Key Official Lacks Authority to Lead U.S. Response to Biological Attack or Other Crises, Experts Warn

Homeland security experts have warned that the U.S. Homeland Security Department’s chief medical officer lacks the necessary authority to prepare the United States for a bioterror incident or other health crisis, the Federal Times reported today (see GSN, Oct. 28).

Jeffrey Runge took the new position in July. Experts warned Congress last month that Runge’s role poorly defined and that he does not have enough power.

The chief medical officer must lead the federal medical response to a bioterrorism attack, disease outbreak or natural disaster, Jeffrey Lowell, who advised former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on medical issues, said during an Oct. 27 congressional hearing. However, the position now lacks the authority to direct such a response, Lowell said.

Lowell told the House Homeland Security Management, Integration and Oversight Subcommittee that it is unclear who would direct the medical response if a catastrophic event occurs.

Subcommittee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said that one individual must be designated to lead the medical response. If it is not the chief medical officer, another officer should be appointed.

“I don’t want there to be any shucking and jiving down the road, and have people say, ‘It was his responsibility,’” Rogers said. He noted that he was not criticizing Runge or Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, but that the position needs to be improved.

The medical officer should develop and implement a national plan against bioterrorism, said David Heyman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The officer must also work to increase hospitals’ ability to take in more patients during a crisis, he said.

Lowell added that the Homeland Security Department should set standards for mobile medical facilities that could handle overflow patients during an emergency (Stephen Losey, Federal Times, Nov. 18).

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G-7 and WHO Meet to Discuss WMD, Avian Flu Threats

Representatives of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the U.N. World Health Organization met in Rome today in part to discuss radiological, chemical and biological threats, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 7).

Strategies for combating the avian flu were also expected to be discussed at a conference on global health risks, according to AP (Aidan Lewis, Associated Press, Nov. 18).

Italian researchers in Rome yesterday announced that vegetables such as potatoes and carrots could help combat a bioterrorist attack, the ANSA English Media Service reported.

Researchers said that experts from the United States and Italy have begun a “vegetable vaccination” project, which could lead to smallpox DNA being incorporated into the genetic makeup of various vegetables.

These vegetables, once eaten, would produce antibodies and boost the body’s natural defense against the pathogen.

This method of producing antibodies would also cut down on costly injections and lower the risk of accidental infection, ASNA reported.

Giuseppe Ippolito, a director on the project, said that incorporating smallpox DNA into common vegetable is still “a long way” off, but he believes that it could greatly simplify the vaccination process.

Researchers are also considering using the same vaccination methods for agents such as anthrax, according to ANSA.

Cooperation between Italy and the United States began in April 2003 when Italian Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia and then-U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson agreed to a medical science accord. Thompson and Sirchia agreed seven months later to exchange researchers and establish a center to combat infectious disease emergencies, ANSA reported (ANSA English Media Services, Nov. 17).

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Pentagon to Investigate Prewar Intelligence Use

The U.S. Defense Department inspector general’s office last month said it would investigate the use of intelligence by former Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith leading up to the invasion of Iraq, Reuters reported (see GSN, July 15).

The investigation comes as the debate intensifies over whether the Bush administration misused intelligence to convince the public that war with Iraq was necessary (see GSN, Nov. 17). The dispute has exposed fissures between the White House and lawmakers from both parties, according to Reuters.

Democrats have charged Feith with twisting intelligence to suggest links between al-Qaeda and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The Sept. 11 commission in its report last year said it had found no indications of a collaborative relationship (see GSN, June 22, 2004; Reuters/Washington Post, Nov. 18).

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DOD Seeks to Upgrade WMD Destruction Tools

The U.S. military services have gaps in their ability to counter enemy biological and chemical weapons, a Defense Department official said this month (see GSN, Oct. 13).

“We would like to be able to better hold chemical and biological and radiological-type devices at risk better,” said Mike Novak, associate director for joint force application in the Office of the Defense Secretary. “Those are tough things to do.  If you blow up something chemical, you don’t always destroy it all. If you do something to a bio stockpile, you might spread it as much as destroy some of it.”

The Defense Department has been considering various industry ideas to upgrade its capabilities in WMD destruction, Aerospace Daily reported (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily/AviationNow.com, Nov. 11)

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Iran Admits Receiving Nuclear Weapon Information

By Marina Malenic
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — For the first time, Iran has conceded receiving documents on nuclear weapon production from the black-market nuclear network operated by former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report issued today (see GSN, Nov. 17).

Papers obtained by Iran from the Khan network beginning in the late 1980s provided detailed instructions on shaping “enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical forms,” according to the agency report. The documents are a “cookbook” for producing a nuclear weapon’s uranium core, one European diplomat told Reuters.

One nonproliferation expert disagreed with that assessment, however.

“It’s not a cookbook, it’s not specific instructions” to make a nuclear weapon, said Corey Hinderstein, deputy director of the Institute of Science and International Security. “The information is general, it explains the process, but it does not give instructions on the process.”

Iranian officials have denied seeking the uranium sphere designs, which they said were provided unilaterally by members of the nuclear network.

Drawings provided to Iran by the Khan network also included instructions on how to connect uranium enrichment centrifuges in cascades and how to arrange 2,000 centrifuges in a small enrichment plant.

The agency report praises Iran for providing more cooperation in recent weeks, but says, “Iran’s full transparency is indispensable and overdue.” The agency’s Board of Governors begins its next meeting Thursday, and is expected to discuss the next steps toward resolving the Iranian nuclear crisis, including the possibility of referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council. Some diplomats have said that threat is needed to pressure Iran to allow more access to the agency.

The agency said in the report that it is “still awaiting additional visits,” both to the Lavizan site, where former nuclear facilities have been razed, and to the military installation at Parchin.

Meanwhile, President George W. Bush today expressed support for a Russian proposal that would allow Iran to enrich uranium in Russia as part of a joint venture, national security adviser Stephen Hadley told the Associated Press. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the plan on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in South Korea, according to Hadley.

Iran has rejected the proposal, but Hadley said there was still hope for a deal.

“We think that doesn’t end it. This will be an issue we will return to,” he said.

Gregory Schulte, U.S. representative to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said yesterday that Russia is now convinced that Iran “is developing a nuclear weapons capability,” AP reported.

Moscow’s mounting frustration with Tehran’s refusal to compromise could make Russia more amenable to the U.S. push for Security Council referral, diplomats said.

Top Iranian officials had told Russian officials Wednesday that they would not resume uranium conversion for “technical reasons,” the AP reported, but resumed the process several hours later.

Russian Security Council head Igor Ivanov had told senior European Union officials of Iran’s willingness to compromise. Tehran’s consequent behavior embarrassed and angered Moscow, said one European official.

Elsewhere, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have turned down Moscow’s offer to host a meeting with Iran next week, Agence France-Presse reported.

The meeting was seen as a way of easing back into nuclear talks, diplomats said.

“Moscow is off, so we go to the board without that kind of prelude,” said one European diplomat.

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Bush, Putin Reaffirm Unity on North Korea

U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin today reaffirmed the unity of the nations negotiating with North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, Nov. 17).

Bush and Putin met during the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum conference in Busan, South Korea. They “talked about ... how having all the (five) parties speaking in one voice was important,” said White House Counselor Dan Bartlett. The five nations are China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

Bartlett did not say whether the two leaders explicitly discussed sequencing of disarmament steps by Pyongyang in relation to rewards from the other parties, including a light-water nuclear reactor the North has demanded for energy generation (Kyodo, Nov. 18).

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Aegis Performs Successful Missile Intercept

A U.S. Navy Aegis warship shot down a mock warhead yesterday over the Pacific Ocean, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Oct. 4).

It was the sixth successful intercept for the sea-based missile defense system since testing began in 2002. The agency has conducted seven tests of the Aegis system, according to the Missile Defense Agency. 

While previous intercept tests have used Scud-like missiles carrying mock warheads, yesterday’s trial was the first using a warhead that had separated from a medium-range missile.

The missile was launched from Kauai, Hawaii, at 1812 GMT, and the USS Lake Erie quickly fired an SM-3 interceptor missile, the agency announced.

“Six minutes later the interceptor missile successfully intercepted the target warhead more than 100 miles in space above the Pacific Ocean and 375 miles northwest of Kauai,” the agency said in a statement (Agence France-Presse/Netscape.com, Nov. 17)

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Japanese Radar Tracks Russian Missile Test

The Japanese prototype FPS-XX ballistic missile defense radar tracked an unannounced Russian missile test last weekend, MosNews.com reported yesterday (see GSN, July 20).

The radar monitored a missile launch from a nuclear submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk and followed its flight to the Barents Sea in the Arctic Ocean, the Japanese Defense Agency said.

The last announced Russian missile launch from the Okhotsk area occurred on Sept. 30, according to MosNews.com (MosNews.com, Nov. 17).

Russian Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Viktor Fedorov yesterday condemned media reports about the alleged test.

“Foreign media reports that the latest Japanese antimissile defense radar has allegedly detected and tracked the launch and flight of a Russian ballistic missile from the Sea of Okhotsk are, to put it mildly, a provocation,” Fedorov told Interfax.

Fedorov denied that Pacific-based Russian submarines had recently fired any missiles.

“While giving Japanese technology its due, I can only note that either the Japanese radar was not up to the job, or this is a newspaper ‘red herring,’” he said (Interfax/BBC Monitoring, Nov. 17).

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Czechs Expect to Participate in U.S. Missile Shield

Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda said yesterday that the Czech Republic expects to participate in some way in a U.S. antimissile shield in Europe, but there have been no plans to base any missile defense systems in the country, the CTK news agency reported (see GSN, Nov. 14).

“We are talking about the extent, from where, where we will start,” Svoboda said. “If any consultations are conducted at the Defense Ministry, then it is a question for this office.”

Czech Defense Minister Karel Kuehnl, however, said that the Czech Republic is not presently in talks with the United States about missile defense (CTK news agency, Nov. 17).

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