U.S. President George W. Bush addresses soldiers last night in North Carolina. The president today implemented 70 of 74 recommendations made by a presidential commission on WMD intelligence (Getty Images/Logan Mock-Bunting). White House Calls for Counterproliferation Center The White House today announced creation of a new National Counterproliferation Center to coordinate U.S. efforts to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 1). The creation of the Counterproliferation Center is one of the 70 recommendations accepted by the White House from its blue-ribbon WMD intelligence commission...Full Story

Bush Offers New Reason for Iraq War By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — In a televised address last night, President George W. Bush gave another in an evolving list of reasons for the war on Iraq: preventing an al-Qaeda victory and stronghold there (see GSN, June 20)...Full Story

Order Targets Entities That Aid WMD Proliferation U.S. President George W. Bush today issued an executive order to freeze assets within the United States of companies suspected of supporting weapons of mass destruction proliferation (see GSN, June 23)...Full Story

	Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Top U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Official Worries About Insecure Merchant Marine Credentialing By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Congress should act this year to make merchant marine credentialing more secure in order to prevent a port attack by terrorists exploiting the present identification system, the Coast Guard’s port security director said at a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing today (see GSN, June 22). Current merchant mariner identification documents contain “virtually no security features,” but Congress has not acted on a proposal by President George W. Bush’s administration to update the relevant statutes, Rear Adm. Craig Bone told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee. “We cannot and must not continue with business as usual in the area of mariner credentialing,” Bone said. “The specter of a terrorist obtaining and using a merchant mariner credential to access and attack vital areas of a strategic port is one that is very real.” “Congress partially addressed this issue in the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 mandating the development of a biometric transportation security card known as the Transportation Worker Identification Credential,” Bone said, but a “complementary” revision of merchant marine credentials is also needed. U.S. ports began testing the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program in December of last year. The new process is to involve obtaining fingerprints and photographs of workers in industries such as trucking and shipping in a bid to make identification checks both faster and more effective. Bone said the Coast Guard has “significantly hardened the physical security of our ports,” has adopted a more risk-based approach to protecting U.S. ports and waterways and shares Customs and Border Protection’s view that international standards for cargo security are needed. Customs and Border Protection’s border security director, Robert Jacksta, told the subcommittee his agency, too, has embraced a more risk-based approach to security. When conducting checks of shippers’ security measures under the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, Jacksta said, Customs and Border Protection targets shipments that a new calculation identifies as posing a high security risk. Jacksta said his agency continues to seek out new locations around the world for deployment of U.S. resources under the Container Security Initiative, which allows for inspections abroad of shipping containers bound for the United States. He added that Customs and Border Protection is “moving quickly” to deploy radiation portal monitors and other radiation detection equipment around the United States. Subcommittee Chairman Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) expressed concern at the hearing about what he called a lack of progress on initiatives such as the National Maritime Transportation Security Plan, the initial version of which was to have been completed April 1.  Bone replied that the plan would enter an interagency review period next month. The plan represents the first overall national structure governing various agencies’ maritime security efforts. Back to top

White House Calls for Counterproliferation Center The White House today announced creation of a new National Counterproliferation Center to coordinate U.S. efforts to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 1). The creation of the Counterproliferation Center is one of the 70 recommendations accepted by the White House from its blue-ribbon WMD intelligence commission. The president also announced today that FBI information collection and analysis efforts will be merged and that a national security division at the Justice Department will be created, according to AP. President Bush further approved placing CIA chief Porter Goss in charge of all overseas human intelligence work. The Washington Post reported today that since Sept. 11, 2001 the CIA, FBI and Defense Department have clashed over foreign intelligence collection (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, June 29). The president has also: asked Congress to reform oversight of intelligence agencies; recommended legislation extending the time foreign agents can be under electronic surveillance; implemented new procedures for intelligence dissemination; and established managers to deal specifically with a country or area (Katherine Shrader, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 29). The commission made 74 recommendations. Of the four that were not accepted, three are still being reviewed and one was changed, sources told Reuters (Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, June 28). National Intelligence Director John Negroponte has selected Kenneth Brill as director of the new Counterproliferation Center, the Washington Times reported. However, conservatives on Capitol Hill and in the Bush administration said Brill, former U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, is not qualified for the job. “We expected to see someone with operational and intelligence experience, not somebody who is a Foreign Service officer,” said a Senate aide. Others charged Negroponte was attempting to dominate the intelligence community by appointing Foreign Service officers to high posts. The Counterproliferation Center is expected to have less than 100 employees (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, June 29). Back to top       Bush Offers New Reason for Iraq War By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — In a televised address last night, President George W. Bush gave another in an evolving list of reasons for the war on Iraq: preventing an al-Qaeda victory and stronghold there (see GSN, June 20). Speaking before U.S. military personnel at Fort Bragg, N.C., Bush said insurgents and terrorists were not prevailing in Iraq. He said, though, that terrorists would be “emboldened” and gain a base for striking the United States if U.S. forces withdrew before insurgents were “hunt[ed] down” and Iraqi forces able to secure the country. “To complete the mission, we will prevent al-Qaeda and other foreign terrorists from turning Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban — a safe haven from which they could launch attacks on America and our friends,” he said. Bush said terrorists consider Iraq “a central front,” quoting al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as saying, “This third World War is raging in Iraq; the whole world is watching this war.” In making his argument, Bush effectively conceded a major criticism of the war, according to Joseph Cirincione, nonproliferation director at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It is that the March 2003 invasion and continuing occupation have presented the terrorist group that perpetrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks an opportunity to expand its global power and further undermine U.S. security. “Before the invasion, al-Qaeda was not operating in Iraq. Now, it is one of the major bases of operations. The Iraq war increased the terrorist threat, it hasn’t decreased it,” Cirincione said.    Bush would not say how long U.S. forces might have to fight in Iraq, saying of multinational efforts to train and equip Iraqi forces: “We’ve made progress, but we have a lot … more work to do.” WMD Threat Not Mentioned Bush yesterday did not invoke the administration’s original primary justification for invading the country, eliminating suspected Iraqi weapons of mass destruction before they are shared with terrorists for use against the United States. Instead, he said the war was necessary to combat a terrorist movement associated with al-Qaeda intent on attacking the United States, overthrowing governments in the Middle East, and denying people their freedom. “After September the 11th I made a commitment to the American people. This nation will not wait to be attacked again. We will defend our freedom.  We will take the fight to the enemy. Iraq is the latest battlefield in this war.” In addition, Bush reiterated an administration assertion that a victory in Iraq would inspire democratic change across the Islamic world. Terrorists “know that as freedom takes root in Iraq, it will inspire millions across the Middle East to claim their liberty as well. And when the Middle East grows in democracy and prosperity and hope, the terrorists will lose their sponsors, lose their recruits, and lose their hopes for turning that region into a base for attacks on America and our allies around the world,” he said. The president suggested efforts to create a democratic government in Iraq inspired elections in the Palestinian territories of Israel and in Lebanon, which he said in turn inspired “democratic reformers in places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.” Bush also suggested, as administration officials have previously, that the war, by battling terrorists overseas, aimed to stop them from attacking the U.S. homeland. “There is only one course of action against them: to defeat them abroad before they attack us at home,” he said. He said that terrorists had come to Iraq from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Libya, and other countries. “They are making common cause with criminal elements, Iraqi insurgents and remnants of [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein’s regime who want to restore the old order,” he said. Cirincione, who supports quickly phasing out the U.S. presence in Iraq, said Bush overstated the foreign terrorist presence there and the consequences for U.S. security of withdrawal. “The chief problem with the president’s argument is the false claim that the insurgent attacks are being done by the people who attacked on Sept. 11. That’s not true.  From the Pentagon’s own estimates, only a small percent, perhaps, 5 percent are foreign fighters. Of the 14,000 prisoners we have in Iraq, only 600 are non-Iraqi,” he said. “Islamic fundamentalists from Saudi Arabia and other countries are exploiting this insurgency,” Cirincione continued. “But they are in no sense leading it, directing it, nor is it part of a global operation against the United States. If we leave, does that mean those insurgents are going to come to America and fight us? No, the fight is over the future of Iraq.” He contended a struggle among Iraqis for control of the country is under way that would continue whether or not the United States is there. “Let the Iraqis solve their problems. The Iraqis will know better than we do how to handle the insurgency,” he said. Evolving Justification The administration’s core public justification for invading Iraq appears to have changed several times since the White House argued before the war that Iraq possessed banned weapons and might share them with terrorists to attack the U.S. interests. In an address two days before the invasion, Bush said, “The danger is clear: using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country, or any other.” He said then Iraq was supporting al-Qaeda. Critics disputed the contention and the bipartisan “9/11 Commission” concluded that there was “no collaborative relationship” between the two.  In the months after the invasion, as no unconventional weapons were found, officials said at different times the war was justified by Iraq’s potential, “intellectual capacity,” and intent to someday resume producing and using such arms (see GSN, Feb. 12, 2004). A CIA report on Iraqi unconventional weapons released last year found that Iraq had no such weapons or any intention of attacking the United States with them (see GSN, Jan 25). In his annual State of the Union Address in February, Bush argued that success in Iraq would help spread freedom and end tyranny around the world, which he said would make American more secure. “Our generational commitment to the advance of freedom, especially in the Middle East, is now being tested and honored in Iraq,” he said then. “That country is a vital front in the war on terror, which is why the terrorists have chosen to make a stand there.  Our men and women in uniform are fighting terrorists in Iraq, so we do not have to face them here at home,” he said (see GSN, Feb. 3). Bush’s speech last night portrayed a U.S. withdrawal without a democratic government in Baghdad capable of securing the country as a strategic victory for al-Qaeda. “The only way our enemies can succeed,” Bush said, “is if we forget the lessons of September the 11th, if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like [the Jordanian terrorist believed in Iraq Abu Musab al-]Zarqawi, and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like bin Laden.” Back to top       Order Targets Entities That Aid WMD Proliferation U.S. President George W. Bush today issued an executive order to freeze assets within the United States of companies suspected of supporting weapons of mass destruction proliferation (see GSN, June 23). The order, called Blocking Property of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators and Their Supporters, authorizes the U.S. Treasury Department, working with the State Department and the attorney general, to identify individuals or companies supporting WMD proliferation or acting as fronts for countries attempting to gain weapons. The Treasury Department can then seize assets of those assisting in weapons proliferation. Sources said the order is aimed at stopping Syria, Iran and North Korea from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, according to Reuters (Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, June 29). “This order sends a clear message: if you deal in weapons of mass destruction, you're not going to use the U.S. financial system to bankroll or facilitate your activities,” said Treasury Secretary John Snow (Katherine Shrader, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 29). An annex to the order lists three North Korean and three Iranian companies, as well as the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center. Any assets of those entities that were in the United States or came under U.S. control “are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn or otherwise dealt in” (White House Executive Order, June 29). Back to top

U.S., South Korea Capable of Fending Off North Korean Attack, U.S. Military Commander Says The United States and South Korea could ward off any attack by North Korea, even assuming Pyongyang has one or two nuclear weapons, a top U.S. military official said today (see GSN, June 28). Washington and Seoul “retain our ability to deter North Korean aggression and if required, to decisively defeat the North Korean threat if they were to threaten South Korea,” Gen. Leon LaPorte, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, told Seoul’s PBC Radio. Meanwhile, experts said multilateral talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program are likely to resume soon. “I think it’s possible the talks will resume in July or in August if a little later,” said Park Jun-young, a political science professor at Ewha Womans University. “It’s about time the North return, bargain and negotiate.” By relinquishing its nuclear arsenal, Pyongyang could gain energy assistance and other significant concessions from South Korea, Park said. “The United States will make no more concessions, but it may accept to a certain degree South Korea’s assistance if that can dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons program,” he said (Bo-Mi Lim, Associated Press/Billings Gazette, June 29). Elsewhere, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said he urged U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week to avoid provoking North Korea in what he sees as a lead-up to resumption of six-nation talks, Agence France-Presse reported today. “I made an open request that North Korea should not be provoked ... unnecessarily at a time when a positive atmosphere is proceeding,” Ban said. “I explained to Secretary Rice that the United States and other dialogue partners need to be circumspect in behavior and she expressed understanding,” he said (Agence France-Presse/Forbes.com, June 29). U.S. President George W. Bush should replace his point man on the North Korea nuclear issue, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, with a high-level envoy, four senior Democratic senators wrote in a letter to Bush last week. “The current approach seems almost guaranteed to fail,” according to Senators Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and minority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).  “We urge you to appoint a special envoy to coordinate Korea policy and represent us in direct dialogue with North Korea at the six-party talks,” the letter says. “We need someone with enough clout in the administration to ensure we speak with one voice,” one Democratic congressional aide told United Press International (United Press International/World Peace Herald, June 29). U.S. officials plan to hold a North Korea war game next month at the National Defense University, Reuters reported yesterday. Participants in the “crisis simulation” exercise “will examine the gravity, complexity and difficulty inherent in responding to a series of escalating crises on the Korean Peninsula,” according to a press statement. The event would be “a forum to assess the range of policy options available to the United States to stem the proliferation of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems by North Korea and to understand the associated consequences of each option,” the statement says (Reuters, June 28). Back to top       United States Again Warns of Potential U.N. Security Council Referral of Iran Over Nuclear Work U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday reiterated the warning that Iran could be referred to the U.N. Security Council if it did not cooperate with the European Union’s diplomatic effort to resolve the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear activities, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 28). “There are legs still to this diplomatic process that they’re involved in and we’re trying to support the EU3,” Rice told Fox News yesterday. “But everybody has said — all of us united, including the EU3 — that if the Iranians decide that they won’t take this way out, that the international community has other options like the (U.N.) Security Council,” she said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 28). French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said France, Germany and the United Kingdom plan to put forth a new proposal to Iran at the end of next month, the Associated Press reported (Associated Press, June 28). Some European officials have expressed concern that the election of hard-liner Mahmood Ahmadinejad as Iranian president would endanger the negotiations, but Tehran warned yesterday against prejudging the new administration’s future policies, AFP reported. “We advise the Europeans to beware of making prejudgments and to wait and see the program of Ahmadinejad before they judge,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the Iranian student news agency ISNA. “The Europeans must put forward their ideas by the end of July and if they recognize our rights then everything will end well,” Asefi said (Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, June 28). Meanwhile, Moscow is making plans to assist Tehran in constructing up to six nuclear energy stations, in addition to the facility it is already building at Bushehr, a top Russian official told ITAR-Tass yesterday. “As soon as Iran announces the tender for offers to construct new nuclear reactors, we will participate,” said Russian Atomic Energy Agency head Alexander Rumyantsev (Agence France-Presse III/SpaceWar.com, June 28). Elsewhere, trials of two men charged with nuclear espionage in Iran are scheduled to begin in August, an Iranian judiciary spokesman said yesterday. “The trial session for one of those accused of being a nuclear spy is set for Aug. 2,” Jamal Karimirad was quoted by ISNA as saying. “Proceedings for the other will start on Aug. 20.” Iran last year announced the arrest of 10 people suspected of spying on its nuclear facilities on behalf of the United States and Israel, Reuters reported. A third suspect has already been tried in a special tribunal, but no sentence was handed down, said Karimirad (Reuters/Khaleej Times, June 28). Back to top       NASA Looks to Purchase Space on Russian Spacecraft U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and NASA chief Michael Griffin asked Congress yesterday to relax restrictions on purchasing Russian goods and services, the Orlando Sentinel reported (see GSN, June 22). NASA wants to buy Russian Soyuz spacecraft, or at least space on the ships that serve as a transport to the International Space Station. The Russian agreement to ferry astronauts to the station ends in April 2006. If the restrictions are not relaxed, the United States would be forced to abandon its place on the laboratory. However, the announcement by Iranian President-elect Mahmood Ahmadinejad  that nuclear technology is Tehran’s “inalienable right” is likely to make the request controversial, the Sentinel reported. Restrictions on purchasing goods from the Russians are included in the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000 because of assistance Moscow provides to Iran’s nuclear program (see GSN, June 23). “It's going to cause agony in the congressional assessment of the human space flight program,” said American University professor Howard McCurdy. “We do not want to be in a position where we are deciding between the importance of the International Space Station and the importance of limiting nuclear proliferation, especially to a country like Iran,” said Representative Tom Feeney (R-Fla.). He added that a narrow exception might be made to allow NASA to make its purchases. Other lawmakers, including Representatives Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), Dana Rohrabacher (D-Calif.) and Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) have been pushing for an amendment to the Nonproliferation Act that allows NASA to maintain a presence on the space station. Boehlert and Hyde sent a letter to the White House earlier this year saying the amendment is needed if the United States wants to continue using the space station.  “It is strategically essential the U.S. have its own access to space,” Griffin told lawmakers yesterday (Tamara Lytle, Orlando Sentinel/Kansas City Star, June 29). Back to top

Milk Supply Vulnerable to Bioterrorism, Study Says Introduction of as little as 10 grams of botulinum toxin into a milk tanker truck, could kill hundreds of thousands of people and cost the economy billions of dollars, according to an analysis by Stanford University researchers released yesterday despite opposition from federal officials (see GSN, June 14). Officials expressed concerns that the study could be used by terrorists looking to attack the U.S. food supply. The debate delayed release of the study by a month, the Washington Post reported. The report was posted yesterday on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ Web site. Study leader Lawrence Wein said he was surprised by the attempt to prevent publication. The information in the study was publicly available and could be accessed through an online search, he noted. The U.S. Health and Human Services Department remains critical of the study’s release, spokesman Bill Hall said yesterday. “We don’t see eye to eye on this,” Hall said. “If this ends up being the wrong decision down the road, the consequences could be quite severe and HHS will have to deal with it, not the National Academies.” If such contamination were to take place, children would likely be the first victims — milk for schools does not go through the grocery-distribution system, instead moving directly from processing plants to schools. “They’d be the canaries,” Wein said. Locks on tanker truck latches, improved pasteurization processes and better contamination tests are the most efficient ways to counter the threat, according to the study (Rick Weiss, Washington Post, June 29). Back to top       Colorado Mail Facility Receives Anthrax Detector The U.S. Postal Service processing center in Colorado Springs, Colo., has received a Biohazard Detection System capable of identifying anthrax in the mail, the Rocky Mountain News reported today (see GSN, June 22). “We are very proud to have the BDS here,” said facility manager Garry Gilmore. “This system will ensure the safety of the public and our post office employees.” The system, which uses air filters, purified water and a vacuum hood to test the air for anthrax, is expected to be operating next week (Mike Lawrence, Rocky Mountain News, June 29) . Back to top

African Union Chairman Wants OPCW Office Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to set up a regional office in Africa, Radio Nigeria reported yesterday (see GSN, June 9). Obasanjo, chairman of the African Union, said the office was necessary for world security (Radio Nigeria/BBC Monitoring International Reports, June 28). Back to top

India, U.S. Sign Defense Agreement The United States and India yesterday signed a 10-year defense agreement that would allow for joint missile defense work and possible sharing of sensitive U.S. military technologies, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 17). “The United States and India have entered a new era,” says a statement released after the signing in Washington by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The officials agreed to create a “defense procurement and production group” for oversight of defense-related exchanges and sales, according to AFP. The United States under the agreement might allow sales of dual-use nuclear and space technology to India, which were halted when India became an unofficial nuclear weapons state. “I feel there is a possibility of a change,” Mukherjee said. The agreement also calls on the two nations to “enhance capabilities to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.” There was no word on whether than would include India’s participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 29). Back to top

Three Arrested in Kenya Attempting to Sell Uranium Kenyan authorities arrested three men last week for attempting to sell what they claimed was uranium to two undercover police detectives, Nairobi’s Daily Nation reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 3). The undercover officers posing as customers from Somalia arrested two of the three suspects Thursday at a bar. The third was apprehended Friday, according to the Nation. The suspects — one Ethiopian and two Kenyan nationals — had offered 2 kilograms of uranium for slightly more than $2.6 million, but later attempted to make a deal for just under $300,000. A Zairian national whom police are still pursuing is suspected of having smuggled the substance into the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Nation reported (see GSN, Nov. 10, 2004). The head of the Nairobi provincial police, King'ori Mwangi, and antiterrorism authorities, however, said they remained doubtful of the substance’s authenticity. The substance was taken to Kenyatta University for testing, according to police (Daily Nation/BBC Monitoring, June 28).           Back to top

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