Marking the end of a long dispute, the United States has announced it will sell F-16 fighter aircraft (above) to Pakistan (U.S. Air Force photo). United States to Sell F-16 Combat Aircraft to Pakistan Ending a 15-year ban, the Bush administration announced Friday that it would resume sales of F-16 combat aircraft to Pakistan, the Washington Post reported. The announcement followed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to India and Pakistan earlier this month (see GSN, March 15)...Full Story

Pakistan Nets U.S. Technology for Nuclear Arsenal Seeking to update its nuclear weapon arsenal, Pakistan may have illicitly purchased high-technology, U.S.-made equipment, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday (see GSN, Sept. 15, 2004)...Full Story

Some Iraqi Weapons Possibly Missing The final status of ballistic missiles, mustard shells and other components of Iraq’s former nonconventional weapons program remains unclear two years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, Feb. 28)...Full Story

	Monday, March 28, 2005

Commission Finds Persistent ‘Stovepiping’ at U.S. Intelligence Agencies, Hampering Reform U.S. intelligence community reforms have failed to improve some of the primary weaknesses they were intended to address, Newsweek reported today (see GSN, March 22). In particular, an effort to improve information sharing between U.S. agencies has fallen short, according to the magazine. Created two years ago, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center was to develop an office where officials from different intelligence services could share data. However, a White House commission has found that “stovepiping” persists, Newsweek reported. The center’s information was categorized by nine levels of classification and the officials staffing computer systems there were granted different security clearances, hindering information sharing. Homeland Security Department officials working at the center have complained that other agencies show them little respect. One official said that FBI and CIA agents sitting near him would at times leave the room to discuss information. Officials at those agencies have complained that the Homeland Security Department has leaked uncorroborated threat information (see GSN, Feb. 23). The commission, headed by former federal judge Laurence Silberman and former Virginia governor Charles Robb, is expected to deliver its report to President George W. Bush on Thursday (Isikoff/Klaidman, Newsweek/MSNBC.com, March 28). Back to top

Some Iraqi Weapons Possibly Missing The final status of ballistic missiles, mustard shells and other components of Iraq’s former nonconventional weapons program remains unclear two years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, Feb. 28). The United Nations oversaw the destruction of 75 Samoud 2 ballistic missiles in the 12 years following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. However, up to 36 of the remaining missiles could be missing following the withdrawal of U.N. weapons inspectors in 2003 and the subsequent invasion, according to the final report from the Iraq Survey Group. The U.S.-led weapons search team said it “may not be possible due to various factors” to determine what happened to the liquid-fueled missiles. As many as 34 solid-fueled Fatah missiles might also be unaccounted for, AP reported. “If they have been destroyed, somebody should know they’ve been destroyed or not. Have they gone somewhere?” chief U.N. weapons inspector Demetrius Perricos said. There is also insufficient documentation to prove that all seed stock from Iraq’s former bioweapons program — including anthrax and botulinum A bacteria — has been destroyed, AP reported. Questions remain about 550 115 mm mustard-gas shells that were not found while the United Nations supervised destruction of 13,000 of the munitions in the 1990s. Iraqis at the time said the shells had been consumed in a fire, while the Iraq Survey Group said it was told that the Special Republican Guard had the weapons and was preparing to declare them at the time of the invasion. Coalition forces during the invasion might not have been noticed chemical shells potentially stored in Iraqi ammunition dumps, Perricos said. “We don’t know if they have cleaned up, if they have visited, for example, the munitions depots,” he said of the Iraq Survey Group. There are other questions surrounding 90 Iraqi military sites that have been ransacked in the wake of the invasion, AP reported. Looters apparently broke into a bunker that had been under U.N. seal and held old artillery rockets containing sarin, according to the Iraq Survey Group. It is not known what might have been removed from the site. WMD-related equipment that was under U.N. seal is also believed to have been stolen from other sites (see GSN, Nov. 4; Charles Hanley, Associated Press/CBS News, March 26). Iraqi biological weapons scientist Rihab Rashid Taha chose not to tell U.N. weapons inspectors in early 2003 that a stockpile of apparently undeclared anthrax had been destroyed in 1991, AP reported (see GSN, Sept. 23, 2004). U.N. weapons inspectors were trying to determine whether Iraq had secretly produced and maintained 1,800 gallons of anthrax. U.S. leaders used the potential threat of Iraqi biological weapons in making their case for war. However, Taha told U.S. weapons inspectors following her capture that her staff dumped chemically deactivated anthrax near one of Hussein’s palaces in 1991. She never told U.N. officials for fear of being punished by the Iraqi leader, AP reported. “Whether those involved understood the significance and disastrous consequences of their actions is unclear,” the Iraq Survey Group report states. “These efforts demonstrate the problems that existed on both sides in establishing the truth” (Charles Hanley, Associated Press/The News Observer, March 28). Back to top       U.S. Prepares Scripts of Terrorist Attacks U.S. agencies prepared a dozen scripts on potential terrorist attacks to help prepare prevention and preparation strategies for potential strikes against the United States, the New York Times reported Saturday (see GSN, March 16). Antiterrorism and law enforcement specialists from the White House, Homeland Security Department, FBI and other federal agencies developed the plots, which detail the techniques officials fear could be used in terrorist attacks. Several story lines involve weapons of mass destruction. “There are almost limitless forms of terrorist attacks, but many of them will employ the same kinds of trade craft,” said James Carafano, a senior fellow for national security and homeland security at the Heritage Foundation. “Knowing the trade craft helps a great deal as it can allow you to stay one step ahead of the terrorist.” One script has terrorists posing as janitors using ventilation systems to distribute the nerve agent sarin through three high-rise office buildings. The attack kills 6,000 people, the Times reported. In another situation, terrorists find work at an industrial plant that uses liquid chlorine. They kill 17,500 people by blowing up a tank with a small explosive. “The insider is a big, big problem,” said counterterrorism expert Edward Badolato. The U.S. experts also studied strategies terrorists might use to obtain WMD materials and move them into the United States. Highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon is stolen from a former Soviet site in one plot and smuggled into the United States through Mexico. In another script, material for a radiological dirty bomb is carried to the United States by ship, evading detection through use of a special container (Eric Lipton, New York Times, March 26). Back to top

United States to Sell F-16 Combat Aircraft to Pakistan Ending a 15-year ban, the Bush administration announced Friday that it would resume sales of F-16 combat aircraft to Pakistan, the Washington Post reported. The announcement followed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to India and Pakistan earlier this month (see GSN, March 15). After Pakistani nuclear weapon advances, the first Bush administration in 1990 refused to certify that Pakistan was weapon-free, thereby bringing down a congressionally mandated curtain on arms sales to Islamabad. The move interrupted a sale of F-16s, leaving 28 of the nuclear-capable aircraft parked in the United States even though Pakistan had paid for them. Eventually, the Clinton administration agreed to repay much of the money in 1998, and nuclear proliferation sanctions against Pakistan were lifted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (see GSN, Oct. 17, 2001). Friday’s decision, which also included an agreement to allow India to purchase fighter aircraft, was a pragmatic move that reflected contemporary realities, said some analysts. “This gives us leverage over [Pakistani President Gen. Pervez] Musharraf,” said Stephen Cohen, a Brookings Institution expert on South Asia. Pakistan has “nuclear weapons, it’s in a critical part of the world, and we can’t afford to let it go down the drain,” he added. “In the post-9/11 world, everything has changed,” said Lanny Davis, the former counsel to President Bill Clinton who brokered the new deal. “The notion that we shouldn’t give Pakistan military parity with India … makes no sense anymore given everything Pakistan has done for us.” India criticized the U.S. decision. “We’re greatly disappointed to hear the news,” said embassy spokesman Gautum Bambawale in Washington. “This is probably going to have negative consequences for Indian security and the security environment.” Former Senator Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), who authored the original legislation banning weapon sales to Pakistan, also lambasted the move. “This is just a disastrous thing,” said Pressler, who now serves on the board of an Indian technology company. “It raises Pakistan, a country that doesn’t stand for anything we stand for, to the level of India.” “It gives Pakistan a delivery vehicle for its nuclear weapons,” he added (Peter Baker, Washington Post, March 26). Back to top       Pakistan Nets U.S. Technology for Nuclear Arsenal Seeking to update its nuclear weapon arsenal, Pakistan may have illicitly purchased high-technology, U.S.-made equipment, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday (see GSN, Sept. 15, 2004). U.S. investigators looking into the case, however, have been hindered by a lack of Pakistani cooperation and resistance within some U.S. agencies, which value Islamabad’s help in fighting terrorism, according the Times. “This is an age-old problem with Pakistan and the U.S. Other priorities always trump the United States from coming down hard on Pakistan’s nuclear proliferation. And it goes back 15 to 20 years,” said David Albright, director of the Institute for Science and International Security. At issue is evidence that Pakistan has acquired advanced technology in a new effort that began in early 2003. Among other types of equipment, investigators are examining the sale of oscilloscopes from an Oregon firm to Pakistan through a South African salesman. The United States has prosecuted former Israeli military officer Asher Karni for orchestrating the deal and has banned a Pakistani resident, Humayun Khan, from conducting business in the United States for six months, the Times reported (see GSN, Feb. 20, 2004). Khan denied any wrongdoing in an interview and said he had cooperated extensively with U.S. investigators. The equipment, he said, had been ordered by someone else, shipped to his office and intercepted along the way. “It’s very tragic,” he said. “You don’t know where these things are landing. They come through and they vanish” (Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times, March 26) Back to top       University of Florida to Convert Research Reactor The University of Florida has agreed to replace weapon-grade uranium fuel in its nuclear research reactor with lower-level fuel, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, Feb. 24). The U.S. Energy Department plans to fund the conversion as part of a program to secure materials that could be stolen and used to make nuclear weapons. The university reactor is fueled with less than 11 pounds of highly enriched uranium, less than the amount experts say is needed to make a weapon. The conversion is expected to take up to 18 months, university officials said in Gainesville, Fla. (Associated Press/WiredNews, March 26). Back to top       India Claims Nonproliferation High Ground India defended its nuclear nonproliferation record today while accusing the major nuclear powers of selectively meeting their obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (see GSN, March 1). “The infirmities of the nonproliferation order have imposed costs on India and have had an adverse impact on our security,” Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh told a nuclear proliferation conference in New Delhi. Without referring to India’s neighbor by name, Singh said that nuclear rival Pakistan and the illicit nuclear smuggling network once run from Islamabad have highlighted a “selective focus” on the part of the major powers who have sought to restrain India’s nuclear capabilities (see related GSN story, today). “The response of the international community over the years has been, from our point of view, inadequate at best or permissive at worst, leading to the present adverse situation,” Singh said. As the treaty’s five-year review conference approaches in May, Singh defended his nation’s decision to remain outside the pact and extolled India’s nonproliferation policies. “India may not be a party to the NPT, but our conduct has always been consistent with the key provisions of the treaty,” he said. “Our behavior is in sharp contrast to the poor record of some of the nuclear weapon states who have been active collaborators, or silent spectators, to continuing clandestine and illegal proliferation, including export of nuclear weapons or technology” (Uttara Choudhury, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, March 28) Back to top

Pentagon Revising Biological Threat Response The U.S. Defense Department is revising its policies on responding to potential biological threats, following this month’s anthrax scare at the Pentagon and a nearby agency mail facility in Northern Virginia, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, March 23). Local, state and federal officials met Friday for an “after-action” review of the March 14 incident. Pentagon representatives discussed the planned improvements at the session, the Post reported. The Defense Department will now require contract laboratories to submit test results for biological contamination within 24 hours. While tests on samples from a Pentagon mailroom were performed on March 10, military officials did not receive word of the possible anthrax contamination until March 14. Officials tentatively agreed at Friday’s meeting that tests should be performed only by laboratories certified under the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Laboratory Response Network, the Post reported (Spencer Hsu, Washington Post, March 27). Back to top

National Academy Urges Dry Storage for Spent Fuel A group of nuclear experts has criticized the U.S. nuclear power industry’s practice of storing highly radioactive spent reactor fuel rods in cooling pools that are vulnerable to terrorist attack, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, June 4, 2004). Such an attack could cause the pools to lose their water, possibly resulting in a radiation release, warned a classified report by the National Academy of Sciences. The report urges plant operators to move their spent fuel into more secure dry-storage casks as soon as the fuel can be safely moved, according to the Post. Fuel rods removed from power reactors require about five years to shed their greatest radioactivity, and pools located at the nation’s 103 nuclear commercial reactors dissipate the heat and contain the radiation emitted from the rods.  However, plant operators use the pools for longer-term storage as well, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that storage pools are just as safe as casks. Long-range plans call for moving all of the nation’s spent fuel to a permanent depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but that project has been delayed and is years from completion (see GSN, March 17). Until that facility is available, the nuclear industry has opted to keep its spent fuel in cooling ponds. “If the pool is safe and the casks are safe and they both meet the requirements, there is no justification for going through what is a huge amount of expense and worker exposure,” to move spent fuel to dry storage, said Steven Kraft, director of waste management at the Nuclear Energy Institute. Nonindustry experts do not concur that the pools are as safe as casks. They have also criticized the decision to keep the National Academy study secret. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received the study last summer. “I am concerned that the totality of the commission’s actions reflect a systemic effort to withhold important information from … the public, rather than a genuine effort to be protective of national security,” said U.S. Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) in a March 21 letter to the commission (Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post, March 28). Back to top       London Likely Target for Dirty Bomb, Expert Says London is believed to be a possible target for a radiological “dirty bomb” attack before the British general election this year, a U.S. security expert said in an article Saturday in The Scotsman (see GSN, Feb. 16). The United Kingdom and United States remain at serious risk of terrorist strikes involving weapons of mass destruction, including biological or chemical agents, U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence officials said. “The biggest nightmare is the destruction of a major city, which is within the realms of possibility of happening soon,” a State Department counterterrorism official said. “We’re sitting ducks,” another official said (Gethin Chamberlain, The Scotsman, March 26).           Back to top

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