U.S. Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), pictured here in a 2002 photo, last week noted the House Armed Services Committee’s continued opposition to a Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator study at the Energy Department. Nuclear Earth Penetrator Test Could Occur Through U.S. Air Force By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A major U.S. defense bill could allow resumed study of a controversial nuclear earth penetrating weapon capability next year, despite Democratic claims last week that the bill’s language is intended to keep the program frozen (see GSN, May 19). Democrats said last week that a bipartisan deal struck within the House Armed Services Committee would continue to block evaluation of a Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) concept at the Energy Department, while allowing for study of various types of penetrators by the Air Force...Full Story

Iran Reportedly Smuggling Nuclear-Related Materials Iran is smuggling graphite and a graphite compound that could be used in nuclear weapons, an Iranian dissident and a senior diplomat said Friday (see GSN, May 20)...Full Story

NPT Deadlock Continues As Delegates Seek Compromise By Jim Wurst Global Security Newswire UNITED NATIONS — The final week of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference began today with no indication that the deadlock that has marked the monthlong meeting is anywhere near being resolved (see GSN, May 20). ..Full Story

	Monday, May 23, 2005

U.S. Analysts Questioned Iraq’s WMD Capability U.S. intelligence analysts were questioning Iraq’s WMD capability in early 2003 even as Bush administration officials publicly made their case for war against Saddam Hussein, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, April 29). The National Security Council “believed the nuclear case was weak,” Robert Walpole, former national intelligence officer for strategic and nuclear programs, told investigators. President George W. Bush said in his Jan. 28, 2003, State of the Union address that British intelligence had found that Hussein was seeking “significant quantities” of uranium from Africa. However, CIA analysts that month were still working to determine whether the information was credible, according to a 2004 report from the Senate intelligence committee. The day before Bush’s speech, the CIA’s station chief in Berlin warned against trusting intelligence from the Iraqi defector known as “Curveball,” who had been the main source of information on Iraq’s reputed mobile biological weapons facilities, the Post reported (see GSN, April 8). Bush said in his speech that “three Iraqi defectors” had provided evidence that “Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile weapons labs … designed to produce germ warfare agents [that] can be moved from place to place to evade inspectors.” Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell also played up the mobile facilities in his February 2003 testimony on Iraq to the United Nations. In October 2002, Bush said that Iraq was looking into unmanned aerial vehicles “that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons” over the continental United States. That claim was based on a lone report that an Iraqi general had been looking to buy equipment in late 2000 or early 2001 for the vehicles, the Post reported. The manufacturer reportedly submitted mapping software of the United States as part of the order. The distributor did not include the software in its package, and the procurement agent later denied plans to purchase the software. The CIA by January 2003 “increasingly believed that the attempted purchase of the mapping software … may have been inadvertent,” according to the recent report by the presidential WMD commission. The U.S. Air Force intelligence chief at that time was also arguing that the unmanned vehicles were intended for reconnaissance, the Post reported. Military analysts believed the equipment purchase was “not necessarily indicative of an intent to target the U.S. homeland,” according to a January 2003 intelligence estimate (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, May 22). Meanwhile, Russia is trying to determine the fate of Iraqi missiles that were being destroyed before the March 2003 invasion, the Associated Press reported Saturday. “Not all the rockets were destroyed — the war got in the way, and even now nobody knows what happened to them. And this is a question,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov, according to Interfax. Fedotov was apparently speaking of Iraq’s Al Samoud 2 missiles, which had a range beyond that allowed under U.N. sanctions. The United States must determine what happened to the missiles, Fedotov said (Agence France-Presse, May 21). Back to top

Nuclear Earth Penetrator Test Could Occur Through U.S. Air Force By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A major U.S. defense bill could allow resumed study of a controversial nuclear earth penetrating weapon capability next year, despite Democratic claims last week that the bill’s language is intended to keep the program frozen (see GSN, May 19). Democrats said last week that a bipartisan deal struck within the House Armed Services Committee would continue to block evaluation of a Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) concept at the Energy Department, while allowing for study of various types of penetrators by the Air Force. Congress last year provided no money for the program. The administration requested $4 million for the program this year. However, consensus language contained in the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill, which the committee passed last Thursday, again provided no money for the Energy Department effort.  The committee “took the ‘N’ out of ‘RNEP,’” Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) said in a statement following the vote. The Republican chairman of the committee, however, offered a different take on the legislation, stating in a press release that the feasibility of testing a nuclear penetrator could continue — using the Air Force funding. “The committee authorized $4 million funds within DOD for a study that would evaluate the feasibility of various options, to include conventional as well as nuclear penetrator options” for defeating hard and deeply buried targets, said Representative Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.). The bill also contains $4.5 million to study how to deploy a nuclear earth penetrator on a B-2 bomber. A key test of the nuclear penetrator’s shell is planned as part of that study, a committee report says. ‘Sled Test’ At the heart of the dispute is a planned “sled track test” of a mock penetrator, which involves slamming a metal shell into a large concrete block at high speed to see how it would survive impact with hard earth to allow a warhead inside to discharge meters underground. A sled test had been planned for this fiscal year of a mock Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator until Congress eliminated funding for the program in 2004. The results of the test would have helped determine whether to pursue congressional funding for full development and production of the system. Bush administration officials have argued that a nuclear weapon is needed to more deeply penetrate solid earth, thereby enabling the warhead to project greater force deep into the earth against a growing number of buried facilities. Critics say pursuing a new nuclear penetrator undermines international nonproliferation diplomacy and that the likelihood that such a weapon would cause massive destruction aboveground makes it of little use. An Armed Services Committee report accompanying the defense authorization bill said the sled test that would have been conducted by the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator program would be conducted using the Air Force money because it could inform consideration of various types of earth penetrators. “The committee understands that the commander, United States Strategic Command has stated that the results from the sled test conducted under this program have applicability to various types of penetrators that may be options for use against hard and deeply buried targets,” it says. “Based on the applicability of the sled test results to various options for HDBT defeat, the committee believes that this study is more appropriately conducted under a program element within the Department of Defense,” it says. Democrats assert that because the test would be funded by the Air Force, which is not responsible for developing nuclear weapons, the test should be tailored to evaluate conventional earth penetration capabilities. In other words, the tested shell should contain a mock conventional warhead rather than a mock nuclear weapon, and should not support evaluation of a nuclear penetrator. “This $4 million will be used for preliminary sled tests to combat hard and deeply buried targets within the purview of the DOD where all our work on conventional bunkers busters has been carried out,” Tauscher said in a statement provided on Friday to Global Security Newswire. ‘Vague’ Language a Concern Tauscher and 22 other Democrats in a statement attached to the bill’s report expressed concern that the report’s language was “written vaguely enough” to allow for a nuclear penetrator test to occur. The committee’s report language “could be construed to allow the sled test to inform whether a nuclear payload could be used in high-speed penetration of hard geologies,” they wrote. The Democrats said they would seek to amend the bill at a conference to reconcile it with a Senate version, by requiring that the test not support a nuclear earth penetrator evaluation.  “This sled test should be conducted in a manner that only informs conventional payloads, and if this is not technically feasible, there should be no further work in designing modified or new nuclear weapons designs based on the sled test data,” they wrote. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved the $4 million requested for the Energy Department Study of a nuclear penetrator. Tauscher in her statement to GSN noted that even if the administration used the sled test data to help make a decision on a nuclear penetrator, it would still face an obstacle to developing that weapon. “While the majority would argue that conducting this study moves them a step toward an RNEP, I’d remind them that in order to use sled test information to develop a nuclear ‘bunker buster,’ they’ll have to come back through Congress and obtain that funding in the DOE budget,” she said. The Democrats said they also would also seek to eliminate the B-2 adaptation money in the conference committee. “We believe it is premature to begin integration engineering efforts for a weapon that should never be designed and, at a minimum, is years away from being designed,” they wrote. Back to top       Iran Reportedly Smuggling Nuclear-Related Materials Iran is smuggling graphite and a graphite compound that could be used in nuclear weapons, an Iranian dissident and a senior diplomat said Friday (see GSN, May 20). While it has civilian and conventional weapons uses, graphite can also be used to encase weapon-grade uranium in nuclear warheads, the Associated Press reported. Tehran has been forced to obtain such dual-use items on the black market, Iranian exile Alireza Jafarzadeh told AP. “It is not clear how much governments are involved,” Jafarzadeh said. Iran is “using front companies to deceive other companies, other entities in foreign countries, and they wouldn’t know what the destination would be.” A senior diplomat familiar with intelligence on Iran said Tehran also may be attempting to acquire heat-resistant “nuclear-grade graphite.” Jafarzadeh said Tehran is constructing a plant for graphite technology near the town of Ardekan for what Iranian officials say is steel manufacturing (George Jahn, Associated Press/Washington Post, May 21). Iranian leaders have yet to discuss a possible plan to ship uranium hexafluoride gas produced in Iran to Russia for enrichment into atomic fuel, Reuters reported Saturday. The proposal originated in Moscow, Ali Aghamohammadi of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council told Reuters on Saturday. “We have not discussed it yet,” he said. Moscow, however, denied the idea came from Russia. “I do not have any information that that we have suggested supplying Iran with fuel,” a spokesman for the Russian Atomic Energy Agency said (Reuters, May 21). U.S. officials have rejected the idea, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday. “First of all, Russia has already agreed to provide at least the first decade’s worth of enriched uranium fuel for Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. “So Iran would have no need to do any conversion work whatsoever.” The proposal “only reinforces our view that Iran’s enrichment and conversion effort is, in fact, designed to contribute to the capabilities that are needed to develop nuclear weapons,” Boucher said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 21). Wednesday’s scheduled meeting between EU and Iranian negotiators will be crucial to resolving the nuclear standoff, Tehran announced yesterday. “The Geneva meeting will show whether we can reach a result with the Europeans,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi. “Iran will no longer accept the policy of wasting time and finding excuses,” he said. “Restarting Isfahan’s facility is an irreversible decision and we will do it anyway,” said Asefi. “If we can do it based on an agreement it will be better” (Reuters, May 22). British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw today warned Iran to maintain its freeze on sensitive nuclear activities, AFP reported. “I think [the negotiations] will be tough, but I think very much they will be successful,” Straw said. “The Iranians are tough to negotiate with, but so far the Iranians have accepted, as we, that it is in the interest of Iran, Europe and the international community that we should reach agreement,” he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, May 23). Iran does not want its case referred to the U.N. Security Council, said Gary Samore, an Iran expert at the International Institute of Strategic Studies. “I think Iran’s position is weaker now because the Western allies are working in much closer consort” than prior to the U.S. presidential election in November, Samore told AFP. “That argues in favor of Iran continuing to delay (resuming the nuclear program) until they feel they’re in a stronger position and they can afford to walk away from the negotiations with the EU-3 with less danger,” he said. Iranian officials also likely have taken a harder line due to upcoming elections, said Ali Ansari, an analyst at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “Basically, I don’t think the Iranians are going ahead with their uranium enrichment as yet. I think they’ll wait, then the Europeans will say: ‘Let’s wait till your elections are over’” (Lachlan Carmichael, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 22). Diplomats at the International Atomic Energy Agency warned that member states might refer Iran’s case to the Security Council if talks fail, AFP reported Friday. The agency’s Board of Governors wants a commitment from Iran that it will give up its nuclear plans, said diplomats. However, one diplomat said Friday that uranium conversion posed “no immediate threat they would develop nuclear weapons” (Jean-Michel Stoullig, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 20). Back to top       NPT Deadlock Continues As Delegates Seek Compromise By Jim Wurst Global Security Newswire UNITED NATIONS — The final week of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference began today with no indication that the deadlock that has marked the monthlong meeting is anywhere near being resolved (see GSN, May 20).  The United States has rejected any suggestion that it is not fulfilling its disarmament commitments under the treaty while insisting that the conference take action against Iran over its nuclear program.  Iran says its program is permissible under the treaty and that the nuclear weapons policies of the United States violate the treaty. In between, states have submitted numerous proposals that could form the basis of a consensus that would balance the disarmament and nonproliferation concerns of the parties.  The European Union, Nonaligned Movement, the New Agenda Coalition, Canada and Japan have all made speeches and submitted working papers on initiatives parties could take over the next five years to strengthen the treaty’s provisions for advancing disarmament, blocking proliferation and addressing access to nuclear technology. The EU “common position” lists “a number of issues which we consider fundamental, covering the NPT’s three pillars of nonproliferation, disarmament and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” said Ambassador Paul Kayser of Luxembourg, speaking on behalf of the union last week.  Those include seeing further progress by the United States and Russia in verifiably reducing their arsenals, placing into force the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, taking “appropriate practical measures in order to reduce the risk of accidental nuclear war,” and working to create “an effectively verifiable zone free of nuclear weapons” in the Middle East, Kayser said.  The United States has used meetings of the three conference committees to make its case against noncompliance with the treaty, specifically by Iran.  “NPT parties must have strong declaratory polices that establish the necessity of compliance with the NPT,” U.S. Ambassador Jackie Sanders said last week. “It should be clear that there is zero tolerance for noncompliance with the NPT’s nonproliferation undertakings, and that NPT parties are prepared to take firm and prompt action to hold any violator accountable for its actions.” An Iranian envoy on Thursday accused the United States of forwarding “accusations and passing arbitrary unjustified judgments against my country, through presenting completely distorted facts and conclusion.” Sanders also rejected the argument that U.S. nuclear policies were undermining the treaty.   “There are those who say that certain United States policies somehow are to blame for others’ decisions to pursue nuclear weapons.  These, however, are merely the words of nuclear proliferators or their apologists,” she said. “It is both logically and legally untenable for those who wish that nuclear disarmament were progressing at a faster rate to pretend that compliance with nonproliferation obligations is linked to compliance with disarmament obligations. … Such thinking is, simply put, dangerous in the extreme.” However, nongovernmental experts following the conference have blamed the United States for the impasse at the meeting.  The Bush administration has walked away from U.S. commitments made at the 1995 and 2000 review conferences, Aaron Tovish, international campaign manager for Mayors for Peace, said today. “So they basically have gutted the review process,” he said. “What you see is a valiant effort by a majority of countries not to allow that to that happen.” “There are efforts going on in the U.S. Congress to challenge the basis upon which this administration has entered into these discussions …. It certainly would be a great thing if the president would listen to a bipartisan voice coming from the Congress.”  Tovish said. The U.S. position since the 2004 preparatory meeting for the conference has been “to sideline, walk back from the commitments and obligations that they themselves had negotiated together with the other states parties in [at review conferences] 1995 … and 2000,” Rebecca Johnson, executive director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, said on Friday (see GSN, May 16). A possible compromise is one that would “openly acknowledge that [the United States] accept and intend to implement the obligations and commitments they undertook in ‘95 and 2000,” Johnson said. “Then we could move on to these other really very useful and practical proposals dealing with things like the fuel cycle.” Back to top       North Korea Promises Response to U.S. Meeting North Korea said yesterday it would respond at “an appropriate time” to U.S. statements during a recent informal meeting by officials from the two nations, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 20). Pyongyang confirmed the May 13 meeting at the United Nations, but did not indicate whether its response would include a decision resuming stalled six-party talks on its nuclear program. “The D.P.R.K. remains unchanged in its stand to stick to the goal for denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and seek a peaceful negotiated solution to the nuclear issue,” the Foreign Ministry announced (Reuters, May 22). The response is likely to be a “watershed” in the nuclear standoff, Kim Sook, director general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry’s North American Affairs Bureau, said today (Soo-Jeong Lee, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 23). Meanwhile, North Korea reportedly told China it might announce next week its readiness to resume talks if Beijing agrees to certain conditions, Reuters reported yesterday. Pyongyang demanded economic support and Beijing’s assistance in setting up a direct meeting with Washington, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun yesterday quoted U.S. diplomatic sources as saying. Pyongyang also demanded that Beijing support its position at potential talks, according to Sankei (Reuters, May 22). North Korea’s rhetoric has been softening since concerns mounted in recent weeks that it might be preparing for a nuclear weapons test, Reuters reported. “North Korea had upped the ante,” said Koh Yu-hwan, a leading North Korea expert at Dongguk University in Seoul. “But through these contacts, it appears to be shifting to dialogue mode from crisis mode.” Other experts think Pyongyang is unlikely to accept a negotiated settlement to end its nuclear program. “There has been enough pressure for North Korea to find itself deprived of any more rationale to stay away from coming back to the talks,” said Lee Dong-bok, senior associate in Seoul at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (Jon Herskovitz, Reuters, May 23). Elsewhere, U.S. Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) warned North Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Han Song Ryol, on May 16 in New York not to conduct a nuclear test, the Associated Press reported. “If you do a test, you’re going to set this process back years and years, and it’s going to lead to consequences neither of us want,” Weldon reportedly told Han. “The potential downside of a test is enormous,” said Kurt Campbell, former assistant secretary of defense for Asia in the Clinton administration. “It would set off a chain reaction in the region with completely impossible-to-predict consequences.” Other experts noted that U.S. military options in North Korea are limited. The location of Pyongyang’s plutonium or nuclear weapons is not known, AP reported. “We also suspect that North Korea has some early uranium enrichment capability. We don't know where that is,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. “So a surgical strike is not likely going to be effective. Furthermore, any military action creates the high risk that North Korea will respond using its substantial conventional forces, specifically its artillery, to pulverize Seoul,” he said (Tom Raum, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 23). Back to top

U.S. Defense Department Appeals Decision that Stopped Mandatory Anthrax Vaccinations By David Francis Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department last week asked a federal appeals court to lift an injunction that stopped the mandatory anthrax vaccination program for military personnel (see GSN, May 6). Justice Department lawyers, in an appeal filed on behalf on the Pentagon, contend that the Food and Drug Administration’s documentation on BioPort’s Anthrax Vaccine Absorbed proves the vaccine is safe and effective in combating all forms of anthrax. The vaccine is now only fully licensed as safe and effective against cutaneous anthrax. “The Food and Drug Administration has repeatedly confirmed that [the vaccine’s] label encompasses approval for use against all forms of anthrax, regardless of the route of exposure — including inhalation exposure,” the Pentagon argues in the appeal. The Pentagon is looking to set aside the decision of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who ruled against mandatory vaccinations in October after finding that the Food and Drug Administration had not fully licensed the BioPort vaccine as effective against inhaled anthrax.  The U.S. Health and Human Services Department earlier this year granted the Pentagon emergency use authority to resume vaccinations on a voluntary basis. Mandatory vaccinations could resume if the government’s appeal is accepted. A Pentagon Web site lists the chances of adverse event from the vaccination at 1 in 100,000. More than 1 million service members were inoculated before Sullivan stopped the mandatory vaccination program. Recently released figures indicate that hundreds of military personnel were treated for adverse events following vaccination (see GSN, May 6). The Pentagon argues that the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness against inhalation anthrax are clear from the Food and Drug Administration’s scientific records. The agency has repeatedly declared the vaccine safe, the Pentagon argues. The Defense Department also points out that the agency did not object to use of the vaccine during the first Gulf War. Correspondence between FDA and Defense Department officials also illustrates the agency’s belief that the drug is safe, the Pentagon said in the appeal. A 1950s study in which the vaccine proved effective in protecting mill workers exposed to naturally occurring anthrax is also cited by the Pentagon as evidence of safety. Finally, the Pentagon cited a January 2004 FDA order that found the vaccine to be safe against all forms of anthrax. Sullivan ruled that order invalid because the agency did not accept public comments and due to questions about the vaccine’s safety. The agency opened the order for comments late last year to comply with the court’s order. The comment period closed at the end of March. The Pentagon argued that in the face of FDA evidence that the vaccine was safe against all forms of anthrax, the court did not have the authority to stop the program because it believed the vaccine was unsafe.   “Even if the court believed that the FDA’s January 2004 order did not have independent force as a result of a procedural failure to provide additional notice and comment, that failure would only support vacatur of the order,” the Pentagon stated in the appeal. “It would not provide the district court with a basis for revisiting the scope of the [original] license — which has always authorized use of VA to prevent anthrax, without limitation on the route of exposure, and which remains in effect.” Finally, the Pentagon argues that Smith should not have stopped the vaccination program for the entire military, but only for the six anonymous Defense Department employees who filed suit challenging the program. John Michels, attorney for the six plaintiffs, would not comment on the case until a response is filed on behalf of his clients. The plaintiffs’ response is due June 30. Back to top       Al-Qaeda Gathered Equipment for Biological Weapons Laboratory Before 9/11, Documents Indicate Al-Qaeda was working to develop a biological weapons laboratory prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, letters released last week by the Defense Department indicate (see GSN, March 2). According to the letters, an unnamed al-Qaeda scientist tried to buy anthrax vaccines during a visit to an unspecified laboratory, the New York Times reported Saturday. He purchased a sterilizer, a respirator and an air-contamination detector, according to one letter. Another letter lists equipment that would be needed for a laboratory, including an incubator and a centrifuge, according to the Times. The letters suggest it would likely have taken al-Qaeda at least two to three years to produce enough anthrax to use as a weapon, two biological weapons experts said Friday. “They were moving to try to get the right stuff,” said D.A. Henderson, an expert on biological weapons. “But not in a very sophisticated way.” Many of people involved in the plot have been arrested or killed, said Milton Leitenberg, a senior research scholar at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy “It is not likely that anything is going on right now,” said Leitenberg.  “And in the three years they were working on this, as best as is known, they did not succeed in obtaining a pathogen or reach the stage of growing the pathogen in the laboratory.” Pakistani microbiologist Abdur Rauf is believed to have written the letters, according to one biological weapons researcher (Eric Lipton, New York Times, May 21). Back to top       WHO Backs Smallpox Virus Experiments The governing body of the World Health Organization last week approved plans for genetic modification of the smallpox virus, the New York Times reported (see GSN, May 17). The World Health Assembly also supported distributing smallpox samples to additional laboratories for research. Stocks of the virus are now kept at two sites, one in the United States and the other in Russia. Experiments are hoped to lead to new detection methods for smallpox and treatments for the virus, the Times reported. Researchers would be required to submit details on their work and their security efforts before beginning the experiments. A member of a WHO advisory committee said he does not expect the panel to approve any projects before its annual meeting in November. The assembly last week also approved plans to develop a 33.5 million-dose stockpile of smallpox vaccine to treat victims of a natural outbreak or terrorist incident, the Times reported (Lawrence Altman, New York Times, May 21). Governing body members held off on a decision on whether to destroy all stocks of the smallpox virus, Agence France-Presse reported Friday. The need to focus on smallpox countermeasures took precedence, given concerns that virus samples might secretly be held outside of the two laboratories, officials said. “The long-term aim of the WHO and the assembly is to destroy this virus, that’s clear,” said WHO disease expert Mike Ryan. “The question from a public health point of view is do we know enough about the virus, do we have the correct antivirals, do we have safe and effective vaccines, and effective and rapid diagnostics,” he added (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 20). Back to top

Pine Bluff Incineration Starts, Stops Weapons incineration at the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Arkansas resumed Friday, only to be halted again Sunday following another fire (see GSN, May 20). Contractor Washington Group International on Wednesday stopped disposal of sarin-filled M55 rockets following a fire at the Umatilla disposal site in Oregon. Processing restarted following a review of the Umatilla fire and implementation of additional safety measures at Pine Bluff (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, May 20). However, operations stopped Sunday following a small fire in the Pine Bluff explosion containment room, the Associated Press reported. Debris from a rocket being cut into pieces ignited and burned for about 20 seconds before being extinguished. This was the second fire this month at Pine Bluff (see GSN, May 18). “At this time, the cause of the flare up is being investigated,” the Army said in a statement. “Disposal operations will resume once site officials are confident that any necessary corrective measures have been implemented” (Associated Press/Daily Herald, May 22). Back to top       New Jersey Attempts to Prevent VX Waste Shipments The New Jersey Environmental Protection Department on Friday issued a draft permit to block a DuPont facility from processing wastewater from chemical weapons neutralization at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 17). Acting Governor Richard Codey ordered the prohibition, based on concerns about toxins that might remain when the processed hydrolysate is dumped into the Delaware River. The shipment of the wastewater through New Jersey to the plant is also a concern, Codey said in a letter to the secretary of the Army. “New Jersey continues to oppose the United States Army's proposal to transport nerve agent waste from the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana to DuPont’s Chambers Works environmental treatment facility in New Jersey,” Codey said in a written statement. DuPont representative Anthony Farina said the company is pursuing a separate agreement to allow it to treat the material. “We are in agreement that this project should not move forward until the concerns are addressed to everyone’s satisfaction,” said Farina. He added that the plant just finished treating 4 million gallons of neutralized mustard gas from Aberdeen, Md. (Rebecca Santana, Associated Press/1010wins.com, May 20). Back to top       VX Land Mines Packed Further at Anniston Storage containers for drums holding VX nerve agent land mines at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama have been moved into even larger tanks, the U.S. Army said Friday (see GSN, April 26). Four of the 16-gallon steel drums, each of which contains three land mines, several years ago were found to be leaking VX. They were placed into overpack containers for safe storage. Officials recently found that the seals on the overpack containers had deteriorated, necessitating their placement into the larger receptacles, the Army said (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, May 20). Back to top

Germany Arrests Suspect Connected to Missile Exports German authorities have arrested the manager of a company suspected of violating export regulations by selling missile technology abroad, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, May 16). The export chief of the same company was arrested last month, according to Reuters. The firm sold vibration-testing equipment to unnamed countries since at least 2001-2002, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, German authorities earlier this month halted the sale of aluminum plates for Iran’s rocket program, Focus magazine reported yesterday (Reuters, May 22). Back to top

Republican Congressman Criticizes U.S. for Lack of Cooperation With Russia on Missile Defense U.S. Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said the United States should pursue more extensive missile defense cooperation with Russia, Defense Daily International reported Friday (see GSN, April 15). The lack of senior-level dialogue with Russian officials has stymied efforts at cooperation, said Weldon, noting his own role in brokering a meeting for Missile Defense Agency officials. “Isn’t there something wrong when a member of Congress has to arrange a meeting with a four-star general to continue a missile defense policy called on by our president?” Weldon said. The Missile Defense Agency is seeking increased cooperation with Russia, agency Director Lt. Gen. Henry Obering recently told a congressional committee. He did not provide details (Sharon Weinberger, Defense Daily International, May 20).         Back to top

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