Washington Mayor Anthony Williams (shown in 2004) complained yesterday of poor communication by the U.S. Defense Department during this week’s anthrax scare (AFP photo/Cesar Rangel). Summit Requested After Anthrax Scare Near Washington The anthrax scares this week at two U.S. Defense Department mail facilities in Northern Virginia have highlighted continuing problems in coordinating the response to a WMD event, officials said (see GSN, March 16). “We’ve spent a lot of time and money to improve regional coordination and preparedness,” said David Marin, deputy staff director for U.S. Representative Tom Davis (R-Va.). “But this week’s scare suggests we’re not ready for prime time yet.”..Full Story

Yucca Mountain Documents Appear Falsified, DOE Says Plans for a nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada suffered a potential setback yesterday when the U.S. Energy Department reported that documents for the facility might have been falsified, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 11)...Full Story

Iran Offers “Objective Guarantees” on Nuclear Program, But No End to Uranium Enrichment Iran will not give up its uranium enrichment program but is willing to provide the European Union with “objective guarantees” that the program is peaceful, Iranian President Mohamed Khatami said yesterday (see GSN, March 15)...Full Story

	Thursday, March 17, 2005

Chertoff Orders Review of DHS The U.S. Homeland Security Department will undergo a comprehensive review that could lead to significant changes for the agency less than three years after it was created, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, March 3). Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he is undertaking “a comprehensive review of our entire organization, the way it’s structured … and its policies.” “Old categories, old jurisdictions and old turf will not define our objectives,” Chertoff said in a speech at George Washington University. “Bureaucratic structures and categories exist to serve our mission, and not to drive it.” Chertoff did not say what changes could result from the review for the department and its 180,000 employees. Officials told the Post that there is consideration of merging the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agencies. The review is expected to take up to 90 days, the Post reported (John Mintz, Washington Post, March 17). Back to top

U.S. May Open Embassy in Libya This Year The United States may open an embassy in Tripoli this year and could drop Libya from its list of terrorism sponsors as part of an effort to normalize relations after Libya’s 2003 decision to abandon its WMD efforts, a senior U.S. official said yesterday (see GSN, March 14). “Although it will take hard work to resolve remaining issues, we hope Libya’s actions will over time merit removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism,” interim Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns told the House International Relations Committee. “As our relationship matures, it may be possible later this year to reopen a full-fledged U.S. embassy in Tripoli.” He added, however, that Washington remains concerned over allegations that Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi ordered a 2003 assassination attempt on the leader of Saudi Arabia. “We have significant concerns on other issues ... One of them does involve allegations of a Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah about which many troubling questions remain,” Burns said. Some members of Congress remain opposed to removing Libya from the terrorism sponsors list because of past actions such as the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the 1986 bombing of the La Belle disco in West Berlin that killed two U.S. soldiers. “In our race to reward the Libyans for the good behavior on the weapons front ... (we) must not forget the victims of Libya’s past terrorist aggression,” said committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.). The senior Democrat on the committee, however, said relations with Libya should be renewed. “It seems to me ... that it is time now to turn the page,” said Tom Lantos (Calif.) (Arshad Mohammed, Reuters, March 16). Back to top

Iran Offers “Objective Guarantees” on Nuclear Program, But No End to Uranium Enrichment Iran will not give up its uranium enrichment program but is willing to provide the European Union with “objective guarantees” that the program is peaceful, Iranian President Mohamed Khatami said yesterday (see GSN, March 15). “What is completely unacceptable to us is the cessation of these activities,” said Khatami, according to the New York Times. “We have very specific proposals to provide these objective guarantees [France, Germany and the United Kingdom] have demanded from us.” Asked whether the United States could provide any incentives to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear work, Khatami said only, “No” (Jad Mouawad, New York Times, March 17). Iranian negotiators have officially told European negotiators that Tehran will not permanently abandon its uranium enrichment program, Iranian nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani said yesterday, Agence France-Presse reported. “Iran’s negotiating team has openly told Europeans Iran will not accept a permanent suspension of uranium enrichment and this is Iran’s definitive and official position,” Rohani said. Iranian negotiators and their European counterparts are scheduled to conduct a high-level steering committee meeting Wednesday, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, March 16). In Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush said there was no deadline on the European negotiations with Iran, Reuters reported. “There’s a certain patience required in order to achieve a diplomatic objective,” Bush said. “And our diplomatic objective is to continue working with our friends to make it clear to Iran we speak with a single voice,” he added (Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, March 16). Back to top       No Bilateral U.S. Talks With North Korea, Rice Says The United States remains opposed to conducting bilateral talks with North Korea on its nuclear program, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday (see GSN, March 16). “The six-party framework is the best and most reliable way to deal with the North Korean program, because it has all of the important neighbors at the table,” she said, according to the Korea Times (Ryu Jin, Korea Times, March 17). Meanwhile, U.S., Chinese, Japanese and South Korean envoys met in Shanghai today to discuss resuming six-party talks, the Associated Press reported. “We believe this meeting will nurture new opinions and approaches for promoting the resumption of the six-party talks,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. U.S. envoy Joseph DeTrani attended the conference, according to AP (Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 17). Back to top

Summit Requested After Anthrax Scare Near Washington The anthrax scares this week at two U.S. Defense Department mail facilities in Northern Virginia have highlighted continuing problems in coordinating the response to a WMD event, officials said (see GSN, March 16). “We’ve spent a lot of time and money to improve regional coordination and preparedness,” said David Marin, deputy staff director for U.S. Representative Tom Davis (R-Va.). “But this week’s scare suggests we’re not ready for prime time yet.” Lawmakers and state and local officials in the Washington, D.C. area have complained that the Defense Department did not adequately inform them Monday after tests indicated a mail room at the Pentagon had been contaminated by anthrax, the Washington Post reported. Fairfax County emergency officials said they were not aware of the Pentagon situation even as they responded several hours later to an alarm indicating a biological substance was present at a Defense Department mailroom in their jurisdiction. Both events now appear to have been false alarms, according to the Post. “This may well be forgiven given the way the testing is coming out, but it certainly can’t be excused,” Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams said. “Not to have upfront contacts with the Department of Defense is really inexcusable.” Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said several fire departments “in the immediate vicinity of the Pentagon” were informed of the investigation at the Defense Department headquarters. “I cannot say if the word ‘anthrax’ was used,” he said. “When you have something initially, you try to be as quick as possible. … We weren’t going to go into a whole dissertation.” Davis is calling for a “regional response summit” to address tensions that arose in the wake of the response. Federal, state and local officials will go over in detail the times at which the Pentagon contacted local agencies and which agencies received the news, the Post reported (Lisa Rein, Washington Post, March 17). Emergency responders also had troubles coordinating their response this week because the Defense Department uses different detection and response systems than those of other federal agencies, the Post reported. Local hazardous materials teams had trouble with sensor equipment that was unlike technology used by the Postal Service and Homeland Security Department, said Virginia Health Commissioner Robert Stroube. Scientists found it difficult to interpret the report from the Pentagon’s contract laboratory as that facility is not on the CDC network of bioterror-response laboratories, the Post reported (Spencer Hsu, Washington Post, March 17). The FBI has initiated a noncriminal investigation to determine why tests at the contract laboratory indicated the Pentagon mailroom had been contaminated by anthrax and on what caused triggered the sensor at the Fairfax County site, the Associated Press reported. Officials theorize that a sample from the Pentagon was inadvertently contaminated while being tested at Commonwealth Biotechnology Inc. in Richmond, Va. The firm’s chief operating officer, Robert Harris, said he was not yet ready to accept that theory. “The issue of contamination is questionable,” he said. It remains “a possibility” that the original sample had been positive for anthrax, Harris said (Laura Meckler, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 17). Back to top

Malaysia to Consider Chemical Weapons Prohibition Malaysia’s parliament is expected to consider a bill prohibiting the manufacture or possession of chemical weapons in its upcoming session, which begins Monday (see GSN, Dec. 7, 2004). The proposed law is meant to help the country fulfill its nonproliferation obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Star reported today (Dalilah Ibrahim, The Star, March 17). Back to top

NATO to Deploy Missile Defense for Troop Protection NATO countries have decided after 10 years of discussions to go ahead with a new single theater missile defense system to protect deployed troops, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, March 16, 2004). “As a number of foreign nations continue working on ballistic missile programs, as well as developing chemical, nuclear and biological warheads for those missiles, the need for effective defenses has increased,” NATO said in a statement yesterday. The decision to launch the program, which is expected to be ready by 2010, was made Friday, according to AFP. “It will combine (existing) national systems (such as the U.S.-made Patriot missile),” a NATO official said (Agence France-Presse, March 16). Back to top

Yucca Mountain Documents Appear Falsified, DOE Says Plans for a nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada suffered a potential setback yesterday when the U.S. Energy Department reported that documents for the facility might have been falsified, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 11). E-mails sent by a U.S. Geological Survey staffer between May 1998 and March 2000 “indicated that he had fabricated documentation of his work,” the agency said yesterday in a statement. The staffer was preparing computer models on water infiltration and climate at Yucca Mountain, AP reported. Both matters would be crucial in estimating how radiation from waste stored at the site might spread, Nevada officials said. It appears that a number of scientists were involved in the misrepresentation, AP reported. Details on specific numbers of personnel or what jobs they held were not released. U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said his department is working to determine exactly what information was falsified and how that might affect the scientific basis for the storage site. “If in the course of that review any work is found to be deficient, it will be replaced or supplemented with analysis and documentation that meets appropriate quality assurance standards,” Bodman said in the statement. This new development could delay or even undo the government’s efforts to obtain a federal license for Yucca Mountain, AP reported. Yucca program chief Theodore Garrish told a House Appropriations subcommittee yesterday that the Energy Department is “100 percent committed” to the project. “I assure you we will not proceed until we have rectified these problems,” he said. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement that the revelation “proves once again that DOE must cheat and lie to make Yucca Mountain look safe.” The falsification “is not a major impediment and can be corrected very easily,” said House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson (R-Ohio). “Some people just don’t want to do their job right, so they’ll slip it through rather than doing their job. We don’t have any evidence that somebody directed anybody to do this” (H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 17).     Back to top

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