threat a Low Priority; 9/11 Panelists Seek Private Funds to Keep Working By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A Democratic senator yesterday criticized the U.S. missile defense program as a poor use of resources, while lawmakers from both major parties laid into the Homeland Security Department’s transportation chief over his directorate’s priorities and policies...Full Story

North Korea Does Not Deny Uranium Enrichment; China Appeals to Pyongyang on Nuclear Talks A North Korean official did not deny that his country possesses a uranium enrichment program at a seminar in New York last week, according to sources present at the meeting, the Korea Times reported (see GSN, Aug. 16)...Full Story

	Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Intelligence Chief Should Have Personnel, Budget Authority, Senate Panel Chairman Says By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate intelligence committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said yesterday that he is set to provide colleagues this week with draft legislation creating a national director with substantial budgetary and personnel authority over the U.S. intelligence community (see GSN, Aug. 16). The bill, written with Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel, envisions a director similar to that proposed by the Sept. 11 commission, Roberts told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. “That person would be empowered with the authorities to really lead the intelligence community as proposed in the 9/11 commission’s recommendations. Those authorities include the ability to hire and fire, as well as the ability to exercise control over the budgets of those agencies,” he said. Debate over the creation of a national intelligence director, one of the key reform measures recommended by the Sept. 11 commission, has largely centered on what authority the new director would have over the budgets and personnel of the various intelligence agencies, several of which are contained in the Defense Department. While the Sept. 11 commission has called for the new director to have the ability to apportion and reprogram funding to and among the various intelligence agencies and to have the authority to approve nominations to head the agencies, the White House has publicly supported the creation of a director with less budgetary and personnel authority. Rockefeller yesterday criticized the current structure of the U.S. intelligence community, which gives the Pentagon authority over about 80 percent of intelligence funding. “Where else in government or corporate America would you find such a split arrangement as we have now? It’s more akin to a custody settlement between divorced parents than an effective management plan for a 15-agency, multibillion-dollar entity called the intelligence community,” he told the Governmental Affairs Committee. Rockefeller also predicted bureaucratic opposition from both the Pentagon and lawmakers with jurisdiction over the department to providing the new national intelligence director with full budgetary and personnel authority. “So we’re going to have to break some china around here. Otherwise we will fail.  We will fail. We will do the bits and pieces and we will be like Congress has so often been. The American people need real reform,” he said.   Roberts said the draft legislation would also address concerns by the Pentagon that the new national intelligence director could hinder military operations by having too much control over tactical intelligence assets needed by commanders in the field (see GSN, Aug. 12). “I am confident that you will find … that the draft bill that we will provide to this committee does contain some very … innovative ways of addressing that problem,” he said. Roberts did not offer examples of those innovations. The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled today to hear from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers on the issue of intelligence reform. Former CIA Director William Webster, one of the three former agency chiefs to appear yesterday before the Governmental Affairs Committee, also stressed the need to provide effective authority to the new national intelligence director. “The intelligence community does not need a feckless ‘czar’ with fine surroundings and little authority. That is the wrong way to go,” said Webster, who served as CIA director from 1987 to 1991. “The designated leader must be clearly and unambiguously empowered to act and to decide on issues of great importance to the success of the intelligence community and the country,” he added. Former CIA Director James Woolsey said that providing the new national director with substantive budgetary authority would give the office-holder added leverage in debates over the allocation of intelligence assets, such as analysts. “He will or she will have a much better ability to say to the secretary of state or secretary of defense, ‘Look, I sympathize, I understand, I know that this fluent Arabic language linguist is a very rare asset, but you didn’t hear me: I really need her or him,’” said Woolsey, who served as CIA director from 1993 to 1995. Stansfield Turner, CIA director from 1977 to 1981, cautioned lawmakers, though, against providing the new national intelligence director with personnel authority over the heads of various analytic agencies within existing Cabinet departments. “The secretaries of those departments deserve to have their own intelligence advisor whom they have personal confidence in. And if you insist that they take somebody they don’t, that would just create a new intelligence operation of their own on the side anyway,” Turner said. Back to top       U.S. Senator Calls Missile Threat a Low Priority; 9/11 Panelists Seek Private Funds to Keep Working By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A Democratic senator yesterday criticized the U.S. missile defense program as a poor use of resources, while lawmakers from both major parties laid into the Homeland Security Department’s transportation chief over his directorate’s priorities and policies. At a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing that featured the two leaders of the independent commission that studied the 2001 terrorist attacks, senators pressed Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson on his Border and Transportation Security Directorate’s timeline to develop an overall security strategy and on the state of implementation of recommendations of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Sept. 11 commission Chairman Thomas Kean said his panel, whose paperback report is atop the New York Times best-seller list, is trying to raise private funds and to keep a small staff after its mandate ends Sunday. He said the resources would be used to “educate the American public as to these issues and as to the importance of these recommendations as we work with you to get some of them implemented.” Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) ended the hearing by suggesting that the Senate seek an extension of the commission’s mandate, an idea that committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) termed “doable” in the Senate but uncertain to win over the House of Representatives and the White House. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) called for stepping up risk-based protection of transportation systems and other potential terrorist targets, blasting President George W. Bush’s plan to deploy a national missile defense system as a dangerous waste of resources. The Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2005 contains about $10 billion for the missile defense program, parts of which Bush said Aug. 5 would be activated by year’s end (see GSN, Aug. 5). “If you had a threat meter,” Dorgan said, “the likelihood of a terrorist group or a rogue country getting an intercontinental ballistic missile and putting a nuclear warhead on its tip is probably the least likely threat to this country.” Kean and commission Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton adopted a conciliatory tone but leveled a fundamental criticism at the Transportation Security Administration, part of Hutchinson’s directorate. The agency, said the commission heads, has been too slow in developing a national transportation-security plan and a related series of more focused plans organized by sector. Hutchinson said the “road map” should be completed by the end of the year. Hamilton still returned repeatedly to the subject, saying the plans must be completed quickly and must be based on risk, taking into account both threat and vulnerability information, rather than on threat alone, as he said was the case before the Sept. 11 attacks. “We need a blueprint for TSA in each mode of transportation. … Congress should set a specific date for completion of these vital plans,” Hamilton said. “We’re not satisfied,” he said, “with the state of the plans today — either the comprehensive plan or the sector-specific plans.” Committee members also took up the cause, suggesting they could act with the urgency sought by the commission leaders. “The master plan for action has to occur this year, before we adjourn,” Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said. Aviation security was an apparent sore spot among the legislators, with senators at times ridiculing policies on numbers of air marshals on passenger planes, items that passengers may carry and air marshals’ clothing. Several senators called for reversing both a rule requiring marshals to wear business attire, which McCain said can make them “stick out like a sore thumb,” and a policy allowing passengers to carry matches and butane lighters onto planes. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) called for congressional action on various recommendations related to transportation security, including passage of pending rail- and port-security bills. Among other shortcomings, she highlighted a need for more efforts to protect people living near nuclear and chemical plants. Besides seeking greater urgency on the overall security plan, Kean and Hamilton called for improving screening of passengers and cargo, including by taking airport screening out of the hands of private companies and placing it under the Transportation Security Administration. Hamilton said Homeland Security officials must begin to exhibit “disciplined decision-making” about where to spend funds. “The American people understand that, in a free society, we cannot protect everything everywhere all the time,” he said, “but they expect their government to make rational decisions about how to allocate limited resources to address those areas where the terrorist threat to transportation is highest, the nation’s vulnerabilities are greatest and the consequences of a successful attack most severe.” Back to top       GAO Urges Coast Guard to Partner With Local Entities to Implement Vessel Identification System By Marina Malenic Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard could help to reduce federal costs and expedite implementation of a system to identify ships heading through U.S. waters by seeking partnerships with local organizations willing to develop system infrastructure at their own expense, the Government Accountability Office said in a report last month (see GSN, Feb. 6). The Automatic Vessel Identification System was mandated by the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 and by the International Maritime Organization. It is aimed at deterring terrorism by enabling the Coast Guard to monitor vessels traveling to or in U.S. waters by using ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore radio signals at designated frequencies.  The system currently covers only a small portion of the 12,375 miles of U.S. coastline and 25,000 miles of river or inland shoreline, according to congressional auditors. The Coast Guard is seeking to expand the system beyond the 10 areas now covered. However, the system’s total cost and full development schedule are not known because the program’s implementation remains in its early stages, according to the GAO report. To reduce potential federal costs, the agency urged the Coast Guard to seek partnerships with local public and private organizations that would be willing to assume some portion of the expense and responsibility for installing AIS equipment. Port entities in Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif., Tampa, Fla., and Portland, Ore., have demonstrated or expressed interest, the GAO report says. In addition to concerns about cost, licensing regulations are affecting system implementation, according to the congressional auditors. The Federal Communications Commission in 1998 auctioned licenses to two radio frequencies designated by the International Telecommunication Union for AIS communications to MariTEL, Inc., a private company, for a 10-year term. MariTEL and the Coast Guard have been negotiating use of the frequencies, but the commission is expected to address unresolved issues in the dispute this summer, according to the GAO report. Back to top

U.S. Firms to Bid on Libyan Oil Exploration Sites U.S. companies will soon be able to bid on 15 sites Libya has offered for oil and natural gas exploration after the United States lifted some sanctions from Tripoli as a reward for ending its WMD efforts, Bloomberg News reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 12). Interested companies will be able to learn more about the sites Oct. 20-29 at the Tripoli offices of the state-owned National Oil Corp. Bids on the sites are due Jan. 10 and agreements may be signed later that month, the company said on its Web site. Several U.S.- and European-based companies have expressed interest in the auction, Bloomberg News reported (Stephen Voss, Bloomberg News/Houston Chronicle, Aug. 16). Back to top       Russian Supreme Court Rejects Researcher’s Appeal The Russian Supreme Court today rejected an appeal from researcher Igor Sutyagin, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in April for espionage, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, April 7). Sutyagin was convicted of providing information on Russian nuclear submarines and missile early warning systems to a British company that Russian authorities alleged was a front for the CIA. His lawyers sought to appeal the conviction on several procedural issues, claiming that the judge in the case gave improper instructions to the jury, AP reported. Boris Kuznetsov, a lawyer for Sutyagin, said he would now appeal the researcher’s conviction to the European Court for Human Rights (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Aug. 17). Back to top

North Korea Does Not Deny Uranium Enrichment; China Appeals to Pyongyang on Nuclear Talks A North Korean official did not deny that his country possesses a uranium enrichment program at a seminar in New York last week, according to sources present at the meeting, the Korea Times reported (see GSN, Aug. 16). Ri Gun, Pyongyang’s deputy chief delegate to the six-party nuclear talks, told participants at the three-day conference of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy that his country does not have a nuclear arms program using highly enriched uranium. However, when asked if Pyongyang was developing a uranium-based nuclear program for peaceful purposes, Ri did not deny such a possibility. “We are entitled to have it for peaceful purposes,” said Ri, according to participants and a diplomatic source (Ryu Jin, Korea Times, Aug. 17). Meanwhile, Chinese officials today requested that Pyongyang participate in working-level meetings despite the North’s insistence yesterday that it would not attend the next session, the Associated Press reported. “All the parties should agree to hold the framework meeting as soon as possible,” said Ning Fukui, China’s ambassador on the nuclear standoff. The North Koreans “did not say they will not participate,” according to Ning. Instead, “they expressed that due to the differences that exist over their stance between North Korea and the United States, there is no basis for holding the meeting” (Joe McDonald, Associated Press, Aug. 17). North Korea continued today to insist that hard-line U.S. policies stand in the way of a negotiated settlement, Agence France-Presse reported. “The U.S. true intention is not to seek a final settlement of the nuclear issue but to stifle the D.P.R.K.,” said a statement by the Minju Joson, official mouthpiece of North Korea’s Cabinet. “It (the United States) seeks to disarm the D.P.R.K. while having dialogue on one hand and posing a military threat to it on the other. It is gravely mistaken to think this would work on the D.P.R.K.,” it went on (Agence France-Presse/Hindustan Times, Aug. 17). The United States yesterday played down indications that North Korea might not participate in talks, AFP reported. U.S. officials assume that a working group meeting would be held as planned sometime before the end of next month, according to the State Department. “Where we are today is pretty much where we’ve been in the past,” said department spokesman Tom Casey. “We haven’t heard anything for the North Koreans at this point that would change our assumption about holding those talks,” he said. “At this point, we’re working with the Chinese, with the other parties and think that we’ll be moving forward on this shortly,” he added (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Aug. 16). Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today that North Korea would have “great opportunities,” including aid and trade with his country, if it agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons development, AFP reported. “If North Korea were to abandon its nuclear program, it would certainly lead to a very substantial increase in Australia’s economic engagement with North Korea, not just in terms of aid … but also in terms of broader trade investment activities,” Downer said as he prepared to depart for a visit to North Korea (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 17). Back to top       French Nuclear Company Denies Shipping U.S. Weapon-Grade Plutonium to Belgium The state-owned French nuclear energy company yesterday denied a claim by the environmental group Greenpeace that the firm is shipping U.S. weapon-grade plutonium to a subsidiary in Belgium, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 14). “It’s not plutonium from the U.S. disarmament plan,” said an Areva executive, Thierry Langlois. He said the shipped plutonium was civilian grade (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 16). Back to top

Oregon Judge Denies Request to Halt Incineration An Oregon circuit court judge yesterday denied a motion to prevent the U.S. Army from incinerating chemical weapons at the U.S. Army’s Umatilla Chemical Depot, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 16). Judge John Wittmayer ruled in favor of the state and contractor Washington Demilitarization Co., who argued that the issue would be better heard before the state Court of Appeals, which already has a case pending on the issue. “You can chat with the people at the Court of Appeals,” Wittmayer told Stuart Sugarman, attorney for GASP, the organization requesting the injunction. The appeals court is not expected to take action on the motion this week, when the depot is set to begin dismantling chemical rockets, according to Sugarman. “I hope we’ll get a response within 10 days,” Sugarman said. “What we are fighting about is brain damage to the next generation of downwind Oregonians,” he added (Aviva Brandt, Associated Press/Statesman Journal, Aug. 16). Back to top

Former Libyan Missile Program Required Foreign Aid After touring Libyan facilities, U.S., British and U.N. investigators have concluded that Tripoli’s ballistic missile efforts were largely dependent on foreign aid before they were shut down late last year, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported this week (see GSN, May 14). Investigators found that Iran had provided a liquid-fueled refurbishment plant to help Libya maintain its arsenal of Scud B missiles, according to Jane’s. In addition, they found that North Korea had provided a facility to help Libya produce Scud C missiles, Jane’s reported. Libyan officials told the investigators that while they were working on the Scud C variant, they had yet to flight test the missile, sources said. In addition, the investigators found no evidence that Libya had acquired North Korean Nodong missiles, a charge once made by Israeli intelligence officials, Jane’s reported (Andrew Koch, Jane’s Defense Weekly, Aug. 18). Back to top

Critics Question Evidence for U.S. Charge That China Might Have Antisatellite Program A source for a claim in an annual U.S. Defense Department report to Congress that China has tested antisatellite weapons may not be credible, the Union of Concerned Scientists concluded in a report issued last week (see GSN, June 11). The 2003 edition of the Pentagon’s Annual Report on the Military Power of the People’s Republic of China cites a “Hong Kong newspaper article in January 2001” reporting that China has “developed and tested an ASAT system described as a parasitic microsatellite.” Such a device attaches itself to a larger satellite to disrupt or destroy it on command. The 2003 Defense Department report goes on to explain that the article’s claim “cannot be confirmed.” This year’s edition of the report adds that the evidence presented in the article is still “being evaluated.” While the Union of Concerned Scientists does not take a position on whether China is developing or testing the weapon, it questions the credibility of the newspaper report. The article in question, from the Xing Dao Daily in Hong Kong, appears to be a cleaned-up version of an October 2000 article by a “military enthusiast” who operates a “Chinese-language Internet bulletin board filled with fanciful stories about ‘secret’ Chinese weapons to be used against Americans in a future war over Taiwan,” according to the UCS report (Union of Concerned Scientists report, Aug. 12). Back to top

U.S. Radiation Detectors Possibly Ineffective, Too Prone to Nuisance Alarms, Experts Say Some experts believe that the radiation detectors used at U.S. ports and border crossings to detect the possible smuggling of nuclear materials into the United States are ineffective and too prone to nuisance alarms, Newsday reported today (see GSN, May 13). The radiation portal monitors are pillar-like arrays through which trucks and shipping containers pass to be scanned, according to Newsday. While the detectors scan for gamma rays and neutrons, experts have said that they are not likely to detect weapon-grade radioactive material stored in a well-shielded container. In addition, the detectors are prone to giving off nuisance alarms when the devices pick up low amounts of radiation, Newsday reported. One U.S. radiation detection expert said that inspectors using the detectors are “definitely getting nuisance alarms regularly.” The detectors have a rate of about one alarm per several thousands vehicles and containers, the expert said. A Stanford University group found last year that with all aspects of port security, including radiation detectors, there is less than a 10-percent chance of border and customs inspectors detecting a shielded nuclear weapon transported by an unknown carrier, Newsday reported. For a certified shipper, the chances of detecting the smuggled weapon increased to 24 percent, Newsday reported (Earl Lane, Newsday, Aug. 17).       Back to top

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