U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (shown yesterday) said today that the United States will offer economic incentives to try to persuade Iran to end its uranium enrichment efforts (AFP photo/Juan Barreto). U.S. Agrees to Iran Incentives The United States will join the European Union in offering Iran economic incentives to abandon its uranium enrichment program, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today (see GSN, March 10). “We will make clear that we will lift our objections to an Iranian application to the [World Trade Organization] and that we are prepared to lift an objection to the licensing of spare parts for Iranian commercial aircraft,” Rice told Reuters in a Washington interview. ..Full Story

Direct U.S. Talks With North Korea Needed Within Six-Party Negotiations, KEDO Director Says By Marina Malenic Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. negotiators should adopt a less rigid stance toward resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis by conducting bilateral negotiations within the framework of currently stalled multilateral talks, a key international official said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 24)...Full Story

Senate Panel Ends Study of Iraqi WMD Intelligence The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has completed its investigation into whether Bush administration officials mischaracterized intelligence on Iraq’s alleged prewar WMD efforts, committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 28)...Full Story

	Friday, March 11, 2005

Al-Qaeda Members Seek to Enter U.S. Illegally Through Canada and Mexico, Rice Says Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have been attempting to enter the United States through Mexico and Canada, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday in Mexico City, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 5, 2004). “Indeed we have from time to time had reports about al-Qaeda trying to use our southern border but also trying to use our northern border,” said Rice. “There is no secret that al-Qaeda will try to get into this country and into other countries by any means they possibly can.” Progress has been made in securing the U.S. border since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but officials remain obligated to alert U.S. citizens of security concerns, Rice said (Liz Sidoti, Associated Press/Washington Times, March 11). Back to top

Senate Panel Ends Study of Iraqi WMD Intelligence The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has completed its investigation into whether Bush administration officials mischaracterized intelligence on Iraq’s alleged prewar WMD efforts, committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 28). Roberts said administration officials had accurately described what had turned out to be incorrect information, according to the Financial Times. “The bottom line was they believed the intelligence, and intelligence was wrong,” he said. Roberts also said that it “wouldn’t achieve any possible progress” to have officials testify before the intelligence committee on their prewar statements concerning alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (Edward Allen, Financial Times, March 10). Back to top

U.S. Agrees to Iran Incentives The United States will join the European Union in offering Iran economic incentives to abandon its uranium enrichment program, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today (see GSN, March 10). “We will make clear that we will lift our objections to an Iranian application to the [World Trade Organization] and that we are prepared to lift an objection to the licensing of spare parts for Iranian commercial aircraft,” Rice told Reuters in a Washington interview. “The decision that [U.S. President George W. Bush] has taken is that the United States will make an effort to actively support the EU3 negotiations with the Iranians,” Rice added, referring to negotiations with Iran led by France, Germany and the United Kingdom (Reuters, March 11). The three nations, meanwhile, told EU president Luxembourg today in a letter that they would support referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council if Tehran ends it current suspension of uranium enrichment activities or breaks other nuclear obligations, Reuters reported. The statement was coordinated with Washington’s announcement backing the EU on incentives for Iran, diplomats said. “Progress is not as fast as we would wish” in negotiations that began in December, the letter says. It adds, however, that if Iran maintains a freeze on uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities and cooperates with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the issue could be resolved through diplomacy. “If on the other hand, despite our efforts Iran does not do so, then as has been implicit in the agreements reached with Iran and well understood by all concerned, we shall have no choice but to support referring Iran’s nuclear program to the U.N. Security Council,” the letter says. The Bush administration has pushed to refer the matter to the council, but has so far found little support among other members of the IAEA’s Board of Governors. The letter did not mention possible sanctions on Iran, even though Washington had pushed for such a reference, diplomats said (Reuters, March 11). Meanwhile, a Russian chemical plant in Siberia is reportedly ready to ship nuclear fuel for the nuclear power reactor Moscow is constructing in Iran, according to Agence France-Presse.  “The fuel has been manufactured and is stored at the plant, to be delivered at demand,” said factory chairman Vladimir Razin (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, March 11). Back to top       Direct U.S. Talks With North Korea Needed Within Six-Party Negotiations, KEDO Director Says By Marina Malenic Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. negotiators should adopt a less rigid stance toward resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis by conducting bilateral negotiations within the framework of currently stalled multilateral talks, a key international official said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 24). “The six-party mechanism will need to find some greater flexibility than it now has, and I assume that greater flexibility will include [a] more vigorous U.S. bilateral role within the six-party talks — not separate, but within,” said Charles Kartman, executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization. He spoke at a U.S. Institute of Peace panel discussion here yesterday. KEDO was formed in 1994 with a mission to build two light-water nuclear power reactors in North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang ending all other nuclear activities. Kartman said the multilateral negotiations on Pyongyang’s nuclear program — which include China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States and have been stalled since a third round was conducted in June — were likely to resume soon. “There is a serious proposal on the table by the U.S.,” Kartman said. During the June session, the Bush administration presented a proposal that called for dismantling all North Korean nuclear-related facilities and materials, removing all nuclear weapons and weapons components from North Korean territory and long-term monitoring through inspections. In exchange, U.S. officials offered Pyongyang multilateral security guarantees, non-nuclear energy, heavy fuel oil and the lifting of economic sanctions.   A former KEDO executive director praised the organization’s efforts to implement the 1994 deal, but said its mission has been minimized since the United States and North Korea have stepped back from the agreement. “KEDO has been a success. It has done everything that was asked of it,” said Stephen Bosworth, who was KEDO’s first leader and later served as U.S. ambassador to South Korea. “The problem that KEDO has now is that the governments cannot agree on what they want it to do,” he added. Bosworth added that under the Agreed Framework that established KEDO, North Korea was primarily expected to give up its indigenous nuclear program.   Pyongyang, however, placed greater emphasis on normalization of relations with member countries. “We [the United States, South Korea and Japan] had a very different idea of what the Agreed Framework was, and the North Koreans had another,” he said. “We thought it was a nuclear-for-nuclear deal,” he said. “They thought it was a political deal.” South Korean Ambassador to the U.N. Choi Young-jin, a third member of yesterday’s panel, said that post-Sept. 11 concerns about terrorists acquiring nuclear weapons made ambiguity about Pyongyang’s nuclear program unacceptable to the United States, South Korea and Japan. “Beijing thinks we can preserve nuclear ambiguity … and Washington says, ‘no way,’” said Choi. Choi also said the North Korean leadership was in a precarious position, because the kind of greater openness needed for economic development would likely be a direct threat to the survival of the regime. He added, however, that without such development, the regime would be unable to sustain its “military first” policy indefinitely. “Time is not on North Korea’s side,” he said. “They cannot eat nuclear weapons.” Back to top       Iranian Centrifuges Show Weapon Intent, Group Says Pakistan’s acknowledgement that former top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan provided Iran with enrichment centrifuges demonstrates Tehran’s intent to develop nuclear weapons, an Iranian opposition group said yesterday (see GSN, March 10). “Today’s acknowledgement by the government of Pakistan once again reveals the clerical regime’s pattern of lies and deception to the world community and as the Iranian resistance had reiterated earlier, leaves no doubt that the mullahs are in pursuit of nuclear weapons,” said the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The group called for Iran to be “immediately” reported to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, saying that any delay would only help Tehran “further down the road to acquire the A-bomb” (Agence France-Presse /SpaceWar.com, March 10). Meanwhile, Pakistani opposition lawmakers today criticized the government’s admissions on Khan, saying they were only meant to gain U.S. support, according to Agence France-Presse. “Once again Pakistani leadership is playing in the hand of the United States to serve its sinister motives against Iran,” said opposition lawmaker Liaquat Baloch. “This is part of a conspiracy to defame national heroes and our scientists” (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, March 11) Back to top       Typo Sparks Concerns Over U.S. Nuclear Tests in Sudan A typing error in a U.S. House of Representatives committee report set off concerns in Sudan that the United States had conducted nuclear weapon tests in the African country, BBC News reported today (see GSN, June 15, 2004). The report said that nuclear tests had been conducted in Sudan between 1962 and 1970. What it should have said, however, was that testing was conducted at the Sedan site at the Nevada Test Site, BBC News reported. Sudanese Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismali said he was pleased to learn of the error when he raised the issue with U.S. officials in Khartoum, but added that an investigation was still being conducted. “Our investigations, which are already under way, will continue until we get to the bottom of this matter,” Ismali said (BBC News, March 11). Back to top

U.K. Buys Wearable Chemical Detectors for Troops The United Kingdom has awarded a $38.5 million contract to a domestic supplier of wearable chemical weapons detection technology for its armed forces, Business Weekly reported (see GSN, Feb. 28). Deliveries of the Lightweight Chemical Agent Detector are expected to begin immediately. The system weighs about a pound and provides immediate visual and audio warnings when it detects “attack levels” of chemical warfare agents, according to Business Weekly. The new system, along with the Man-portable Chemical Agent Detector, forms a two-tier system for real-time battlefield detection and replaces the Nerve Agent Immobilized-enzyme Alarm and Detector, which was expensive to operate and needed to be replenished after every use, according to Business Weekly (Business Weekly, March 11). Back to top

China to Increase Missile Force Targeting Taiwan, Taiwanese Defense Minister Says China is expected to have at least 800 ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan by next year, Taiwanese defense minister Lee Jye said Wednesday (see GSN, June 8, 2004). Lee told Taiwanese lawmakers that China currently has about 700 missiles deployed opposite the island, according to Agence France-Presse. Lee’s report comes as China recently outlined new legislation which called for the possible use of force against Taiwan if all other measures failed to result in unification, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse/Daily Times, March 11). Back to top

Yucca Mountain Head Offers Optimism Over Project By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHIGTON — The leader of the Yucca Mountain project yesterday presented senators with an optimistic evaluation of the state of the U.S. nuclear waste repository project (see GSN, Jan. 27). The long-running Nevada project is intended to provide permanent, consolidated storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste, including spent fuel from the nation’s nuclear power reactors. Testifying before the Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee, Theodore Garrish played down criticisms of the project over recent setbacks. The program was forced last year to delay a self-imposed deadline for submitting a license application, and an appellate court ruled in a suit brought by Nevada that the department would have to increase radiation protection at the site (see GSN, July 15, 2004). “There has been a lot of comment about this program being unable to move forward,” said Garrish, who is deputy director of the Energy Department’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. “On the contrary, the program is as well situated as it has ever been. Indeed, we are in excellent shape for the future, and we are moving ahead deliberately, step-by-step, toward development of a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain.” The department now says it plans to submit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission application by the end of this year for the project, which is scheduled to begin operating in 2010. Among reasons for his optimism, Garrish cited lawsuits upholding the legality of the site’s use, the existence of a draft license application that is “in the process of refinement,” the beginning “in earnest” of activity related to transporting waste to the site and the inclusion by President George W. Bush’s administration in its fiscal 2006 budget proposal of “full funding” for planned Yucca Mountain activities. The budget request, which was the reason for yesterday’s hearing, includes $651 million for the waste repository. Garrish called fiscal 2006 a “crucial period” for the effort to obtain authorization to build the facility, since much of the work planned for that year “is required to advance the repository design and facilitate construction and operation and to support the NRC’s review and the department’s defense of the license application.” He said fiscal 2006 funding would also support work toward a 300-mile rail line and development of transportation casks and cars. In other testimony before the subcommittee, the Energy Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental management, Paul Golan, outlined the administration’s $6.5 billion budget request for radioactive cleanup activities, which includes more than $5 billion for speeding cleanup at nuclear defense sites. The cleanup chief said the request reflects a 7.8 percent cut from fiscal 2005, which he said reflects recent cost-cutting through risk management, rather than a reduction in work activities. “We committed that if we could eliminate urgent risks and associated fixed costs, then, starting in FY 2006, we would request a declining level of funding to complete our work,” Golan said. “The investments of 2003 through 2005 have allowed us to lower the infrastructure costs, complete work, reduce high-cost security areas and pull work forward. Thus, we have reduced fixed costs, allowing a greater proportion of our funds to go to actual cleanup, a trend we will continue to improve upon.” Listing accomplishments in fiscal 2004, Golan said the department finished “packaging all excess plutonium into a safe long-term storage configuration,” in part by shortening timelines for the process at the Savannah River and Hanford sites, and managed to “retrieve spent fuel from all aging water-filled pools and plac[e] it into dry storage or modern, more robust storage pools.” Since the Environmental Management program’s “nuclear materials stabilization mission is by and large completed,” he said, “the EM program is evolving into more a radiological and industrial facilities deconstruction program.” Golan’s prepared statement included a highly detailed, site-by-site description of his office’s plans under the fiscal 2006 budget for cleanup activities at 14 separate facilities.   Back to top

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