Iraqi Court Vows to Find “Dr. Germ,” “Mrs. Anthrax”

The Iraqi High Tribunal yesterday criticized the U.S. decision to release a number of prisoners, including former biological weapons scientists Rihab Taha, known as “Dr. Germ,” and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as “Mrs. Anthrax,” the Los Angeles Times reported (see GSN, Dec. 20).

The tribunal, which is now trying former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, vowed to find those who were released and take “judicial measures” against them. 

Iraqi lawyer Badee Izzat Aref said U.S. forces are providing security for most of the prisoners. He claims that up to 25 prisoners were freed, although the United States would only confirm the release of eight.

The prisoners “are under the protection of the American forces in Iraq until they find a safe haven either in Iraq or abroad,” Aref said without giving details. 

It was not clear where the officials are now, according to the Times (Los Angeles Times, Dec. 22).

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U.S. National Counterproliferation Center Opens

The U.S. National Counterproliferation Center opened yesterday with a pledge by its director to make the danger posed by biological agents a priority for the new operation (see GSN, June 29).

The center employs roughly 67 intelligence personnel and scientific experts who to study potential WMD threats posed by nations and “nonstate actors” such as terrorists and black-market proliferators, the Associated Press reported.

Those dangers include biological threats, whether they occur naturally or are engineered into a weapon.

“Naturally occurring diseases can be much more devastating than a weapon,” said center Director Kenneth Brill. “The life sciences are moving so quickly, and there are so many new dramatic breakthroughs. Yet some of those breakthroughs, if you tweak them just slightly, become really potentially devastating agents for harm.”

The center also plans to issue a number of studies over the next three years on WMD threats, AP reported.

“It’s no secret that Iran and North Korea are areas where we are concerned about WMD activities,” Brill said. “The proliferation of WMD programs in areas of tension is a very real concern not just to this government, but to many” (Katherine Shrader, Associated Press/The Guardian, Dec. 22).

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New Zealand Gives Money for Russian Disarmament

New Zealand today said it has contributed approximately $800,000 to help Russia decommission its last plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and for a project to destroy chemical weapons in Siberia (see GSN, Dec. 21).

The money is part of New Zealand’s continued funding of disarmament efforts by the Group of Eight economic powers, according to a New Zealand press release.

“Our contribution to these two major G-8 global partnership projects underlines New Zealand's commitment to disarmament and to nuclear safety,” said New Zealand Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Phil Goff in the press release.

New Zealand last year contributed nearly $810,000 for construction of a chemical weapons disposal site in Siberia. It is delivering more than $472,000 for the project in this fiscal year.

“A proportion of the year's funding will benefit the community surrounding the chemical weapon destruction facility, through measures such as providing heating for a nursery school,” Goff said. 

“In addition, [more than $337,000] will go toward a project to shut down Russia's last plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and replace it with a fossil fuel plant,” Goff said. “New Zealand's funding will be directed toward ensuring that the replacement fossil fuel plant at Zheleznogorsk meets high environmental standards” (New Zealand press release, Dec. 22).

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No Progress Made in Negotiations on Iran’s Nuclear Program

There was no progress in EU-Iran nuclear negotiations yesterday regarding Tehran’s desire to enrich uranium domestically, a senior European official said (see GSN, Dec. 21).

“We repeated our positions and the Iranians repeated theirs,” said Stanislas de Laboulaye, the senior negotiator for France, which was joined in the talks by Germany and the United Kingdom.

U.S. officials reacted cautiously to the news.

“We haven’t seen any indication from the Iranians over the past months that they have any intention of returning to the negotiating table,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. “What needs to happen is the Iranians need to get serious about negotiating in good faith with the EU-3 on this issue.”

The European powers and Iran agreed to return to the negotiating table in January.

“Both sides set out their positions in an open and frank manner ... (and) agreed to consult with their respective leaderships with a view of holding another round of talks in January,” de Laboulaye said. The goal of those talk would be to agree “on the framework of (further) negotiations,” he said.

Javad Vaidi, head of the Iranian delegation, said yesterday’s one-day talks gave the countries involved “an opportunity to see the other side’s point of view.”

A European diplomat familiar with the talks said the negotiators were able to agree on a meeting next month because they avoided in-depth discussions yesterday of the enrichment issue. That means that the January talks would be bound to fail unless one side is willing to compromise on the matter, according to AP.

A European official said the talks would be canceled if Iran shows any sign that it is going to begin enriching uranium, a process that could be used to produce nuclear-weapon material.

“It was clear that our positions remain not only apart but substantially so,” the official said.

A second European official said that the EU-3 might consider a previous proposal from Tehran to allow enrichment in Iran with some foreign controls. This could only happen at a later stage once Europe was convinced Iran was not enriching uranium for weapons, the official added (George Jahn, Associated Press/Khaleej Times, Dec. 22).

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India Gives No Details on Nuke Site Separation

Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran yesterday declined to offer details on how New Delhi would separate its civilian and military nuclear sites as required by the planned nuclear technology sharing agreement with the United States, Reuters reported (see GSN, Dec. 21).

In Washington to offer U.S. officials “ideas” on how the programs would be separated, Saran refused to address how India would classify its Cirus nuclear reactor. Some experts believe the Canadian-supplied plant is used for military purposes despite being intended for civilian work. 

Saran also rejected calls for New Delhi to curb its nuclear weapons program.

“We are not talking here about a capping of India's strategic (nuclear weapons) program. We are not talking here about a fissile material cutoff” but about India’s need for more energy, he said.

Saran added that a fissile material cutoff measure or others suggested by nonproliferation experts would be “deal-breakers” (Reuters/New York Times, Dec. 21).

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday that he expects “there's going to be a lot more discussion with our Congress on this issue in order to move forward on the agreement” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 21).

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Opposition Grows to U.S. Nukes in Europe

Support is growing for removing the estimated 480 U.S. nuclear weapons kept on military bases around Europe, Knight Ridder reported today (see GSN, June 24).

Lawmakers from Belgium, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom have pushed their governments to explain why the weapons, consisting of nuclear gravity bombs, are needed given the apparent lack of a nuclear threat to Europe.

Russia is no longer considered an enemy, and missiles from states suspected of seeking nuclear weapons, such as North Korea and Iran, could not reach Europe. The U.S. weapons, meanwhile, would not prevent a terrorist attack.

“The Cold War is over. There is no conceivable threat to us from the Soviet Union or the (post-Soviet) Commonwealth of Independent States. The need is gone,” said British Labor Party member of Parliament Paul Flynn.

The Belgian Senate this year approved a nonbinding resolution seeking removal of all U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe, according to Knight Ridder. The Christian Democratic Party in Norway last April made a similar call.

A survey in the German magazine Der Spiegel found that 77.5 percent of respondents supported removal of U.S. nuclear weapons from the country. Germany’s parliament this year deferred a resolution on the matter.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that the United States would remove the weapons only at the request of the host government.

NATO supports maintaining the present deployment level, Knight Ridder reported.

“The fundamental purpose of the nuclear forces that remain is political: to preserve peace and prevent coercion. They make the risks of aggression against NATO incalculable and unacceptable in a way that conventional forces alone cannot,” the organization said in a prepared statement. “Together with an appropriate mix of conventional capabilities, they also create real uncertainty for any potential aggressor who might contemplate seeking political or military advantage through the threat or use of weapons of mass destruction against the alliance.”

The nuclear issue would eventually “reach a tipping point,” said Ivan Oelrich, security project director for the Federation of American Scientists. “It will seem as though it’s not going anywhere ... but then it’ll be a very rapid transition” to full withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons (Tod Robberson, Knight Ridder/RedOrbit.com, Dec. 22).

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China a “Considerable Threat,” Japanese FM Says

China’s nuclear weapons and conventional military buildup are developing the nation into a “considerable threat,” Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said today (see GSN, Oct. 20).

China is “a neighboring country with 1 billion people and nuclear bombs whose military spending has been growing by two digits every year for 17 consecutive years,” Aso said, according to Agence France-Presse.

“And the content of that is extremely unclear. If I say what this means, I recognize that it is becoming a considerable threat,” he added.

China quickly blasted back at Aso.

“As a foreign minister, to so irresponsibly incite such groundless rhetoric about a China threat, what is the purpose?” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

“China’s development has made commonly acknowledged contributions towards the world’s peace and stability, bringing East Asian countries, including Japan, great development opportunities,” he said (Agence France-Presse, Yahoo!News, Dec. 22).

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University of California Wins Los Alamos Contract

The University of California will continue to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the U.S. Energy Department announced yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 21).

The university had operated the nuclear weapons research facility since the 1940s, but a series of security and safety problems in recent years forced it to compete for a new contract.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said yesterday that the team led by the university and engineering firm Bechtel Corp. had beaten the rival group of the University of Texas and Lockheed Martin for the seven-year contract.

“This is a new contract, with a new team, marking a new approach to the management of Los Alamos. It is not a continuation of the previous contract,” Bodman said.

The contract is effective June 1 and could be extended up to 20 years, the Associated Press reported.

“The new contract will put in place concrete measures of accountability, ensuring that the tax dollars spent at Los Alamos are well spent,” Bodman said.

University of Texas Chancellor Mark Yudof said he did not plan to appeal the decision. “I wish them well.  It’s in the nation’s interest that they do well,” he said.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), however, demanded that the Energy Department provide additional documentation on the selection process.

“I have minimal hope and no belief that UC can reverse its record of consistent failure,” Barton said.

Los Alamos employs 11,000 workers and is among three major sites for maintenance of the U.S. atomic arsenal and production of weapons parts, AP reported.

The UC-Bechtel team made accountability on security measures a priority in its proposal, DOE officials said. Federal oversight of the facility is not expected to ebb under the new management group, AP reported.

Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said he believes Bechtel will lead management of Los Alamos, while the university would focus on conducting scientific work.

“Getting another corporate entity involved was essential to restoring confidence on the part of many, and I think that’s why they were teamed up as they were,” he said (Heather Clark, Associated Press/Albuquerque Journal, Dec. 22).

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Iran Demands Saddam Stand Trial for Chemical Attacks

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein must be tried for ordering chemical weapons attacks against Iran while the two countries were at war, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 23).

“The Islamic Republic of Iran expects Saddam's trial to consider the use of chemical weapons against Iran,” Mottaki said. “The Iraqi regime used chemical weapons against Iran in 200 cases, which constitutes a crime unprecedented in history.”

Mottaki claimed that Iraqi chemical weapons in the 1980-1988 war injured 100,000 Iranians and that 40,000 still suffer from the attacks.   He argued his government has the right to take legal action not only against Iraq, but also against Western companies and governments that supported Hussein during the war.

“Iraq could never have had access to such a destructive and criminal capacity without the assistance and support of Western countries and companies,” he said. “Some 400 companies, mainly Western, helped Iraq to be equipped with chemical weapons. The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to file suit against these companies” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 21).

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Court Rejects Request to Transfer Padilla

A U.S. appeals court yesterday rejected the Bush administration’s request to transfer one-time “dirty bomb” suspect Jose Padilla from military to civilian custody, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 12).

The court also denied the White House request to vacate a court ruling that enemy combatants could be held indefinitely without charge in the United States. 

In its decision, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the administration has risked its “credibility before the courts” by seemingly attempting to stop the Supreme Court from reviewing U.S. enemy combatant policy. The court also questioned why facts used to indict Padilla were different than the ones used to hold him without charges for 3 1/2 years.

Judge J. Michael Luttig said the Supreme Court must determine Padilla’s fate.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said officials were disappointed with the decision. The government should be able to both charge suspected terrorists or hold them as enemy combatants, she said.

“The department is in the process of reviewing the court's order and will continue to consider all options with respect to pursuing the criminal charges as expeditiously as possible,” she said (Toni Locy, Associated Press/Gainesville Sun, Dec. 22).

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