Jackie Sanders, chief U.S. delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors meeting, praised the agency’s decision to establish a committee to bolster the international nonproliferation regime (Global Security Newswire photo/Greg Webb). IAEA to Explore Enhancing Nuclear Safeguards By Greg Webb Global Security Newswire VIENNA — The U.N. nuclear oversight agency today established a special committee to examine ways to bolster the international nuclear nonproliferation regime. Coming on the final day of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s quarterly board meeting, the decision would lead to a labored negotiation in which the United States would push for rigorous new agency powers, observers said (see GSN, June 14)...Full Story

Iran Denies IAEA Deception By Greg Webb Global Security Newswire VIENNA — Iran today denied charges made yesterday that it gave inaccurate information to international nuclear officials about the extent of its plutonium separation research (see GSN, June 16). ..Full Story

U.S. Health and Human Services Retracts Statement on New Anthrax Vaccine after Inquiry by Senator By David Francis Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — An inquiry from a U.S. senator prompted the Health and Human Services Department last month to retract a statement about the advantages of a new anthrax vaccine being developed to replace the existing licensed vaccine (see GSN, May 6)...Full Story

	Friday, June 17, 2005

European Union Drafts Plans to Combat Terrorism The European Union plans to strengthen its defenses against a terrorist attack, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, March 16). EU leaders adopted a draft statement at a summit that calls for boosting defenses against bioterrorism, among other actions, and includes plans to confront religious and political extremism and hinder terrorist recruiting. It also would provide assistance to poor countries to combat terrorism (Paul Ames, Associated Press, June 17). Back to top

Democrats Look to Block Bolton Vote Senate Democrats are preparing to block a Republican effort expected Monday to force a vote on the nomination of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 16). “It's unlikely that (Republicans) will have the votes on Monday,” said a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). The Bush administration continued to press for a vote. “It's time to get an up-or-down vote on John Bolton. He has answered questions.  They have debated it,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. However, Republican officials admitted that they are unlikely to pick up the two votes needed to force a vote on Bolton. Sixty votes would be needed on Monday. Meanwhile, Bolton met yesterday with Democratic Senators Joseph Biden (Del.) and Christopher Dodd (Conn.), two of his most outspoken critics. Dodd’s spokeswoman said the senator asked Bolton to convince the Bush administration to provide the information Democrats have requested regarding National Security Agency intercepts reviewed by the nominee. Bolton did not have a response, she said (David Espo, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, June 16). Reid is also asking if Bolton exaggerated intelligence about foreign countries’ weapons of mass destruction programs, Reuters reported yesterday. “All over the news the last few days has been concerns about weapons of mass destruction by virtue of the memo that was discovered,” said Reid, referring to the “Downing Street memos” (see related GSN story, today). “Concerns about this administration hyping intelligence and Great Britain hyping intelligence cannot be dismissed lightly,” Reid continued, adding it “is no small matter for us to learn whether Mr. Bolton was a party to other efforts to hype intelligence.” The White House and officials including Bolton used claims that Iraq was operating WMD programs to make their case for war. Postwar inspectors have not found such weaponry (Reuters/New York Times, June 16). Back to top       Congressional Democrats Hold Discussion on British Memos on Prewar Iraq WMD Intelligence A group of congressional Democrats led by Representative John Conyers (D-Mich.) yesterday held an “unofficial hearing” on the so-called Downing Street memos, 2002 British documents which critics say show the Bush administration had committed to war against Iraq months before the invasion, the Dallas Morning News reported (see GSN, June 8). The memos “establish a prima facie case of going to war under false pretenses,” Conyers said. The hearing featured former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who in 2003 complained about forged documents allegedly proving that Iraqi had sought uranium from Africa, forcing a White House retraction, according to the Morning News. The lawmakers said they planned to hold future hearings, and delivered what they estimated were more than 550,000 petitions regarding the memo to the White House following the event (David Jackson, Dallas Morning News, June 17). Back to top

IAEA to Explore Enhancing Nuclear Safeguards By Greg Webb Global Security Newswire VIENNA — The U.N. nuclear oversight agency today established a special committee to examine ways to bolster the international nuclear nonproliferation regime. Coming on the final day of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s quarterly board meeting, the decision would lead to a labored negotiation in which the United States would push for rigorous new agency powers, observers said (see GSN, June 14). The decision echoed a similar move in 1996 to give the agency more investigative authority after it was embarrassed to discover a massive Iraqi nuclear weapons program that had gone undetected until after the 1991 Gulf War. This time, the step was spurred by revelations over the past two years of a widespread nuclear smuggling network that has supplied Iran, Libya and possibly North Korea with nuclear technology. Led by former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the black market ring operated freely in several nations. The advisory committee on safeguards and verification established today was given a two-year mandate “to consider ways and means to strengthen the safeguards system,” according the proposal unanimously approved by the board. After the initial two years, the board would consider whether to extend its term. Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei praised the committee’s creation today. “This is a reality check,” he said. “It’s about time to revisit the whole safeguards system to see whether it’s still adequate and effective to meet emerging challenges: illicit trafficking of nuclear materials and facilities, the increasing threat of nuclear terrorism, the discovery of more clandestine programs by a number of countries. These are serious challenges and we need to be sure the system is adequate and effective to deal with these issues.” In his opening statement to the board Monday, ElBaradei described some additional tools that he would like the committee to recommend for the agency. “Areas that could be addressed should, in my view, include more information sharing, the use of new emerging technologies, enhancing the agency’s independent analytical capabilities, and ensuring that the agency has an adequate and uniform legal authority to conduct credible verification,” he said. The United States led the push for the new committee and U.S. delegation leader Ambassador Jackie Sanders praised the board’s decision this morning. “The proliferation challenges of today, including noncompliance by North Korea and Iran and the revelation of [black market] nuclear procurement networks calls for more evolution. This new committee should play a key role in helping us meet those challenges,” she told reporters. President George W. Bush proposed creating the committee in a major nonproliferation policy speech delivered at the National Defense University in February 2004 (see GSN, Feb. 12, 2004). Establishing the committee was only a first step and the agency’s board members would face difficult talks on agreeing to actual new measures, a Western diplomat familiar with the agency told Global Security Newswire earlier this week. ElBaradei’s vision for new measures, for example, has been at odds with some U.S. plans, the diplomat said. The United States had sought a committee with more clout than an advisory body, one that could create a group to assess nations’ nuclear capabilities, according to the diplomat. ElBaradei would oppose efforts to create any parallel body that could second-guess his reports to the board that periodically assess global nuclear developments, according to the diplomat. In addition, many nations in the Nonaligned Movement were concerned that the United States would seek overly strong measures, and some Western nations feared the same, the diplomat said. Back to top       Iran Denies IAEA Deception By Greg Webb Global Security Newswire VIENNA — Iran today denied charges made yesterday that it gave inaccurate information to international nuclear officials about the extent of its plutonium separation research (see GSN, June 16).  Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency nevertheless defended their position that Iran had withheld information and had only admitted to conducting some plutonium experiments after being presented with agency evidence. Yesterday, the agency’s governing board heard that Iran had once declared that “plutonium separation experiments … were completed in 1993 and that no plutonium had been separated since then,” according to report delivered by Pierre Goldschmidt, the agency’s top safeguards official. However, agency analyses of plutonium solutions provided by Iran found that work had been conducted in 1995 and 1998, suggesting that Iran’s interest in separating plutonium had lasted longer than Tehran had reported. Faced with this evidence, Iran conceded last month that the additional experiments had been conducted, Goldschmidt told the board. Today, Iran told the board that it stood by its original statement that it had not produced or separated any plutonium since 1993 and said that the later experiments were unrelated. “There is a clear distinction between the date of termination of the research project on plutonium and the dates of the other activities, such [as] the ones related to purification and related waste management of the liquid,” senior Iranian diplomat Ali Asrar Sultani told the board today. Goldschmidt stood by his report today, though he acknowledged that the later Iranian experiments did not separate plutonium. “They say that they didn’t reprocess material after 1993. But they made some experiments on the reprocessed solution … which they didn’t tell us about previously and this might be an explanation for the fact that we found things that were not compatible with reprocessing in 1993. So it’s still from our side an open question. And we are going to carry out an investigation,” he told reporters this afternoon. Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei backed up the agency findings as well. “The fact remains that we need absolutely correct dates and we do not need stories to change,” he said. “Confidence is built when you feel you are getting full transparency that the story is not changing.” Back to top       Committee Directs RNEP Research to Resume By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Setting the stage for a congressional showdown later this year, a key Senate committee yesterday approved $4 million requested by the Bush administration to test the feasibility of developing a new earth-penetrating nuclear weapon (see GSN, June 15). The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the money for the Air Force to conduct the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator study as part of the fiscal 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill. In report language accompanying the bill, it said that while the Air Force would be responsible for the study, actual field-testing should be conducted at an Energy Department National Nuclear Security Administration laboratory. “The NNSA-DOD teams will conduct B83 impact studies and analyze test data. Sandia National [Laboratories] is the site of the RNEP tests and the laboratory possesses a unique set of capabilities to conduct the test on a qualified test track where they are able to design and produce necessary instrumentation,” the Senate committee report says. The language proposes to bypass an effort by certain House legislators to block for the second year in a row funding for the Energy Department study, this year by allowing only for study of conventional penetrator options by the Air Force.  The House Appropriations Committee, in a report last month accompanying its fiscal 2006 Energy and Water Appropriation bill, urged there be no funding for the RNEP study or for earth-penetration testing by an Energy Department national laboratory. “It is the understanding of the committee that, instead of conducting an RNEP study at a DOE national laboratory, the Department of Defense will conduct a non-nuclear penetrator study at a Department of Defense facility,” it said. The House so far has not approved appropriations for the nuclear study either by the Energy Department or the Air Force. However, an attempted amendment to add the money to the House fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill could happen next week and that bill could be quickly approved.  Meanwhile, the House’s fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill authorizes the Air Force to resume the study while the Senate version authorizes the Energy Department to restart work. Battle over Weapons Persists Congress last year omitted all funding for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, following the lead of Representative Dave Hobson (R-Ohio), who chairs the House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee.  Critics have charged the program undermines U.S. efforts to halt international nuclear proliferation and that the battlefield weapon would not be usable because of inevitably large surface destruction and radioactive fallout. The Bush administration has argued the proposed new capability could give it a more effective weapon for destroying deeply buried facilities. This year, Hobson and House Armed Services Committee Democrats negotiated with that committee’s Republicans a deal to provide $4 million to the Air Force for earth penetration evaluation, which would to allow a key field test to occur.   Democrats have insisted that the so-called “sled test,” which involves slamming the penetrator’s hard metal shell into a huge block of concrete, not be used to determine the feasibility of a nuclear penetrator. Transferring responsibility for the test to the Air Force, they reasoned, would accomplish that because the Air Force has no expertise in developing nuclear weapons (see GSN, May 23). Republicans, on the other hand, insisted the deal would allow resumed study of the nuclear option. The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday argued the nuclear earth penetrator testing should resume, and do so at Sandia.  “There are no other facilities aside from Sandia and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where the test data can be readily used to validate computer models that require terra-scale computers to model the data,” it said. The field test would cost twice as much were it to occur at another facility, the committee said. “The committee urges the [Energy] Department to quickly complete the testing and opposes the department moving this test to any other facility, as it would be a waste of taxpayer resources,” it said. “The congressional committees are deeply divided on whether to continue to pursue feasibility testing of RNEP,” said Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl Kimball. “I think this means that [Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee Chairman Pete] Domenici (R-N.M.) and Hobson are on a collision course in conference,” he said, referring to the meeting where House and Senate leaders resolve bill differences. Were the anticipated new earth penetration capability determined feasible, the Bush administration by law would need the approval of Congress to begin advanced development and production of the weapon. Back to top       North Korea Willing to Resume Multilateral Nuclear Talks in July, Kim Jong Il Says North Korea could resume six-nation negotiations on its nuclear program next month if the United States recognizes it as “a partner,” a South Korean official quoted North Korea’s leader as saying today (see GSN, June 16). “The North’s leader Kim Jong Il said if the United States firmly recognizes North Korea as a partner and respects it, North Korea can return to six-party talks, even in July,” Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said after a meeting with Kim in Pyongyang. Kim also told Chung that Pyongyang had never abandoned the forum, but rather boycotted the talks temporarily in order to “stand up against the United States because it looked down on us.” “The joint declaration for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is still valid and it is the last will of President Kim Il Sung,” Chung quoted Kim as saying, referring to a 1992 agreement between Seoul and Kim’s father, according to Reuters (Reuters/New York Times, June 17). Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday said Pyongyang must commit to discussions on eliminating its nuclear program, the Associated Press reported. “The ball is in the North Koreans’ court,” said Rice. “There is a lot of bubbling, as you know, about whether the North Koreans are ready to return to the table or are not. And we will see,” she said. “Until we have a date, we don’t have a date,” Rice said (Anne Gearan, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 16). Washington remains committed to a diplomatic solution to the standoff, the U.S. delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency announced yesterday in a statement to the organization’s Board of Governors, Reuters reported. “But for this to happen, the D.P.R.K. must do its part by returning to the table without preconditions and abandoning its pursuit of nuclear weapons,” said Chris Ford, a senior official and member of the delegation. “Otherwise, we will have to consult with our allies and partners on other options,” Ford said (Francois Murphy, Reuters, June 16). Back to top       Former Soviet Research Site of Concern to IAEA Has No Weapon-Grade Nuclear Materials, Officials Say Current and former officials at a nuclear research site in the former Soviet republic of Georgia said the facility has no weapon-grade uranium or plutonium and is not missing any radioactive materials, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, June 16). A team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog is set to visit the Sukhumi institute in the next few weeks. “I will gladly receive experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Anatoly Markoliya, director of the institute in the breakaway region of Abkhazia, told Interfax. A U.N. diplomat said yesterday there are concerns that “about 9 kilograms of plutonium” and about 1 kilogram of weapon-grade uranium may be missing from the facility. Russian and Georgian officials, however, disputed that claim. “Our institute does not have any fissile materials needed to make nuclear weapons, but there are radioactive materials there,” Markoliya said. Olga Pustovalova, an ecology expert who worked at the Sukhumi institute in the 1980s, said no dangerous materials were missing from the site and that armed guards secured all radioactive materials. “The loss of any radioactive materials from the institute is out of the question,” she said. Officials at Russia’s Atomic Energy Agency have said all dangerous nuclear materials have been removed from the facility, Reuters reported (Reuters, June 16). Back to top       Iran Pledges to Continue Cooperating With Nuke Probe An Iranian official pledged yesterday that his country would continue to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency, in the wake of an agency report that Tehran misrepresented details of its nuclear program in the past, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 16). Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Akhondzadeh said the agency “can be certain that Iran has no reason, whatsoever, to withhold related information.” “Bearing that in mind, we will continue to do whatever we can, and search wherever possible, to convey any other information that may surface to the agency,” he said (see related GSN story, today). Akhondzadeh added that Tehran would maintain its freeze on uranium enrichment activities for the duration of its negotiations with the European Union (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 16). Iran yesterday, however, dismissed demands by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac that the country abandon its uranium enrichment program, AFP reported. “We will not renounce our right,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi. “These declarations are contrary to the discussions between Iran and the European Union,” he said. “We are now waiting for the suggestions of the Europeans including the acknowledgment of the right of Iran to enrich uranium,” he said (Agence France-Presse/The Tocqueville Connection, June 16). Back to top       UT, Lockheed Formalize Los Alamos Partnership The University of Texas and Lockheed Martin on Wednesday formalized their partnering effort to take over management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 13). The bid team identified in the agreement also includes engineering and consulting company CH2M Hill of Denver and Fluor Corp. of California. “This whole team we've assembled brings an enormous wealth of experience on how to operate a laboratory, and I believe that is what is called for,” said Paul Robinson, the former head of Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico who is leading the Lockheed effort. The agreement “represents an opportunity for Los Alamos National Laboratory to return to a position of unquestioned technical pre-eminence among our national laboratories,” said Mark Yudof, chancellor of the University of Texas System (Associated Press/Albuquerque Journal, June 17). Back to top

U.S. Health and Human Services Retracts Statement on New Anthrax Vaccine after Inquiry by Senator By David Francis Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — An inquiry from a U.S. senator prompted the Health and Human Services Department last month to retract a statement about the advantages of a new anthrax vaccine being developed to replace the existing licensed vaccine (see GSN, May 6). Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), in a series of letters obtained by Global Security Newswire, questioned whether a statement in a March 2004 press release about VaxGen’s recombinant anthrax vaccine was true. The HHS press release said the treatment, being developed under a Project Bioshield contract, “has already been shown to be stronger and more effective than the vaccine being used today.” Assistant Secretary for Public Health Preparedness Stewart Simonson wrote in a May 4 response to Grassley that the department’s claim that the new vaccine is more effective than BioPort’s licensed treatment had been removed from the agency’s Web site. “The statement in question was based on preliminary test data,” said department spokesman Marc Wolfson. “It was decided that the statement was premature and could be misleading. So in response to Senator Grassley’s request [the Health and Human Services Department] decided to remove the release from its Web site.” Grassley sent a letter to Secretary Michael Leavitt in January, expressing concerns that the country was inadequately prepared for an anthrax attack. After meeting with agency officials, Grassley followed up with a second letter in April asking why additional doses of the licensed anthrax vaccine had not been added to the Strategic National Stockpile and whether the statement in the press release was misleading. Simonson admitted in the May 4 letter to Grassley that the press release touting VaxGen’s vaccine as more effective than the licensed vaccine was unsupported by current science. Department officials believe the new vaccine will prove superior to BioPort’s vaccine because the recombinant DNA technology used to produce the drug is expected to result in more consistent immunity from batch to batch. It would be administered in a three-shot cycle, as opposed to BioPort’s vaccine, which requires six shots. In addition, BioPort’s vaccine is manufactured using a decades-old process, and questions have been raised by Defense Department personnel about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness (see GSN, May 6). In his letter, Simonson also noted that the department was adding 1.5 million doses of the licensed vaccine to the stockpile by the end of this month, with an additional 6 million doses to be added in fall 2006. Unsatisfied with the agency’s response, Grassley sent a letter May 5 asking why it has taken so long after the 2001 anthrax attacks to procure licensed vaccine for the stockpile. In a May 13 response, Simonson attributed contractual difficulties between the Health and Human Services Department, the Defense Department and vaccine manufacturer BioPort, for the delay.  “The transfer of 5 million doses of AVA from DoD to HHS was delayed and eventually abandoned because of issues connected with the passage of the Homeland Security Act and the Project Bioshield Act as well as the usual problem inherent in negotiating a complex interagency agreement (e.g. pricing, indemnification, etc),” Simonson wrote. “In the end, it was clear that a direct contractual relationship between HHS and BioPort was preferable to the interagency process.” Grassley does not plan to send additional letters or schedule hearing on the vaccine issues, said spokeswoman Jill Kozeny. “Senator Grassley will continue to monitor the situation but no hearings or additional letters of inquiry are planned right now,” Kozeny wrote in an e-mail. VaxGen is scheduled to deliver the first 25 million doses of the new vaccine in 2006. The remaining 50 million doses would be delivered by 2009. The product is not scheduled for Food and Drug Administration licensure review until 2007 (see GSN, Nov. 5, 2004). Lance Ignon, VaxGen’s vice president of corporate affairs, said during a June 6 webcast that congressional questions about the vaccine are to be expected and would not delay licensure. “We’re happy and have been happy to speak with any number of legislatures to bring them up-to-speed on this because while we’ve been intimately familiar with the workings of this program now for quite a few years, many in Washington have not. The award of the contract in November was sort of the first [time] they really started thinking about how Project Bioshield works,” Ignon said. Meanwhile, two key House panels are planning hearings this summer on the country’s preparedness for a biological attack. House Democratic sources said the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Science and Technology is planning a hearing on Bioshield tentatively scheduled for the end of June.  A majority spokeswoman refused to confirm whether the hearing would occur, saying nothing has been officially placed on the calendar. However, Democratic sources said ranking Homeland Security Committee Democrat Bennie Thompson (Miss.) is concerned that the contract with VaxGen for an unapproved vaccine detracts from preparedness. Thompson sent nearly identical letters to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Leavitt in May outlining his concerns. “The new type of anthrax vaccine under development in Project Bioshield has some unique benefits, but is offered by only one manufacturer and is not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration,” Thompson wrote. “I know Project Bioshield’s purpose is to develop vaccines from an experimental stage, and I support effort to develop new anthrax vaccines such as those offered buy this unique technology. However, I am concerned about the possibility that if this new technology is not ultimately successful, or does not receive FDA approval, the [Strategic National Stockpile] may be left without an adequate supply of anthrax vaccine in the case of an emergency.” Thompson asks for details on efforts to secure additional vaccines and for progress on the development of the new anthrax vaccine. He has not received a response yet, and plans to address these issues at the upcoming hearing, according to the Democratic sources. The House Government Reform Committee is also planning a Bioshield hearing in July, according to a Republican committee source. The committee plans to invite industry representatives and government officials to testify, the source said. According to the source, Representative Chris Shays (R-Conn.) plans to ask questions about the use of Bioshield’s emergency use authorization authority. This power allows the Health and Human Services Department at the request of the Pentagon to approve the use of unlicensed countermeasures. The authority has been granted once, when the Food and Drug Administration last year approved BioPort’s anthrax vaccine to combat inhalation anthrax, an approved indication. The move prompted a series of letters from Shays to Leavitt and Central Intelligence Agency chief Porter Goss, questioning the legality of the request and whether the application of this power was intended under Bioshield (see GSN, Dec. 17, 2004). “Congressman Shays is going to make a point to talk about that,” the source said. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s bioterrorism preparedness subcommittee is in the middle of a series of hearings to review a bill introduced by Republican leadership and another by Senators Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). Both pieces of legislation would provide incentives, such as liability shields and patent exclusivity, to encourage big drug makers to enter the vaccine market. Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.), subcommittee chairman, plans to review the bills and has pledged to consider both before combining them into a single piece of legislation. Back to top       Funding Hike Considered for Biodesign Institute The Arizona Board of Regents is considering a plan that would provide $107 million for Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute from fiscal 2007 through 2011, the Arizona Republic reported today (see GSN, June 14). The mission of the Biodesign Institute is to improve worldwide health. Its plans include development of equipment that could detect odorless gases, such as those that might be used in a bioterror attack (Sherry Anne Rubiano, Arizona Republic, June 17). Back to top

Money Problems Threaten Russian CW Destruction Lack of money threatens to disrupt Russia’s efforts to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpile, Interfax-AVN reported yesterday (see GSN, May 20). “There is a [$56.1 million] shortfall in financing the program in 2005, a fact that will inevitably lead to the disruption of the fulfillment of Russian Federation’s obligations for the second stage,” lawmakers from the regions where the chemical weapons are located told the Russian government. To fulfill international obligations, Russia must destroy an additional 20 percent of its chemical weapon stockpile by April 2007. Two additional destruction facilities need to be finished to achieve this goal. Lack of financing has largely stopped construction on the facilities (Interfax-AVN, June 16). Back to top

Washington Willing to Discuss Selling Missile Defense Systems to India, U.S. Official Says The United States is willing to discuss supplying missile defense systems to India, a top U.S. State Department official said yesterday, but he also encouraged New Delhi to codify regulatory mechanisms for export controls of sensitive technology (see GSN, June 15). “We are willing to talk to India about missile defense. Missile defense is very expensive.  So, it is not something that India will enter into lightly,” said Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen Rademaker. Rademaker praised recent Indian export control legislation, but said regulations for implementing the new laws are needed (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 16).           Back to top

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