U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday submitted his fiscal 2006 budget request to Congress (AFP photo/Brendan Smialowski). White House Threat Reduction Budget Stresses Energy Department Activities By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has requested a significant increase in Energy Department funding to secure nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere next fiscal year, while keeping the Defense Department threat reduction budget flat and decreasing the State Department’s allowance (see GSN, Jan. 31)...Full Story

Bush Seeks to Cut Test Ban Treaty Funding By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Bush administration’s fiscal 2006 budget request is seeking a 25-percent reduction in the U.S. annual contribution to the international treaty banning nuclear weapons testing, in the latest sign of U.S. opposition to the agreement (see GSN, Nov. 8, 2004)...Full Story

EU Expected to Begin Nuclear Talks With Warning to Iran on Centrifuge Work, Diplomats Say A new round of talks beginning today on Iran’s nuclear program was expected to include a warning from the European powers about activities that violate the spirit of Tehran’s uranium enrichment suspension, diplomats told Agence France-Presse (see GSN, Feb. 7)...Full Story

	Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Senate Vote on Chertoff Nomination Possible Today The U.S. Senate could vote today on Michael Chertoff’s appointment as U.S. homeland security secretary, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine) said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 2). The committee yesterday voted 14-0 to support Chertoff’s nomination, with Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) voting only present, the Associated Press reported (Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 8). Back to top

White House Threat Reduction Budget Stresses Energy Department Activities By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has requested a significant increase in Energy Department funding to secure nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere next fiscal year, while keeping the Defense Department threat reduction budget flat and decreasing the State Department’s allowance (see GSN, Jan. 31). The administration’s fiscal 2006 budget proposes an increase for Energy Department threat reduction activities from $439 million to $526 million. Requested funding for the Defense Department’s threat reduction program also climbed from $409 million to $416 million, but the increase is actually negated when inflation is factored. The White House is seeking $71 million for State Department threat reduction efforts, as it did for fiscal 2005, which after inflation amounts to a decrease. The Congressional Budget Office’s inflation assumption for fiscal 2005 to fiscal 2006 is 1.9 percent. The fiscal year begins in October. The budgets for threat reduction activities in all three departments were reduced last year for fiscal 2005 (see GSN, Oct. 7, 2004). Energy Department officials have said that they have accelerated efforts in recent years to secure nuclear weapon-usable materials in Russia and other former Soviet states, including by installing intrusion detection alarms and fences around sensitive sites. “A number of major milestones for this cooperative program are on the near horizon and the FY 2006 budget ensures that sufficient funding will be available to meet these milestones,” according to the department’s 2006 budget document. It cited completing security upgrades for Russian Navy nuclear sites by the end of fiscal 2006 and Russian strategic rocket force sites by the end of 2007. Work also would begin to secure nuclear warhead storage at the Russian Defense Ministry’s 12th Main Directorate. While the requested increase for Energy Department threat reduction programs, administered by its National Nuclear Security Administration, increases the administration’s overall threat reduction budget request from $919 million to $1.013 billion, a critic said the total still does not appropriately prioritize threat reduction. “The administration’s new request for nonproliferation funding is disappointingly low.  After President Bush agreed during the 2004 campaign that the threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists is the greatest threat to the United States, his budget fails his own test,” said John Isaacs, president of the Council for a Livable World arms control organization.  A White House budget document explaining the threat reduction funding said, “A sprawling nuclear complex in Russia and other locations in the former Soviet Union, and vulnerable nuclear material elsewhere, remain the most likely sources for the material, technology, and expertise” needed to develop weapons that could be used for nuclear terrorism. “The administration has targeted the nuclear terrorism challenge with aggressive nonproliferation programs that have achieved a number of major successes in recent years, including the dismantling of Libyan WMD programs and unraveling of the A.Q. Khan network,” it says Back to top

Bush Seeks to Cut Test Ban Treaty Funding By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Bush administration’s fiscal 2006 budget request is seeking a 25-percent reduction in the U.S. annual contribution to the international treaty banning nuclear weapons testing, in the latest sign of U.S. opposition to the agreement (see GSN, Nov. 8, 2004). The proposed reduction from $19 million appropriated by Congress for this year to $14.35 million for fiscal 2006 could push the United States down for the first time to being the second-largest contributor to the treaty’s implementing organization in Vienna. Japan contributed about $18 million for 2005. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, which administers the treaty and collects annual dues, has a $105 million budget for calendar year 2005. A State Department official said the agency could not provide an explanation for the requested cut at this time. CTBTO spokeswoman Daniela Rozgonova said today that the proposed cut would affect the organization, but suggested it would not be catastrophic. “Yes, it’s money for us. You bet.  But in the larger scheme of things, it’s only so-much percent,” she said. Former President Bill Clinton signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1996, and his administration committed the United States to ratify the treaty in a 2000 deal to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely. However, the U.S. Senate in 1999, in a narrow, partisan 51-48 vote, opposed ratifying the treaty and Bush administration officials have said the president would not resubmit it to lawmakers. The administration also previously eliminated U.S. contributions for treaty inspection activities.  Bush administration officials have signaled that they do not intend to honor the 2000 ratification pledge, causing some experts to question whether U.S. and other international efforts to strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty at a five-year review conference in May might end in failure (see GSN, Feb. 3). “Even when others share U.S. views of the nuclear threat, they may balk at following U.S. policies because they do not see Washington acting on [non-U.S.] priorities, for example, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty,” Joseph Cirincione, director of Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a speech last week. The United States has been the CTBT Organization’s largest contributor since its inception, with Japan a close second. While opposing the treaty’s mission, elements of the Bush administration are said to value the organization’s global network of seismic and other sensors for detecting nuclear tests. Back to top       EU Expected to Begin Nuclear Talks With Warning to Iran on Centrifuge Work, Diplomats Say A new round of talks beginning today on Iran’s nuclear program was expected to include a warning from the European powers about activities that violate the spirit of Tehran’s uranium enrichment suspension, diplomats told Agence France-Presse (see GSN, Feb. 7). The United Kingdom, France and Germany “are going to read the riot act to the Iranians” in Geneva, a diplomat close to the talks told AFP. International Atomic Energy Agency Director Mohamed ElBaradei “has warned Iran in two letters in December and January” about ongoing quality control work on centrifuge parts, added the diplomat. Despite a November agreement to halt all uranium enrichment-related activity, Iran has recently performed maintenance work on centrifuge piping at a facility at Natanz, including moving valves and other components to Farayand for testing, diplomats said. “Maintenance work is totally permissible under the terms of the suspension. What you can’t do is quality control work,” the diplomat said. “The Iranians did not report their quality control work. IAEA inspectors came across it by chance in their verification of centrifuge components in Farayand,” the diplomat said. “This is coming close to being a breach of the suspension agreement but still short of forcing a breakdown in the talks.” Iran also seems close to a violation of safeguards agreements for not disclosing construction of tunnels for uranium conversion at a facility in Isfahan, a second diplomat said. “The Iranians should have told the IAEA about this sooner than they did,” the diplomat said. “The Iranians are doing things that worry the Europeans” (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Feb. 8). Iran has already “reached the point of no return in the fuel technology issue,” Sirus Naseri, a member of Iran’s nuclear negotiations strategy committee, told state television yesterday, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Feb. 7). Iran’s top nuclear negotiator today expressed Tehran’s desire to end its dispute with the United States, but said that an attempted military strike would fail to eliminate all of Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Associated Press reported. “We are not seeking tension with the United States,” Hassan Rohani told state television. “We are seeking to resolve our problems with America but it’s the Americans who don’t want problems to be resolved.” “Iran’s nuclear technology is in the hands of its scientists and workshops throughout the country. All of them have the ability to produce centrifuges. Therefore, America will not be able to destroy our nuclear facilities and mines through a military strike,” he said (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/The Herald Sun, Feb. 8). Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said yesterday that international opposition forced the United States to withdraw a threat of military action against Tehran, AFP reported. “I believe the international community’s reaction to the speech by itself meant a lot,” said Kharazi, referring to U.S. President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address (see GSN, Feb. 3). “That’s why America has withdrawn from the position and they have stressed that they do not have such plans in their agenda,” he said, referring to remarks last week by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (Jalil Hamid, Reuters, Feb. 7). Meanwhile, Russian atomic energy chief Alexander Rumyantsev is expected to arrive in Iran on Feb. 25 to sign the deal under which Moscow will supply nuclear fuel for the Bushehr reactor project, Mohammad Saeedi, a senior official in Iran’s national atomic energy organization, said yesterday (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Feb. 7). In Washington, the Bush administration has long advocated “regime change” in Iran, a policy that hasn’t changed even if officials avoid using that term, experts told AFP. “I have no doubt the president and his closest advisers believe that the way both to solve the nuclear problem but also to deal with terrorism and improve the lives of the Iranian people is regime change,” said George Perkovich, an Iran specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It’s very important to distinguish between the idea of regime change and the means,” he added. “And on the means I think there is a division in the administration, but that Rice made very clear that the means that they will pursue would be noncoercive and more political.” Some regime-change advocates have publicly argued that the Iranian government has weak support and would be easy to depose. “I think it’s much easier than in most of the other cases, because we know from the public opinion polls conducted by the mullahs themselves that more than 70 percent of people hate this regime and want it changed, they want to be free,” said Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute. The Committee on the Present Danger, a group of Washington insiders that includes former Republican Secretary of State George Shultz and Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), has promoted greater engagement with the Iranian population. “We recommend a peaceful but forceful strategy to engage the Iranian people to remove the threat and establish a strong relationship, which is in both nations’ and the region’s interests,” states a document issued by the group (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Feb. 8). Back to top       Pakistan Denies Claim of Lost Uranium Pakistan yesterday denied a Time magazine report this week that 16 containers of uranium hexafluoride gas were missing from the Khan Research Laboratories, according to Agence France-Presse (see GSN, Feb. 7). “Our inventory is complete and nothing is missing from KRL,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said. Pakistan is still investigating the international nuclear network revealed last year by top scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan. “We have not closed investigations. If new fresh leads emerge we would like to check them out and if fresh evidence is furnished to us we would like to look into that,” he said. "We have done more than any other country in the world. There are other countries ... it was alleged that they were involved in the international black market. We are yet to see if they are looking for skeletons in their cupboards,” Khan added (Agence France-Presse/TurkishPress.com, Feb. 7). Back to top

Proposed CDC Budget Includes Less Funding for State, Local Bioterrorism Preparedness The Bush administration has proposed a $530 million cut in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget for fiscal 2006, AScribe News reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 26). The 7 percent cut includes a $260 million decrease in funds to state and local governments for bioterrorism preparedness and other programs (AScribe News, Feb. 7). Back to top       Washington Considering Building New Bioterrorism Lab Washington officials have said that plans are under consideration to build a new bioterrorism defense and forensic laboratory in the District, the Washington Examiner reported today (see GSN, Feb. 4). Washington received $8 million for “design, planning and procurement” in its 2005 federal appropriation, said City Administrator Robert Bobb. The Bush administration’s fiscal 2006 budget request, released yesterday, contains an additional $7 million, according to the Examiner. The proposed facility would be part of an effort to consolidate area laboratories, including those related to forensics and public health, officials said. Documents issued last fall indicated it would require a biological safety level adequate for handling of anthrax, tularemia and other biological agents, the Examiner reported. “It is not very well developed beyond the concept stage,” Deputy Mayor Ed Reiskin said. “(The idea) is to take our existing facility for police, public health and medical examiner, put them together in a new state-of-the-art building and add capacities that we don’t currently have, which is where some of the bioterrorism part comes in.” “We currently don’t have the capacity to analyze many bioterror agents,” Reiskin added (Jim Myers, Washington Examiner, Feb. 8). Back to top

U.S. Chemical Destruction Programs Face Cuts in Administration’s Fiscal 2006 Budget Request The Bush administration’s proposed fiscal 2006 budget released yesterday includes $31 million for the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky and the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado, far short of the estimated $230 million needed to keep the program on track, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Feb. 7). A 2004 military study concluded that each facility would need about $115 million in the next fiscal year to keep destruction on course to meet a 2012 treaty deadline for the full elimination of the U.S. chemical arsenal, according to Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group. Chemical weapons disposal facilities have yet to be built at Blue Grass and Pueblo, and the U.S. Army is studying options that could include moving munitions from those sites to locations with operating incinerators. “It is irresponsible that the administration continues to spend billions of dollars in Iraq, but will not fulfill its obligation to the citizens of Kentucky by funding the weapons disposal program at the Blue Grass Army Depot,” Representative Ben Chandler (D-Ky.) said in a statement (Hilary Roxe, Associated Press/WKYT.com, Feb. 8). Back to top

Bolton Berates China Over Missile Transfers U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton yesterday criticized China for failing to crack down on companies accused of missile technology transfers, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Jan. 10). In the last year, the United States has penalized a number of Chinese companies for providing ballistic missile technology to Iran, Libya, North Korea and Pakistan, Bolton said during a Tokyo conference. “On numerous occasions we have expressed our concern about these entities to the Chinese government and have asked Beijing to subject exports by these serial proliferators to persistent and close scrutiny,” Bolton said. “Unfortunately,” he said, “we continue to see transfers by these serious proliferators of missile-related items to rogue states and outposts of tyranny such as Iran” (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 7). Back to top

White House Proposes Reduced Missile Defense Funding In its fiscal 2006 budget request submitted yesterday, the Bush administration called for cutting missile defense spending by $5 billion over the next six years, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Feb. 7). The White House has requested $7.8 billion for the Missile Defense Agency in fiscal 2006, down from the $8.8 billion the agency received this year. The White House budget request would also reduce the agency budget by $800 million a year for the subsequent five years, according to AFP. Among the projects most affected by the proposed budget cuts is the sea-based Kinetic Energy Interceptor, which is intended to intercept an enemy ballistic missile in its boost phase. The Missile Defense Agency proposed cutting the project’s funding by $800 million in fiscal 2006 and to reduce funding through at least 2008, a senior agency official said. The proposed budget reductions do not indicate a drop in support for missile defense by the Bush administration, the senior official said. “We have no indication of that, and we’ll just make do with the dollars that are provided,” the official said. “This program has been treated very well over the last several years by the president, the secretary of defense and certainly by the Congress and I see no reason why that support will diminish” (Jim Mannion, Agence France-Presse/TurkishPress.com, Feb. 7).   Back to top

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