North Korea has reportedly shut down its reactor at Yongbyon, feeding speculation that Pyongyang might separate weapon-usable plutonium from the reactor’s spent fuel (AFP photo). North Korea Nuclear Reactor Shut Down, Seoul Says North Korea has shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, possibly indicating that Pyongyang plans to collect more plutonium for nuclear weapons from the reactor’s spent fuel, South Korea said today (see GSN, April 15). “We have to wait and see the intentions and the measures North Korea takes in the future,” said Kim Sook, director general of North American affairs at South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. ..Full Story

Bolton Kept News from Powell, Rice, Officials Say U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton on numerous occasions withheld information on Iran’s nuclear program and other topics from his superiors at the department, the Washington Post reported today ahead of an expected vote this week on Bolton’s nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (see GSN, April 15)...Full Story

EU Incentives Not Enough for Nuclear Deal, Iran Says An Iranian official said the European Union has not offered enough incentives to achieve an agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday (see GSN, April 15)...Full Story

	Monday, April 18, 2005

Bolton Kept News from Powell, Rice, Officials Say U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton on numerous occasions withheld information on Iran’s nuclear program and other topics from his superiors at the department, the Washington Post reported today ahead of an expected vote this week on Bolton’s nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (see GSN, April 15). Officials noted 12 occasions in which Bolton failed to submit information to former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage. Memos were sometimes delayed by weeks as officials sought other avenues to reach the agency heads, and other times the information was never passed on, the Post reported. One withheld memo from October 2003 reportedly described growing international opposition to U.S. efforts to refer Iran’s nuclear program to the U.N. Security Council for investigation. “When Armitage’s staff asked for information about what other countries were thinking, Bolton said that information couldn’t be collected,” one official said. Bolton at least once has also kept information from new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Post reported. Rice made her first trip to Europe without being told about resistance to U.S. efforts to prevent Mohammed ElBaradei from serving a third term as chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Bolton has been leading the effort to unseat ElBaradei. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to vote tomorrow on sending Bolton’s nomination to the full Senate for consideration, the Post reported.  Committee Republicans said they continue to support Bolton, but one noted the stream of allegations of bad behavior by the nominee. “If there’s nothing more that comes out, I will vote for Bolton,” said Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.). However, Hagel said he was “troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming about his style, his method of operation” (Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, April 18). A Texas businesswoman has charged that Bolton verbally abused her in 1994 in Moscow while he was representing a U.S. Agency for International Development subcontractor and she worked for the subcontractor’s supervising firm, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. “He threw some things in the first meeting,” Melody Townsel wrote in a letter to the Foreign Relations Committee.    “He yelled and got really abusive.” Bolton followed Townsel back to her hotel room, she said. “He proceeded to pound on my hotel door and thrust things under the door.” Townsel said she “learned firsthand the lengths Mr. Bolton will go to accomplish any goals he sets for himself. Truth flew out the window.  Decency flew out the window. In his bid to smear me and promote the interests of his client, he went straight for the low road and stayed there.” Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.) released Townsel’s letter. The businesswoman acknowledged in an interview being a liberal Democrat who opposed the re-election of President George W. Bush, the Times reported. A State Department official said the administration had reviewed Townsel’s claims and believed them to be baseless. “This stuff just didn’t happen, as far as we know,” the official said (Efron/Serrano, Los Angeles Times, April 17). A former national intelligence officer for Latin America told committee staffers that Bolton and former Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Otto Reich attempted to have him removed from his job over disagreements over intelligence on Cuba’s weapons programs, the New York Times reported. Bolton testified before the committee that he sought to have Fulton Armstrong reassigned because he had lost confidence in the officer’s work. Reich told the Times that Armstrong too often gave “the benefit of the doubt” on accusations of human rights and security problems against leftist leaders such as Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, according to the Times. “His political views colored his intelligence judgment, and many of my colleagues … stopped reading his stuff,” Reich said (Steven Weisman, New York Times, April 16). Back to top       Export Controls Needed on WMD Materials, Downer Says Export controls are a crucial component in the effort to block terrorists from obtaining and using chemical and biological weapons, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today (see GSN, March 31). “Chemical and biological weapons present a real and deadly threat,” Downer said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse. “Terrorists, including in our region, are intent on developing CBW capabilities, while proliferators are using increasingly sophisticated means to source the ingredients for weapons of mass destruction.” Downer spoke at the opening of this week’s meeting of the Australia Group, an informal organization of 38 nations and the European Commission that works to block proliferation of chemical and biological weapons. Coordination by member states on export controls has reduced the chances for terrorists to obtain chemical or biological weapons parts, Downer said, according to AFP. However, telecommunications improvements and opportunities for international travel sustain the ability to pass on weapon-related information, he said. “Fresh thinking is required to ensure that adequate measures are in place to prevent the unauthorized transfer of sensitive technologies and know-how,” Downer said. The Australia Group meeting will continue through Thursday (Agence France-Presse, April 18). Back to top

North Korea Nuclear Reactor Shut Down, Seoul Says North Korea has shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, possibly indicating that Pyongyang plans to collect more plutonium for nuclear weapons from the reactor’s spent fuel, South Korea said today (see GSN, April 15). “We have to wait and see the intentions and the measures North Korea takes in the future,” said Kim Sook, director general of North American affairs at South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. U.S. scholar Selig Harrison, who recently visited North Korea, said earlier this month that North Korean officials told him of preparations to unload fuel rods from Yongbyon over the next two months, the Associated Press reported (Soo-Jeong Lee, Associated Press/Guardian, April 18). The reactor shutdown could indicate that Pyongyang is conducting maintenance on the facility or attempting a diplomatic bluff, the New York Times reported today. “You can’t reach any definitive determination yet,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security. If North Korea is harvesting plutonium for weapons, however, Albright said it could obtain enough material for at least two bombs. “It is still too murky to tell exactly what the North Koreans are doing,” said one senior Bush administration official familiar with the intelligence. Another senior official said the Bush administration would not alter its strategy for dealing with North Korea even if Pyongyang was extracting and weaponizing plutonium. “We still think a peaceful solution is possible,” he said. He added, however, that if North Korea continues to refuse disarmament talks “or takes additional provocative action, we will need to consult with our four other negotiating parties to consider other measures.” Such measures could include referring North Korea to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions, the official added (David Sanger, New York Times, April 18). Back to top       EU Incentives Not Enough for Nuclear Deal, Iran Says An Iranian official said the European Union has not offered enough incentives to achieve an agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday (see GSN, April 15). “We don’t have much time for reaching a solution, time is limited and we will halt (negotiations) as soon as we feel we are not making tangible progress,” said senior negotiator Sirus Naseri, ahead of a round of negotiations scheduled to begin tomorrow. He added, however, that “the negotiations are on the right track ... leading to a wise, logical and balanced solution satisfactory to both sides” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 16). The European Union is “rock-solid” in its resolve that Iran not be allowed to resume uranium enrichment, European diplomats told AFP. Even while France, Germany and the United Kingdom study an Iranian proposal that would allow some enrichment, the EU position remains that “cessation means cessation,” said one European diplomat. The Europeans are considering the Iranian proposal to keep the talks from breaking down, said Gary Samore, a nonproliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “I think the European strategy is to keep the talks going through Iranian elections” in June, when a new Iranian president would be more likely to make a deal, he said (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 15). Tehran said yesterday that Washington should remain a “spectator” in the Iran-EU talks, AFP reported. “For the moment, it’s best for the Americans to follow the process from the grandstand as spectators, and leave negotiators to do their job,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi (Agence France-Presse/IranMania.com, April 17). Back to top       IAEA Wants to Return to Iraq The International Atomic Energy Agency wants to send inspectors back to Iraq to investigate the “significant dismantling” of 37 sites that had been monitored for nuclear work before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the Associated Press reported Friday (see GSN, April 15). The agency needs people on the ground in Iraq to “draw conclusions” on equipment that is missing from the sites and indications that digging has occurred at a location that contained contaminated rubble from Baghdad’s former nuclear program, IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei stated in a letter to the U.N. Security Council. Apart from two isolated instances, U.N. weapons inspectors have not been allowed into Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. However, satellite imagery has shown “significant dismantling and removal activities” at 37 nuclear-related sites, ElBaradei said in his letter (Edith Lederer, Associated Press, April 15). Meanwhile, weapons manufacturing equipment stolen after the invasion has begun to appear in Iraqi markets and near its borders, the New York Times reported yesterday. The confiscation at a border crossing of much of the equipment from an artillery shell factory leads some military specialists to believe that dual-use equipment from Iraq’s former WMD programs could have made it out of the country. “This is just the stuff that got caught,” said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org. “The more interesting stuff would have gone out first” (James Glanz, New York Times, April 17). Back to top       Vanunu Denied Asylum in Norway Norway will not grant asylum to Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, the Associated Press reported Friday (see GSN, April 13). The Norwegian government confirmed Friday that it had rejected Vanunu’s application in November. “We have instructed (the immigration directorate), based on foreign policy consideration, that he must get a rejection. No one gets asylum in Norway when they have not applied in Norway,” said Erna Solberg, minister of local government and regional development. “We do not intend to invite Vanunu by giving him political asylum as an extraordinary measure.” Vanunu has applied for asylum from several nations. Sweden last year rejected his application, also stating that Geneva Conventions rules require asylum seekers to file the request in the country to which they seek to move, AP reported. Vanunu has not been allowed to leave Israel since being released last year after serving an 18-year prison sentence. “I am very sorry that they did not come to my side to work for my freedom and release from here, and at the same time as it (the application) has been declined, they should speak very clearly and loud against the government restrictions taking from me my human rights,” Vanunu said of the Norwegian decision (Doug Mellgren, Associated Press/PhillyBurbs.com, April 15). Israeli police plan to maintain limits on Vanunu’s travels and to whom he is allowed to speak, the London Guardian reported Saturday. Restrictions on Vanunu were set to expire one year after his release, which comes this week. However, he has already been charged with violating the terms of his release by speaking to foreign reporters and trying to attend mass in Bethlehem. Police intend to extend the restrictions, according to the Guardian. “It is as if they are trying to destroy him. It is the worst form of oppressive and obsessive behavior,” said Ernest Rodker of the Campaign to Free Vanunu and for a Nuclear-Free Middle East (Duncan Campbell, The Guardian, April 16). Back to top

London Airport Train Was Reportedly Ricin Target A foiled ricin plot involving an Algerian suspected of having links to al-Qaeda targeted a train service to London’s Heathrow airport, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, April 14). “This was going to be our Sept. 11 — our Madrid,” a senior London police official told the Sunday Telegraph. Kamel Bourgass, who was sentenced last week to 17 years in prison, and his collaborators planned to place the poison on handrails and in Heathrow Express train bathrooms, AFP reported. “It would have caused chaos and panic in London’s public transport system,” a government source told the Telegraph. “Even if it did not kill anyone — which it could well have done — it would have achieved its purpose,” the source said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 17). Meanwhile, the British government apologized to 10 people questioned in connection with the ricin plot, AFP reported Saturday. The government announced it had made a “clerical error” when it used antiterrorism measures because it falsely alleged that the individuals “belonged to and have provided support for a network of north African extremists directly involved in terrorist planning in the U.K., including the use of toxic chemicals,” the Guardian reported (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 16). Back to top       U.S., Canada, U.K. to Develop Plague Vaccine The United States will work with Canada and the United Kingdom to produce a vaccine that would protect humans against the use of the plague as a weapon of bioterror, the U.S. Defense Department announced Friday (see GSN, Jan. 12). The three nations agreed in 2000 to share relevant information on plague vaccine research. The United Kingdom and United States each have vaccine candidates being considered for use in the program. Both are set to be tested this year, the press release states. The Defense Department is expected to select one vaccine for continued development by the end of 2005 (Defense Department release, April 15). Back to top       Terrorists Could Spread Bird Flu, Expert Says Terrorists could kill millions of people by genetically engineering and releasing a new strain of deadly bird flu communicable between humans, the Washington Times reported yesterday (see GSN, March 10). “It definitely could be in the millions ... the imminence of a pandemic is there, whether (the flu virus) is a naturally evolved strain or a man-made strain,” said Yuping Deng, immunologist and associate professor of internal medicine at the Eastern Virginia Medical School. “The technology of manufacturing a new flu strain is there. I would hope that would not happen, but we need to get prepared,” she said. Between 7 million and 100 million people could die in a global bird flu pandemic if human-to-human transmission occurred, the World Health Organization has warned (Joyce Howard Price, Washington Times, April 17). Back to top       Malaysia to Manufacture “Halal” Vaccines Malaysia plans to begin manufacturing vaccines that meet Islamic dietary guidelines within two to three years, Agence France-Presse reported Friday (see GSN, April 7). A newly established National Institute for Natural Products, Vaccines and Biologicals will work to reduce “effects of bioterrorism by having capability to scale up any seed vaccine from other sources in terms of emergencies such as smallpox or anthrax vaccines,” Health Minister Chua Soi Lek said in a statement released Friday. “It is our aspiration that Malaysia will be self-reliant in vaccine production in the near future and in doing so, also be the halal hub for vaccine production for the Muslim world,” the statement says. While no vaccine is now forbidden under Islamic dietary guidelines, officials remain concerned that some vaccines could be made using parts of pigs, animals considered unclean under Islamic law, according to AFP. Malaysia produced vaccines for 24 years until 1990, Chua said. He called for Islamic countries to work toward self-reliance in vaccine production. “Given the decline of vaccine production in the Western countries, it is vital that we in the developing world build our self-sufficiency in this area. In this way, we can ensure not only adequate supply but also better development of halal vaccines,” he added (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 15). Back to top

Uranium Reported Missing From New Jersey Lab A small amount of enriched uranium has gone missing from a New Jersey laboratory, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday (see GSN, Feb. 17). The 3.3 grams of powdered uranium aluminum oxide is too small an amount to construct a radiological weapon, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neal Sheehan. “We don’t believe there’s enough missing to pose any sort of a threat,” Sheehan said. “Even if you were standing right next to this material, you would not get a significant dose of radiation.” “Nevertheless, we’re very concerned about the control of radioactive material, especially in a post-9/11 environment, and that’s why we’re investigating this so aggressively,” he added. Several samples of uranium were shipped from Virginia and were received at LeDoux & Co. on March 30, Sheehan said. The company is conducting an internal investigation, the Inquirer reported. NRC inspectors also visited the laboratory on Thursday. “The other uranium is accounted for,” Sheehan said. “It’s just this small bit of powder that they haven’t been able to locate yet.” “The concern is that it may have been disposed of in the trash and may be in one of four landfills in Pennsylvania or another in New York state,” he said (Sam Wood, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 16).     Back to top

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