20,000 Post-Vaccination Hospitalizations Unreported

The U.S. Defense Department failed to report to Congress more than 20,000 hospitalizations of military personnel who received anthrax vaccinations between 1998 and 2000, the Newport News, Va., Daily Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 2).

Despite policies requiring reporting of all such cases, the Pentagon notified lawmakers of fewer than 100 incidents in which people became seriously ill or required hospital treatment after receiving the vaccine.

Critics charged that the Pentagon’s strategy was designed to play up the safety of the treatment, according to the Daily Press.

Col. John Grabenstein, director of the U.S. Military Vaccine Agency, countered that there was no known direct connection between the vaccinations and subsequent 20,765 hospitalizations. Vaccine recipients were not more likely to seek medical or hospital care than other military personnel who did not receive the inoculation between 1998 and 2000, according to a statistical analysis cited by Grabenstein.

The Pentagon in 2000 halted quarterly comparisons of vaccine recipients’ requests for hospital and other medical care against treatment sought by unvaccinated troops. That means there are no long-term examinations of the health of vaccine recipients, according to the Daily Press.

“They track the flu vaccine and not the anthrax vaccine, which is totally crazy to me,” said Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center.

There is no way to know how many of the 20,765 hospitalizations were directly connected to the vaccine, the Daily Press reported. Even seemingly unrelated injuries such as broken bones could be due to falls caused by a vaccine-related loss of consciousness. It is not likely that the vaccine caused a great number of the hospital stays, medical experts said (Bob Evans, Daily Press, Dec. 4).

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9/11 Panel Criticizes U.S. Nuclear Terror Readiness

By Joe Fiorill
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The former vice chairman of the federally convened panel on the September 2001 al-Qaeda attacks today identified securing nuclear materials as the most important of a host of urgent improvements needed in post-Sept. 11 U.S. national-security efforts (see GSN, Sept. 15).

Lee Hamilton's comments came during the panel’s press conference this morning to release a last, highly critical report on progress made in implementing the commission's July 2004 recommendations.

“There is simply no higher priority on the national-security agenda” than securing nuclear material, said Hamilton, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a former Democratic congressman.

“Preventing terrorists from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction” in general, he added, “must be elevated above all other problems of national security. … Our current efforts fall far short of what we need to do.”

Since issuing its official report last year, the 10-person bipartisan commission has continued to scrutinize the government response to its recommendations as the private 9/11 Public Discourse Project.

The commission gave the Bush administration mostly poor marks for its work so far to implement the recommendations, prompting presidential counselor Dan Bartlett to make the rounds of television morning shows today in defense of the White House's performance.

Bartlett said on NBC's “Today” that the administration is “acting on” 70 of the Sept. 11 commission's 74 recommendations.

“We're not resting on our laurels,” Bartlett said.

Other problems identified this morning by Hamilton and former commission Chairman Thomas Kean include the failure to implement risk-based federal funding for antiterrorism efforts around the country, instead of funding what Kean called “pork-barrel” projects, and a need for better information-sharing on terrorism among federal, state and local agencies.

They also cited lagging reforms at the FBI, where Hamilton said intelligence should be made the highest priority over the agency’s traditional law enforcement duties, and a lack in Congress of sufficiently strong committees to oversee new administration posts such as the national intelligence director and new government powers to investigate citizens.

Former panel member Jamie Gorelick said yesterday that the United States has failed to ensure that other nations are stepping up efforts to block the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical agents, the Associated Press reported.

On ABC's “Good Morning America,” Bartlett elaborated on the question of risk-based federal funding for antiterrorism efforts. He blamed Congress for the lack of progress, calling it “one of the frustrating things for this administration.”

“We want to base funding on threat,” Bartlett said. “Now Congress has not changed the way it's done business in all terms. They are funding things based on old models, pre-9/11 models, and we think it's important that Homeland Security dollars go to where the threats are, and that's something we'll be constantly pushing the Congress to change.”

Kean today blamed the Senate for the impasse, saying the House of Representatives has three times passed legislation to reform the Homeland Security funding formulas but that the measures have failed to make it through House-Senate conference committees.

“It is time for senators to exercise leadership,” the former Republican New Jersey governor said.

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Reward Issued for Suspected al-Qaeda Chemist

The United States this year issued a $5 million reward for the capture of an Egyptian chemist believed to have worked for al-Qaeda to develop chemical and biological weapons, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 25).

Midhat Mursi, also know as Abu Khabab, might be in Pakistan, according to the U.S. reward poster. However, “we don’t think there’s really a good fix on where he is,” said U.S. counterterrorism analyst Donald Van Duyn.

Mursi for years has been suspected as a bomb maker for al-Qaeda, AP reported. He may have provided training for the suicide bombers who killed 17 U.S. sailors in the attack on the USS Cole.

Computer files found in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 indicated that Abu Khabab had by 1999 received up to $4,000 to begin work there on chemical and biological weapons, AP reported. Mursi’s voice was reportedly heard on a videotape found in 2002 by CNN that showed gas being used to kill dogs.

The gas is believed to have been hydrogen cyanide, which is not considered a strong candidate for use as a chemical weapon due to its instability and low density, according to NATO chemical weapons expert Rene Pita.

The “Abu Khabab laboratory,” in an al-Qaeda complex 70 miles outside of Kabul, was lit by only one light bulb and contained boxes of test tubes, syringes and vials, AP reported.

Egypt is holding one or both of Mursi’s sons in hopes of finding their father (Charles Hanley, Associated Press/Contra Costa Times, Dec. 4).

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Iran Plans Second Nuclear Reactor

Iran yesterday announced plans to build a second nuclear power reactor, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 2).

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Cabinet finalized the decision yesterday for the plant in the Khuzistan province, according to AP.

Iran’s parliament ultimately hopes to build 20 reactors. Russia built the Bushehr reactor, and has offered its assistance in future projects (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press/Washington Post, Dec. 5).

Tehran’s Guardian Council on Saturday voted to curtail international inspections of Iranian nuclear installations if the country’s nuclear program is referred to the U.N. Security Council, AP reported.

The bill still awaits Ahmadinejad’s signature before it can become law, according to AP (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press/Washington Post, Dec. 3).

Meanwhile, Moscow and Tehran have agreed to a $1 billion arms deal, to include the sale of 29 missile defense systems to Iran, the New York Times reported Saturday.

A Russian weapons factory manager and a source close to the deal said the antiaircraft missiles could be used to counter a potential air attack on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor, the Vedomosti newspaper reported.

U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, traveling in Russia, said Washington has asked Moscow for an explanation.

“For 25 years, Iran has supported terrorists in the Middle East, and that is why we have very bad relations with them,” Burns told the Echo of Moscow radio station. “You can understand why we do not support the sales of weapons.”

Burns said Washington still supports Russian diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff with Iran (Andrew Kramer, New York Times, Dec. 3).

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said Saturday that the missiles are intended only for defensive purposes and that the deal was in compliance with Moscow’s nonproliferation commitments and Russian law, AP reported.

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said Saturday that the sale was not unusual.

“Iran’s and Russia’s military cooperation is not a complicated issue,” said Ali Larijani. “It existed before, and there was no ban on it” (Mike Eckel, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Dec. 3).

The United Kingdom is attempting to persuade fellow U.N. Security Council permanent members Russia and China that Iran is pursuing an atomic bomb, the Times reported yesterday.

France and the United States have endorsed London’s plan to form a united front among the five major nuclear weapons powers, diplomats said.

“If we could get China and Russia to agree that this bears all the hallmarks of a weapons program, it could have an enormous impact on Iran,” said one senior European diplomat (Weisman/Sanger, New York Times, Dec. 4).

In Washington, Some experts have criticized the Bush administration for making concessions on Iran’s nuclear activities while failing to develop a strategy for resolving the crisis.

With increasing profits from oil exports, Tehran feels it is “negotiating from a position of strength. They have money to co-opt their friends,” Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former U.S. Defense Department adviser, told Reuters.

“We talk a good game but are not doing anything to support the Iranian people. ... We do not yet have a comprehensive strategy” for Iran, Rubin said.

The Bush administration has recently supported a Russian proposal to allow Iran to convert uranium but transfer its enrichment processes to Russia.

Washington believes Tehran will reject the deal, while U.S. support in the interim will ensure Moscow’s support for Security Council referral in the future, according to Reuters.

Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations, however, expressed doubts about Russia’s willingness to take a tougher stand on Iran, even as a last resort.

“Given their strategic and economic relationship with Iran, the Russians are not prepared to place Iran in the framework of international sanctions,” he said (Carol Giacomo, Reuters/Yahoo!News, Dec. 4).

Iran yesterday expressed optimism about renewed nuclear talks with the European Union, AP reported.

“If Europeans respect our right, we are optimistic about Iran-Europe talks,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Dec. 4).

Elsewhere, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei warned that the crisis would escalate if Iran resumes uranium enrichment activities, the London Independent reported today.

“If they start enriching this is a major issue and a serious concern for the international community,” ElBaradei said.

Once Iran’s Natanz enrichment installation is fully operational, ElBaradei said the country could be “a few months” away from producing a nuclear weapon.

“I know they are trying to acquire the full fuel cycle. I know that acquiring the full fuel cycle means that a country is months away from nuclear weapons, and that applies to Iran and everybody else,” he said (Anne Penketh, The Independent, Dec. 5).

Diplomatic efforts are unlikely to end Iran’s nuclear efforts, Israel’s military chief of staff said yesterday.

“The fact that the Iranians are successful time after time in getting away from international pressure ... encourages them to continue their nuclear project,” said Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz. “The political means that are used by the Europeans and the U.S. to convince the Iranians to stop the project will not succeed.”

Military options for dealing with Tehran remain on the table, Halutz added.

“Who is the one to implement it? That is another question that I’m not going to answer. ‘When?’ is another question that I’m not going to answer. But there are options worldwide,” he said (Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Associated Press/Washington Post, Dec. 4).

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday advocated “bold and courageous” action against Iran, Reuters reported.

Netanyahu called for “any action necessary to prevent a situation in which Iran threatens us with nuclear weapons” (Dan Williams, Reuters, Dec. 4).

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North Korea Seeks Direct Talks With U.S.

North Korea said it will boycott nuclear disarmament talks unless the top negotiators from Pyongyang and Washington are allowed to meet bilaterally, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 2).

Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper quoted diplomatic sources in Washington as saying the State Department had received the request for a meeting between Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean negotiator Kim Kye Gwan (Reuters, Dec. 4).

Hill said the multilateral negotiations should continue, but only if they advance a resolution to the nuclear crisis.

“I don’t want to threaten walkout,” Hill told the Associated Press on Friday. “But I do have to see progress.”

He added that he hoped the nuclear issue would be resolved within months, rather than years.

“We can’t just sit there stalemated session after stalemated session,” he said.

“If there is a value to the talks we will keep on talking,” he added (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/Washington Post, Dec. 3).

Meanwhile, South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young urged the United States today to hold direct talks with Pyongyang on its missile development, alleged currency counterfeiting and other non-nuclear issues, AP reported.

Washington’s non-nuclear complaints against North Korea “should be solved by bilateral talks between the two parties,” Chung was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying. “As the six-party talks focus on resolving the nuclear issue, other matters should be separated from the six-party issue” (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press/Washington Post, Dec. 5).

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U.S. Rejects Claim of Missing Plutonium

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration last week rejected a claim that more than 600 pounds of plutonium remains unaccounted for at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported (see GSN, Nov. 30).

“We don’t think anything’s missing,” said agency spokesman Don Ami. “We jus think there’s a discrepancy.”

The analysis of government documents by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research “compared two very different LANL databases,” the agency said in a written statement.

“Special nuclear material has been tracked since 1943 and has been safeguarded through the use of the Nuclear Materials Control and Accounting Database since 1968,” the release states. 

A separate database is used to keep track of nuclear waste. “The waste management database, which began collecting data in 1971, gathers information to ensure protection of health, safety and the environment,” according to the NNSA statement.

There are separate orders for collection of information for both databases. “The difference in the analysis and reporting requirements account for the discrepancies in the report,” the agency said.

Plutonium found in gloves, rags and other waste could not be removed for further use, according to Ami (Andy Lenderman, The New Mexican, Dec. 3).

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FBI Renews Forged Iraq Documents Inquiry

The FBI has reversed its decision to close the investigation of forged documents on alleged Iraqi uranium purchases from Niger, a senior federal law enforcement official confirmed late Friday (see GSN, Nov. 7).

The agency had closed the inquiry last month into the papers — used by the Bush administration to argue for the invasion of Iraq — determining they were forged in an effort to obtain money rather than to change U.S. policy.

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, requested the renewed investigation, citing concern that the forged documents might be evidence of a “larger deception campaign.”

The documents include correspondence on Niger government letterhead and mock contracts for uranium sales. Former Italian freelance spy Rocco Martino provided the papers to an Italian magazine in 2002, and they were then passed on to the U.S. Embassy in Rome, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

“I don’t expect the results to be any different. I think the answer is going to be that [Martino] wasn’t acting in behalf of any government or intelligence agency. This guy was trying to peddle this to whoever he could,” said the senior official.

The agency did not interview Martino during its initial investigation, a senior FBI official said.

Investigators could examine whether U.S. citizens who advocated war against Iraq instigated the forgeries, or whether the Iraqi National Congress was involved, federal officials told the Times (Wallsten/Hamburger/Meyer, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 3).

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Russia to Test New Submarine-Launched Missile

Russia plans to conduct a test launch this month of a new nuclear-capable ballistic missile with a range of up to 5,000 miles, Agence France-Presse reported Friday (see GSN, Dec. 1).

“A new test firing of the Bulava M missile should be carried out this month. These tests will continue next year,” Yuri Solomonov, chief missile designer at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, told Interfax.

The missile is to be launched from a “sea platform” and can carry at least 10 nuclear warheads, he said.

One official told Interfax the test would occur on Dec. 10, according to Interfax.

Solomonov said the Bulava M was not expected to meet original plans for deployment in 2007.

“It all depends on the funding for the tests. Currently, the financing is such that there is little chance the missile can be put into service by the Russian navy in 2007,” he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Dec. 2).

Meanwhile, the chief of Russia’s ballistic missile forces said Friday that Moscow’s nuclear strategy takes into account the high likelihood of nuclear proliferation, the Associated Press reported.

“At present, many countries are eager to come in possession of nuclear weapons; the nuclear club will be expanding,” said Col. Gen Nikolai Solovtsov. “The (missile forces’) development plan takes into account all these threats.”

Solovtsov did not identify any nations (Associated Press, Dec. 2).

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Accused Dutch Businessman Knew of Chemical Applications, Former Partner Testifies

Frans van Anraat was aware that chemicals he supplied to the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could be used to make chemical weapons, a former business partner said Friday at the Dutch businessman’s genocide and war crimes trial (see GSN, Dec. 2).

Van Anraat has denied knowing that the chemicals he transferred to Iraq were to be used in chemical munitions. Prosecutors charge that weapons containing chemicals supplied by van Anraat were used to kill thousands of Kurds in Iraq and Iran.

Hisjiro Tanaka, who helped acquire thiodiglycol and phosphorus oxychloride from Japanese and U.S. manufacturers between 1984 and 1988 for van Anraat’s firm, told a Dutch court that the defendant was told at the time of sale that the ingredients could be used to make mustard gas.

“All the manufacturers, where we bought the thiodiglycol, told us that it could be made into poison gas,” Tanaka said (Agence France-Presse/IranMania.com, Dec. 2)

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Senate to Consider Chemical Plant Security Rules

The U.S. Senate is set to consider new regulations that would require chemical plants to develop new security plans and submit them to the Homeland Security Department for review, the Associated Press reported Friday (see GSN, Sept. 7).

Facilities could be closed if they failed to follow the proposed rules, according to a draft plan.

There are 15,000 private chemical facilities in the United States, one-fifth of which are located near population centers. Chemical sites have been identified as potential targets for terrorists.

The proposed rules would mandate security assessments at each plant, followed by improvements to cover any weaknesses. That could include adding security cameras or restricting access to particular locations, AP reported. Facilities would also have to develop or update emergency response plans.

If a facility was to fail on multiple occasions to follow the rules, the Homeland Security secretary could “issue an order for the chemical source to cease operation,” the draft plan states.

Homeland Security itself would create some security standards for plants, and place the facilities in tiers based on their danger levels to nearby residents.

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) expects to soon deliver the final version of the regulation plan for consideration by her colleagues, AP reported. 

Chemical companies to date have not faced significant government regulation of their security efforts, according to AP. The American Chemistry Council, which represents 2,000 U.S. plants, backs the Senate plan, said security director Marty Durbin. The proposal would “make sure that those facilities that need to be taking actions here are doing so.”

The plan would not require chemical plants to use materials that would pose less danger to people if released by an accident or terrorist strike, according to some environmentalists.

“If there is no plan to address the underlying hazards posed by chemicals at these plants, the bill will not provide the protection the American people deserve,” said Andy Igrejas, environmental health program director at the National Environmental Trust (Lara Jakes Jordan, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, Dec. 2).

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Japan and China Agree on World War II-Era Chemical Weapons Disposal Collaboration

Tokyo and Beijing plan to form a collaborative agency to eliminate up to 400,000 chemical weapons abandoned in China by the Japanese army during World War II, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday (see GSN, Nov. 17).

A formal agreement is expected to be signed soon to create the agency that will consist of officials from both nations. Work is set to begin next year on chemical weapons recovery and disposal plants in the Jilin province of northeastern China, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun.

Tokyo is expected to cover the bulk of the costs for the installation, estimated at $807 million, the Yomiuri reported (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 3)

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