The Bush administration is expected to omit language from a nuclear planning document that specifically raises the possibility of using nuclear weapons against enemy WMD capabilities. U.S. Trident submarines carry about half of the nation’s strategic nuclear warheads (Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images). U.S. Nuclear Doctrine Will Probably Omit Controversial Text By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is likely to modify a controversial nuclear war-fighting document by dropping language that describes scenarios in which the United States could use nuclear first-strikes against enemy WMD capabilities, a defense official told Global Security Newswire recently (see GSN, Sept. 12)...Full Story

Iran Provides Inspectors With New Documents Tehran has relinquished sensitive documents to the International Atomic Energy Agency and permitted inspectors to interview a senior Iranian nuclear official, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 20)...Full Story

Doctors Say Katrina Showed WMD Response Failings By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Hurricane Katrina showed that the United States must improve its medical response plans for a nuclear or biological attack, emergency doctors told a House of Representatives subcommittee yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 19)...Full Story

	Friday, October 21, 2005

Doctors Say Katrina Showed WMD Response Failings By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Hurricane Katrina showed that the United States must improve its medical response plans for a nuclear or biological attack, emergency doctors told a House of Representatives subcommittee yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 19). The response to Katrina included a comparatively small medical component but still strained the medical system, leaving hospitals and other facilities understaffed and underequipped, said the witnesses. Fifty disaster teams dispatched by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, senior committee Democrat Bennie Thompson (Miss.) added, saw their effectiveness limited by inadequate federal coordination of their work. Such weaknesses could prove deadly in the much larger medical response to a WMD attack, the experts told the Homeland Security Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack Subcommittee. “Katrina exposes systemic problems in local, state, federal and military response coordination — problems that will be much more severe and have much more negative outcomes in the event of a terrorist attack in multiple cities,” said National Defense University technology and security researcher Donald Thompson, a medical doctor. The doctors presented the subcommittee with scores of suggestions for improvement, including heightened federal ability to act without waiting for a state’s request and stronger coordination of hospitals’ work during an attack or other disaster. Hypermed Inc. President Jenny Freeman, a surgeon who is part of a National Disaster Medical System team, described the experience of colleague Tim Crowley, who resigned from another federal team in frustration after returning from his post-Katrina deployment in Louisiana. “As a thoughtful and competent physician who wound up in a command position, the disorganization that prevented him from providing useful patient care was highly problematic,” Freeman said. “Over and over again, he saw physician and medical resources squandered. His team remained in Baton Rouge, being told there was no mission, while the staff at the key West Jefferson location were crying for help.” Like the other witnesses at the hearing, Freeman called for a stronger federal hand in disaster response planning and execution. “There is a genuine need and role for NDMS in responding to a disaster, and it is the role of the federal government to provide the guidance, support and impetus for this mission to occur,” she said. “Until we have clear, rational and accurate guidance as to what we as medical professionals will be required to train and prepare for, we will all act as individuals, doing the best we can in an extremely suboptimal manner, and the result will continue to be significant injury and death.” University of Texas public health-emergency expert Richard Bradley, who is emergency medicine director at Lyndon Baines Johnson General Hospital in Houston, said local governments’ authority in crises could be strengthened to improve hospital performance. Local emergency managers, he said, are responsible for overall emergency response but have no authority over hospitals and doctors. “The emergency manager … is responsible for ensuring hospital care is available but has no authority over the hospitals to compel them to respond,” Bradley said. “It is clearly in the public interest to address this problem at a national level.” Local governments, Bradley said, should draw up memorandums of understanding with hospitals that cover staffing, bed distribution and other procedures in a crisis. Authority to invoke the memorandums’ provisions should rest with emergency managers, he said. Committee members and witnesses expressed frustration about what they called continued ambiguity in the lines of authority laid out in the new National Response Plan, which is intended to guide disaster response at all government levels. In a bid to better coordinate general and medical emergency preparedness, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has created a specific Preparedness Directorate in his department and has hired a chief medical officer. Thompson and top subcommittee Democrat James Langevin (R.I.) wrote Chertoff a letter yesterday questioning whether Homeland Security is prepared for an epidemic of a disease such as avian influenza. The lawmakers requested elaboration of the national plan’s Biological Incident Annex, which governs both naturally occurring and maliciously initiated outbreaks. Back to top

U.S. Nuclear Doctrine Will Probably Omit Controversial Text By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is likely to modify a controversial nuclear war-fighting document by dropping language that describes scenarios in which the United States could use nuclear first-strikes against enemy WMD capabilities, a defense official told Global Security Newswire recently (see GSN, Sept. 12). Still, the United States would probably reserve the option to use nuclear weapons in such instances, even if those scenarios are not articulated in the military’s official nuclear doctrine document, the official said. That choice has been available for decades and alluded to in other documents but not specified in previous publicly available versions of the nuclear doctrine. The military, however, might also reduce the prominence of a nuclear first strike as an option against chemical and biological capabilities by seeking to “balance” it, the official said, presumably with non-nuclear options. “They’re coming back to take a much harder look at this,” the official said. The current version of the doctrine was completed in 1995. The move to update it, begun early this decade, was driven in part by the perception of an increasing threat from weapons of mass destruction, the official said. A section of the Joint Staff prepared the draft nuclear doctrine, which has been sent to the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy for review. “It may be as long as a year before it is out now. So, don’t be looking for this anytime soon and I’m not sure that any of that language is going to stay in,” the official said in a telephone interview with Global Security Newswire.  Consistency with Values Questioned A final draft of the “Doctrine on Joint Nuclear Operations” was discovered on the Internet in March and the controversial language was the subject of several prominent news articles. The Washington Post reported last month that completion of the doctrine could be delayed well beyond the previous goal of late this summer. U.S. officials mostly have been tight-lipped about what the final document might contain, including the controversial text.  “We don’t comment on draft doctrine and it’s not normally publicized,” said the defense official. A section of the text as it appeared on the Internet says U.S. regional commanders could request presidential authorization to use nuclear weapons against an adversary “using or intending to use” weapons of mass destruction, an imminent biological attack, or WMD-related facilities.  The defense official said that segment is being reconsidered because of concern about its consistency with U.S. values against causing civilian casualties. “It’s not because some of the complaints from the outside, it’s because of discussion about values from some on the inside here” that has occurred since the text had become more widely known within the defense establishment, the official said. “Because they want American values to be different from a lot of the values that we see among our opponents in the Third World in the global war on terrorism,” the official continued. “These terrorists, they don’t think twice about employing these kinds of things. They don’t care about civilian casualties.” The controversial text appears intended to address scenarios in which an attack by a foreign state that could harm U.S. forces or civilians might be prevented by the threat or use of a U.S. nuclear weapon.  “To maximize deterrence of WMD use,” the document says, “it is essential … that U.S. forces are determined to employ nuclear weapons if necessary to prevent or retaliate against WMD use.” Critics have complained that a doctrine allowing for nuclear first-use against chemical or biological capabilities could conflict with U.S. assurances that it would not attack a non-nuclear-weapon state with atomic weapons unless that nation was working in concert with a nuclear power. Further, they have argued the doctrine text could increase the likelihood that the United States would use a nuclear weapon, potentially producing mass civilian casualties. The draft language also could encourage nations to pursue nuclear weapons for deterrence and undermine U.S. efforts to promote nonproliferation, critics said. The military might alternatively simply do away with the doctrine, or make it classified, said Natural Resources Defense Council consultant Hans Kristensen. Kristensen said the military is attempting to do “damage control” and avoid greater public and congressional scrutiny of a policy that already is a reality. “Our strategic submarines out there on patrol are already tasked under [a plan] that has pre-emption in it,” he said. “Operationally, it’s already out there.” Back to top       Iran Provides Inspectors With New Documents Tehran has relinquished sensitive documents to the International Atomic Energy Agency and permitted inspectors to interview a senior Iranian nuclear official, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 20). The agency is trying to determine whether Iran has continued its concealment of uranium enrichment technology acquired on the black market, AP reported. Tehran was making “important concessions” by releasing the papers and permitting the nuclear official to be questioned, said a U.S. official. Iran has not yet, however, granted the agency access to key military sites, the official added. Iran’s cooperation could impede U.S. efforts to refer its case to the U.N. Security Council next month, according to AP. U.S. and British officials are reconsidering their positions on the matter, said one diplomat in Vienna. “They’re now saying that if Iran does not engage in any further ‘provocation’ the issue will not go to” the Security Council, the diplomat said. The U.S. official indicated that Washington might even drop its objections to Iran’s uranium conversion efforts. A push to refer Iran to the Security Council at next month’s IAEA Board of Governors meeting is “going to be very difficult,” the official said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s recent efforts to persuade Russia to take a harder line on Tehran “did not break any new ground,” the official added (see GSN, Oct. 17). One diplomat told AP that Iran’s cooperation seemed calculated to avoid referral (George Jahn, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Oct. 20). Meanwhile, Iranian officials yesterday refused to say whether they were retaliating against countries that supported last month’s IAEA resolution against the nation by banning their imports, Agence France-Presse reported. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did, however, say that trade and politics were connected. “The economic and political policies of Iran must be connected. Political relations should not go in one direction and economic relations go in another,” the official news agency IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Oct. 20). Back to top       North Korea Says Will Rejoin Nonproliferation Treaty North Korea is willing to accept a visit by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and to rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said today after four days of talks with North Korean officials (see GSN, Oct. 20). “My sense is that they want more dialogue with the United States,” said Richardson, who met Pyongyang’s second in command, Kim Yong Nam. “They ... indicated they would at an appropriate time invite IAEA officials, including [Director General] Mohamed ElBaradei, to North Korea,” he said. North Korean officials expressed their interest in rejoining the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and obeying safeguards instituted by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Richardson said. They also “showed some flexibility” in their request for light-water reactors for generating electricity, he said. “They are prepared for oversight of the light-water reactors by the United States, the IAEA or other six-party countries, in terms of co-managing, in terms of having the Untied States participate in the fuel-cycle at the front end and the back end,” he said. Richardson warned, however, that a “very strong regime of verification” would be needed given Pyongyang’s nuclear track record. He added that, despite North Korean officials’ refusal to answer the question directly, he believes Pyongyang has manufactured nuclear weapons. “The sense of the response I got was that they have a small number on the lower end of one to five,” he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Oct. 21). A top Russian official yesterday, however, questioned the existence of North Korea’s alleged nuclear arsenal, the Seoul Times reported. “Pyongyang has no possibilities to produce arms-grade (nuclear) charges,” Russian Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Sergei Antipov told ITAR-Tass. Although Pyongyang could have reprocessed plutonium from spent nuclear fuel rods, “the technology of [nuclear weapons] production is by an order more difficult than the use of [the] atom for peace,” Antipov said (Seoul Times, Oct. 18). Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung today praised North Korea’s pledge to give up its nuclear weapons program, while also expressing concern over the country’s ongoing long-range missile development program, AP reported. “Both sides noted that North Korea’s continued development of weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles, along with the danger of proliferation of those weapons and technologies, are causes of significant concern,” says a joint statement issued by the two officials (Robert Burns, Associated Press/Washington Post, Oct. 21). Chinese President Hu Jintao will depart Oct. 29 for a two-day visit to North Korea, the Associated Press reported today (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Oct. 21). Back to top       South Korea, U.S. Discuss Nuclear Umbrella U.S. and South Korean officials yesterday discussed whether Washington’s pledge to provide Seoul with a nuclear umbrella should be maintained, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Oct. 20). Defense officials from both countries were addressing the umbrella matter during U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s visit to Seoul, said Gen. Leon LaPorte, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea. “That’ll get worked out here I think in the next two hours,” LaPorte said. The issue arose after the United States last month pledged not to invade North Korea or attack the Stalinist state with nuclear or conventional weapons (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Oct. 20). Back to top       U.S. Official in India for Nuclear Cooperation Talks U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns met with Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran today in New Delhi to discuss the two countries’ planned nuclear cooperation agreement, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Oct. 20). The two spoke about details of the pact, including India’s mandatory separation of civilian and military technology, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse, Oct. 21). Back to top       Russia Test-Launches Stiletto ICBM Russia yesterday conducted a successful test launch of its RS-18 Stiletto nuclear-capable ICBM, the Xinhua News Agency reported (see GSN, Oct. 11). The missile was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and hit its target at the Kura training range on the Kamchatka Peninsula, a Defense Ministry source told ITAR-Tass. “The launch was made under the plan of combat training of the Russian Armed Forces with the purpose of assessing the possibility of extending the life of this type of ballistic missiles,” said the source (Xinhua/People’s Daily, Oct. 20). Back to top

Japan Lacks Biological Agent Sensors Outside Tokyo Japan lacks the sensors needed to detect a biological attack outside of Tokyo, the Daily Yomiuri reported today (see GSN, July 12). Most cities in the United States have portable devices that can determine if a suspicious substance is anthrax. In Japan, however, only the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo has this equipment, according to the Yomiuri. The Aum Shinrikyo cult in 1993 actually sprayed a nonpoisonous form of anthrax in a section of Tokyo, but the government never issued a warning and has not taken significant measures to block further incidents, the Yomiuri reported. Soichi Makino of Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine is only one of only a handful of researchers in Japan who study anthrax. He said the government’s failure to prepare for an anthrax attack was a national crisis. “Japan itself should prepare the items required to meet such a crisis,” he said. Makino worked with private companies to develop an anthrax test kit in 2002, months after the anthrax attacks in the United States. Equipment in the kit can determine if a substance is anthrax in less than a minute. Some research institutes purchased the kit, but interested waned over time. Only 60 were sold, according to the Yomiuri. The number of researchers specializing in anthrax has not increased. While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has 8,000 researchers and employees, the Japanese National Institute of Infectious Disease has only 380 employees and researchers, the Yomiuri reported. “Japan should consider how to prepare for an emergency that could inflict serious damage if it occurs — although there is little chance of it happening. Japan stands at the crossroads, and must decide whether it is content to live in a situation whereby we simply hope the nation will have researchers knowledgeable about [biological] agents in the event of an emergency, or whether it is determined to strategically nurture experts to deal with such emergencies,” said Hideyuki Horii of Tokyo University's graduate school (Daily Yomiuri, Oct. 21). Back to top       U.S. Uses Pets to Detect Biological Attack The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has funded Purdue University’s efforts to detect the signs of a biological attack or bird flu by monitoring pets, CNNMoney.com reported yesterday (see GSN, June 23). Banfield, a chain of pet hospitals, has joined Purdue in its efforts. Banfield’s database of 8 to 9 million pets is a resource for detecting disease outbreaks, according to CNN. “We hope that in using pets as sentinels we'll be able to pick something up that's important to human health,” said Hugh Lewis, Banfield senior vice president. Birds can transmit avian flu to humans, and more than 60 people have died of the disease recently in Asia. A 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million lives also originated in birds, according to CNN. The Banfield database is unique in the United States, said Larry Glickman, an epidemiology professor at Purdue and director of the surveillance system. As there is no nationwide database tracking human diseases, pets could provide an early indication of an outbreak, he said. Glickman is interested in using the 3-month-old surveillance system to track anthrax and tularemia, both of which are transmitted from animals to humans.   He said he was contacted by the Homeland Security Department after tularemia was detected last month in Washington, D.C. (see GSN, Oct 5).  No cases of tularemia turned up in the pet tracking system. However, the experience proved valuable, as Glickman said he found that he was unable to access data quickly. That has since been fixed, he said (Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com, Oct. 20). Back to top

U.S. Official Claims Saddam Hussein Used Poison Gas Against “Hundreds of Thousands” of Iraqis U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes today justified the Iraq war to Muslim students in Indonesia by saying former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein used poison gas against “hundreds of thousands” of his own people, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 29). “The consensus of the world intelligence community was that Saddam was a very dangerous threat,” she told the students, days after Hussein went on trial for the deaths of 143 people in an Iraqi city. “After all, he had used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. He had murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people using poison gas.” Hughes did not give supporting evidence for this estimate. About 5,000 people are believed to have died in a 1988 chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, according to AP.  When asked to offer details of her claims, Hughes said, “I know it was upward of 200,000. I think it was almost 300,000. (That) is my recollection. They were put in mass graves” (Chris Brummitt, Associated Press, Oct. 21). Back to top       Japan’s Chemical Weapons Tally in China May Be Cut China is expected to agree to a lower estimate of the number of chemical weapons left in the country by Japan after World War II, The Japan Times reported today (see GSN, Oct. 14). Japan estimated in 1997 that 700,000 weapons were in China, with a concentration of 670,000 in the Jilin Province. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said yesterday that subsequent surveys might cause the figure to be revised. In a recent meeting with Japanese officials, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei said that his country had confirmed 400,000 weapons (The Japan Times, Oct. 21). Back to top

“Scavenger Drugs” Seen as Promising Cure for Radiation Exposure in Dirty Bomb Attack An Australian pharmaceutical company has developed “scavenger drugs” to treat radiation poisoning in case of a terrorist attack using a radiological “dirty bomb,” the Australian Associated Press reported Wednesday (see GSN, Oct. 11). Proteome Systems is collaborating with 20 scientists from the Medical College of Wisconsin, Henry Ford Health Systems in Detroit and the University of Toronto in a $20 million U.S.-funded program to develop radiation exposure treatments. Scavenger drugs are compounds designed to absorb radiation in the body, AAP reported. “The U.S. military … want to have something ready as such that if U.S. troops are going into a war zone, they can have this as a tablet and include it in their kit,” Proteome chief executive Stephen Porges said Wednesday. Emergency personnel and the public could also potentially use the drug following a radiological event. “I can’t say this will be ready in a year or whatever, but this is the lead compound that they are currently working on for that solution,” Porges said. The U.S. Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute has tested the compound on rats. In experiments using other drugs, at best 50 percent of laboratory animals remained alive 30 days after exposure to radiation. Proteome’s compound protected 90 percent of the rats, according to Porges (Peter Mitchell, Australian Associated Press/Herald Sun, Oct. 17).   Back to top

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