Ricin Plans Found in Suspected Shooter’s Home

Police found plans for producing ricin, along with bomb materials and diagrams, in the home of a 20-year-old man charged with shooting six people Sunday at a Washington state mall, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 10).

Dominick Sergio Maldonado faces eight counts of first-degree assault, four counts of kidnapping and two counts of unlawful firearm possession in connection with the assault on the Tacoma Mall. He pleaded not guilty Monday and was placed on $2 million bail (Curt Woodward, Associated Press/RedOrbit.com, Nov. 21).

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Interpol Chief Warns of Lack of Bioterror Readiness

Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble warned yesterday that the international community has failed to ready itself to respond to an act of bioterrorism, Reuters reported (see GSN, March 3).

Noble said there are serious risks of a biological attack from a terrorist group such as al-Qaeda and that drills have uncovered holes in preparedness.

“The threat of bioterrorism is real ... and the damage that terrorists seek to inflict on us defies one's imagination,” he said. “Al-Qaeda's global network, its proven capabilities, its deadly history, its desire to do the unthinkable and the evidence collected about its bioterrorist ambitions, ominously portend a clear and present danger of the highest order.”

Law enforcement and public health officials must work more closely together to ensure preparedness for an attack, Noble said.

“The potential consequences of such an attack could be so far reaching that a lack of action … poses an unacceptable risk,” Noble said.

Poor readiness tests were of a particular concern, he added. “We as a world community did not fare well in any of these exercises or any other exercise conducted to test our preparatory and response abilities to a biological terrorist attack” (Reuters/New York Times, Nov. 21).

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Vice President Dismisses Iraq WMD Criticisms

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday dismissed criticism that the United States failed to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 21). 

“We never had the burden of proof,” Cheney said. Rather, the burden was on former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to show there were no such weapons in his country, the vice president added.

The White House made the Iraqi WMD threat central to its case for war, the Associated Press reported, but no evidence of such weapons or programs has turned up since the March 2003 invasion.

“We operated on the best available intelligence, gathered over a period of years from within a totalitarian society ruled by fear and secret police,” Cheney said.

Those who say the White House misled the public before the invasion are partaking in “revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety,” Cheney said.

“What is not legitimate — and I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible — is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence,” the vice president said (Tom Raum, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, Nov. 22).

In the wake of Cheney’s speech, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) continued to blast the White House on Iraq, the Associated Press reported. Assertions that  the Senate saw the same intelligence on Iraq as the administration “is just plain, flat, not true,” Kerry said. 

Kerry said the U.S. Air Force disputed administration claims that Iraq had unmanned vehicles that could deliver biological or chemical weapons. “The Air Force’s dissent was kept secret, even as the president publicly made the opposite case before the vote,” he said.

“Congress wasn’t told that,” Kerry said. He repeated the line several times during a string of accusations against the White House, AP reported.

Kerry said that assertions by U.S. President George W. Bush and Cheney that Iraq could launch a chemical attack within an hour were not cleared with the CIA, “which mistrusted the source so much they refused to include it in the National Intelligence Estimate.”

Kerry said the White House said that Hussein was trying to obtain fuel for nuclear weapons, even though the CIA had stated three times that this was not true.

The president also said that al-Qaeda terrorists had received training in Iraq on making bombs and using chemical weapons, while the Defense Intelligence Agency had determined the source of the information to be dishonest, Kerry claimed. 

“The fact is that they’re now trying to rewrite the rationale for the administration going into Iraq,” Kerry said. “Instead they really ought to be trying to fix the problems that they’ve created with their incompetence over the last few years.”

In response, White House spokesman Mark Pfeifle said, “The close, candid relationship between Congress and intelligence agencies is necessary and healthy and enjoys the full support of the White House. Either Senator Kerry didn't bother to read the intelligence data or he is blatantly misrepresenting the facts” (Glen Johnson, Associated Press II/Dateline Alabama, Nov. 21).

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U.S. Calls on India to Join PSI

India could promote support in the U.S. Congress for its nuclear technology-sharing plan with the United States by joining the Proliferation Security Initiative, Senator George Allen (R-Va.) said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 16).

While lawmakers are optimistic about the plan, Allen said, they expect India to develop a plan to separate its military and civilian nuclear programs.

“We need to see a credible plan from India. ... It is for India to see what is [and] what is not. But it would be good gesture for India to join the Proliferation Security Initiative,” Allen said during a trip to New Delhi.

The U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative aims to block illicit transfers of WMD-related materials on the high seas (WebIndia.com, Nov. 21).

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Dissident Says Iran Doing Nuclear Work in Tunnel System

By Joe Fiorill
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — An exiled Iranian dissident alleged yesterday that Iran is working on nuclear warheads and nuclear-capable missiles at a single, large-scale site under Tehran (see GSN, Nov. 21).

Former National Council of Resistance of Iran spokesman Alireza Jafarzadeh presented the allegations at a press conference organized here by the Iran Policy Committee, a group of think-tank scholars and ex-U.S. officials who advocate supporting the Iranian opposition.

“Given the revelation about this strategically important nuclear and missile project, it is quite clear that the regime has built” a 20-square-mile tunnel network under southeastern Tehran, as well as other sites identified previously, “to manufacture long-range, nuclear warhead-capable missiles,” Jafarzadeh said.

Jafarzadeh described “a series of interrelated tunnels and other underground locations that contain equipment for nuclear warhead-capable missiles under a military unit that deals with both nuclear weapons and missile development.” The Iranian Defense Ministry is carrying out the “secret and strategic plan,” Jafarzadeh said, under orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and with advice from North Korea about building secret underground sites.

“North Korean experts have cooperated with the regime in the design and building of this complex. Many blueprints of the site have been prepared by North Korean experts,” he said.

Jafarzadeh said missiles the site is turning out include the nuclear-capable Shahab 3 and Ghadar varieties. The Ghadar’s maximum range is more than 1,500 miles, he said. “The most secretive part of the program … deals with the nuclear warhead,” he added, without elaborating.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors is to convene Thursday in the latest of a two-year series of meetings on Iran’s nuclear programs that was partially set in motion by the resistance council’s revelations. U.S. and IAEA officials have called some subsequent information from the group inaccurate.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack yesterday said Iran has secret nuclear programs but that he could not confirm Jafarzadeh’s new information.

“This is a program that is covert. It’s hidden from sight, and it’s hidden through a variety of different means,” McCormack said. “There’s been certainly a very mixed record in terms of some of these groups in talking about so-called revelations about Iran’s nuclear programs, but, you know, I can’t speak to these particular allegations.”

Iran’s parliament voted over the weekend to resume uranium enrichment in Iran and deny some access to IAEA inspectors if the board in Vienna refers the case to the U.N. Security Council in New York. Nuclear Control Institute founder Paul Leventhal said at the Jafarzadeh press conference that Iran’s secrecy raised questions about a proposal for defusing the crisis by allowing Iran to enrich uranium in Russia under Russian and IAEA oversight.

“The stage is set for Iran to accept the Russian offer, to resume talks with the EU-3 [France, Germany and the United Kingdom] and to withdraw its threatened actions in return for no referral to the Security Council, but is this the best outcome, given the time it will buy Iran to continue its nuclear-weapon and missile work at secret military sites?” Leventhal asked.

Leventhal and Iran Policy Committee Chairman Raymond Tanter, a former senior National Security Council staff member, did not endorse Jafarzadeh’s allegations but called on the U.N. nuclear agency and capable governments to investigate.

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Nations Approach Consensus on Iran, Burns Says

U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said yesterday that the United States, Russia and other countries are moving toward consensus on dealing with Iran’s nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 21).

Burns said he conducted “excellent discussions” Friday in London with officials from China, Russia, India and the European nations negotiating directly with Tehran.

“I was encouraged by those discussions on Friday because I think that there is a wider circle of countries now working all together to send one message to Iran,” Burns said.

Delegates at the London meeting expressed support for the plan to allow Iran to maintain a peaceful nuclear program as long as uranium enrichment is done in Russia (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Nov. 21).

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Iran could be referred to the U.N. Security Council if its nuclear program threatens the nonproliferation regime, RIA Novosti reported.

Lavrov said that as long as Iran refrains from conducting uranium enrichment, Tehran’s nuclear program should be left under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The foreign minister said Iran has given agency inspectors access to its nuclear facilities, as mandated by international agreements (RIA Novosti, Nov. 21).

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack yesterday would not confirm that the United States and its allies were delaying an attempt to bring Iran before the Security Council, Agence France-Presse reported.

McCormack said the United States was working for a resumption of Iran’s negotiations with France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

“We're trying to encourage Iran to get back to the negotiating table,” he said. “We're trying to work with the international community to give the Iranians every opportunity to avail themselves of the negotiating mechanism that is out there and to avail themselves of some potentially very interesting offers.”

McCormack said that the United States believes that Iran should be referred to the Security Council, but added, “We will reserve the right to seek that action at the time of our choosing” (Agence France-Presse II/IranMania.com, Nov. 21).

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North Korea Threatens to Increase Nuclear Arsenal

North Korea yesterday threatened to boost its nuclear arsenal “a thousand times” after the United Nations approved a resolution of concern on Pyongyang’s human rights record, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Nov. 21).

Pyongyang dismissed the resolution adopted last week as an “absurd attempt” by the United States to take down the North Korean government. The European Union had introduced the resolution.

“If one is to protect human rights one should have state power among other things and powerful deterrent to defend its state power,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Monday in a statement.

“The Korean people will ... defend the precious socialist system and bolster up the deterrent for self-defense a thousand times under any circumstance and situation,” the ministry said (Agence France-Presse/Khaleej Times, Nov. 22).

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U.S. Analyzes New Russian Warhead

U.S. officials have confirmed that Russia has tested a new missile warhead designed to defeat missile defenses by changing its course, the Washington Times reported (see GSN, Nov. 3).

U.S. satellites and other intelligence monitors tracked a Nov. 1 test, in which the warhead was launched on a Topol-M missile from a complex near Volgograd.

While existing ballistic warheads remain on a constant flight path after reaching space, the experimental warhead appears capable of switching course and range, U.S. officials told the Times.

Russian officials told press outlets there that the new warhead was produced in response to the installation of U.S. missile interceptors in Alaska and California. Added maneuverability could defeat U.S. systems that calculate the flight path and impact point of a warhead in guiding missile interceptors toward their targets.

While he did not discuss the Russian test, U.S. Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rick Lehner noted that U.S. missile defenses are focused on nations such as North Korea rather than Russia. Moscow worries, though, that U.S. interceptors could be placed on the East Coast or in Europe in order to defeat Russian missiles, the Times reported (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, Nov. 21).

Meanwhile, Russia announced yesterday that it would test its mobile RS-12M Topol ICBM on Nov. 29.

“The purpose of the launch is to confirm the reliability of missiles of this type and to extend their service life,” Col. Alexander Vovk, spokesman for the Russian Strategic Missile Troops, told ITAR-Tass.

A fifth Missile Troops regiment is expected to enter service with the silo-based Topol-M missile late next month, Vovk said. The Teykovskaya missile division is to receive Topol-M missiles on mobile launchers next year (ITAR-Tass, Nov. 21).

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Vanunu Arrested Again

Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu was arrested Friday while attempting to cross from the West Bank into Jerusalem, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 19).

Vanunu was released from prison last year after serving an 18-year sentence for disclosing information on Israel’s nuclear program to a British newspaper. As a condition of that release, he was barred from visiting foreign countries.

An Israeli court in May ruled that an earlier visit to Palestinian territories did not violate the terms of Vanunu’s release. However, Israelis since 2000 have been prohibited from going into Palestinian areas.

Israeli police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said Vanunu was arrested at a West Bank crossing into Jerusalem.

“I was arrested because they don't want to let me enjoy freedom,” Vanunu said (Associated Press/USA Today, Nov. 18).

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Court Rejects Man’s Bid to End CW Supply Trial

A Dutch businessman yesterday failed to persuade a court in The Hague that he should not be put on trial for allegedly supplying chemicals that helped produce mustard gas used by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Iran (see GSN, Nov. 21).

The lawyer for Frans van Anraat unsuccessfully argued that jurisdiction in the case belonged to Iraqi courts and that his client should be freed, the Associated Press reported (Anthony Deutsch, Associated Press/phillyBurbs.com, Nov. 21).

Van Anraat could face life in prison if found to be complicit with war crimes and genocide, according to Agence France-Presse. Chemicals supplied by Van Anraat were used against Iraqi Kurds — 5,000 of whom were killed in 1988 in the town of Halabja — and during the Iran-Iraq War, according to Dutch prosecutors.

“He is accused of delivering raw materials necessary to build Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons. The use of those weapons by the regime in Baghdad led to the deaths of thousands in Iraq and Iran,” said lead prosecutor Fred Teveen. “He is complicit in serious international crimes.”

Van Anraat said in a statement to the court that he did not know his materials would be used in weapons.  

Defense attorney Jan Peter van Schaik said the prosecution lacks evidence that would bind van Anraat to the Iraqi chemical weapons.

“The prosecution will have to prove that the raw materials were used in weapons and that these weapons were used in the village to come to a conviction,” van Schaik said.

The trial should finish on Dec. 21, AFP reported (Charles Bremner, Agence France-Presse, Nov. 22).

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International Inspectors Visit U.S. CW Site

A team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons last week began an inspection of weapons storage at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas (see GSN, Nov. 14).

The facility has hosted 35 such inspections, which are required by the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Arkansas-Democrat Gazette reported. OPCW officials arrived Wednesday and were expected to finish their work early this week. They are inspecting the storage of rockets and land mines containing nerve agent, along with blister agent containers.

“The inspectors want to verify that nobody has moved any of the munitions and that the count is still what we said it was,” said Pine Bluff spokeswoman Carole Newton (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Chemical Weapons Working Group, Nov. 19).

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Defense Executives Receive Probation for Illegal Missile Technology Exports to India

A federal judge in Boston on Friday ordered two defense executives to each serve three years of probation for illegally exporting material that aided India’s efforts to improve its Agni medium-range nuclear missile, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 15, 2003).

Walter Lachman, 72, will serve the first year of his sentence on home detention. Maurice Subilia Jr., 56, will spend six months at a halfway house and another year confined at home.

In 1995, the two men were convicted of violating export regulations designed to prevent nuclear proliferation. Lachman at the time was chief executive officer of Fiber Materials Inc. of Maine, and president of a company subsidiary, Materials International of Massachusetts. Subilia was president of the parent company and clerk at the subsidiary, AP reported.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock in 2003 overturned the convictions against the men and the companies, saying the export regulations were too vague to determine what was legal or illegal.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year overturned Woodlock’s decision.

Woodlock imposed the probation sentences Friday, and also levied a $250,000 fine against the two men and Fiber Materials Inc. (Associated Press/The Boston Channel, Nov. 21).

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