A satellite photograph of the Yongbyon nuclear facility in North Korea. A Japanese newspaper reported that Pyongyang has resumed construction on the Yongbyon and the Thaechon nuclear reactors (Getty Images/Ho). North Korea Reportedly Resuming Reactor Construction Construction has resumed on two North Korean nuclear reactors suspended under the 1994 Agreed Framework with the United States, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported today (see GSN, June 29). North Korea has restarted work on a 50-megawatt reactor in Yongbyon and a 200-megawatt reactor in Thaechon, Nihon Keizai quoted U.S. officials and other sources in Washington as saying. Pyongyang recently told Washington “indirectly” about the work, the sources said, adding that satellite photographs and additional data had confirmed the statements...Full Story

EU Diplomats Pessimistic on Iran Nuclear Negotiations After Hard-Liner Presidential Victory Some British, French and German diplomats are pessimistic about chances for a deal on Iran’s nuclear program as hard-line President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepares to take office, the Financial Times reported today (see GSN, June 29)...Full Story

U.S. Intelligence Chief to Control Budget, Other Key Parts of FBI’s New Security Service U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte will control the budget and other key parts of an office consolidating the FBI espionage, counterterrorism and intelligence services, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, June 29)...Full Story

	Thursday, June 30, 2005

U.S. Intelligence Chief to Control Budget, Other Key Parts of FBI’s New Security Service U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte will control the budget and other key parts of an office consolidating the FBI espionage, counterterrorism and intelligence services, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, June 29). Responsibility for the new National Security Service is another extension of the power granted to Negroponte in his job, which was created by the intelligence reform bill passed last year. “If there was any doubt about the DNI's authority, and whether the president was going to empower the DNI, that shouldn't remain today,” said White House domestic security adviser Frances Townsend. Creation of the new office is “a fundamental strengthening of our intelligence capabilities. It's not simply a moving of boxes.  It's not simply a restructuring.” President George W. Bush ordered the new FBI office created in accepting 70 recommendations yesterday from his blue-ribbon commission on WMD intelligence. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, Negroponte’s deputy, said the new office would institute new intelligence validation standards to prevent episodes that preceded the Iraq war, such as when an Iraqi defector known as Curveball fed U.S. intelligence agencies bad information about Saddam Hussein’s alleged biological weapons program (see GSN, April 8).   The White House did, however, place some limits on Negroponte’s power. It rejected a recommendation that would have moved covert operations planning from the CIA to the National Counterproliferation and National Counterterrorism centers managed by Negroponte. “There were persuasive and strong arguments made against doing that, and we believe the reorganization of the CIA … will meet the same objectives,” Townsend said. The FBI loses significant levels of autonomy under the White House decisions, some experts said, according to the Times.  Post-Sept. 11 efforts by FBI to shift from domestic crime fighting to combating terrorism were hampered by a culture that prized arrests and convictions over abstract threat analyses. While the agency had fought the changes, FBI Director Robert Mueller said yesterday he does not “see it as a loss of independence at all.” “We all have to work together. We cannot do it alone,” he said (Mazzetti/Schmitt/Vieth, Los Angeles Times, June 30). The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee expressed cautious optimism about the FBI overhaul.  “The FBI will not get ahead of the terrorist threat if it doesn't have a fully dedicated intelligence service, and now it will,” Representative Jane Harman (Calif.) told the New York Times. “But this will require a massive culture change within the FBI because the guns and badges and the mind-set of the FBI don't totally fit with the challenges of countering terrorism.” The Times also reported that the responsibility for overseeing the FBI intelligence overhaul falls to Negroponte. The director of the new FBI National Security Service will report to Negroponte and Mueller. The president, in a memo to top aides, said the changes “ensure that the FBI's intelligence elements are responsive” to Negroponte and that the new office would be “subject to the coordination and budget powers” of the intelligence director (Douglas Jehl. New York Times, June 30). The American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern about giving Negroponte power over the FBI. Spies have few constraints on operation, while FBI agents are bound by the Constitution, said Timothy Edgar, ACLU national security policy counsel. “What we could see is the spies in charge of the cops,” Edgar said. “You have a (director of national intelligence) who is in charge of mostly secret foreign intelligence and now is also in law enforcement. So does that mean we have a secret police? Our concern is we could be going down the road” (Shannon McCaffrey, Knight Ridder, June 30). Hayden said that changes designed to improve intelligence analysis could take years to institute, while others like the appointment of a human intelligence director could happen in months, the Associated Press reported last night. Harman and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said the reorganization would ensure “accurate, timely and actionable intelligence.” Harman added, however, that other issues needed “sustained attention” so that Negroponte is not “forever fending off turf attacks” (Katherine Shrader, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, June 29). Back to top       Downing Street Memos Misinterpreted, Blair Says British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday yesterday denied that Washington had decisively decided to invade Iraq months after Sept. 11, rejecting claims that the Downing Street memos indicate such a decision (see GSN, June 20). “People say the decision was already taken. The decision was not already taken,” Blair told the Associated Press. “What happened for me after Sept. 11 is that the balance of risk changed,” he said. That change made it necessary to “draw a line in the sand here, and the country to do it with was Iraq because they were in breach of U.N. resolutions going back over many years,” said Blair. “I took the view that if these people ever got hold of nuclear, chemical or biological capability, they would probably use it.” He added that he was “a bit astonished” at the high level of U.S. media attention to the documents, which include minutes of a July 23, 2002, meeting between Blair and high-level British officials. Richard Dearlove, British intelligence chief at the time, said the Bush administration believed then that the invasion of Iraq was inevitable, AP reported. Such discussions are expected in the face of a possible war, Blair said. “The trouble with having a political discussion on the basis of things that are leaked is that they are always taken right out of context. Everything else is omitted from the discussion and you end up focusing on a specific document,” he said. “It would be absolutely weird if, when the Iraq issue was on the agenda, you were not constantly raising issues, trying to work them out, get them in the right place” (Dodds/Perry, Associated Press/Seattle Times, June 30). Back to top

North Korea Reportedly Resuming Reactor Construction Construction has resumed on two North Korean nuclear reactors suspended under the 1994 Agreed Framework with the United States, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported today (see GSN, June 29). North Korea has restarted work on a 50-megawatt reactor in Yongbyon and a 200-megawatt reactor in Thaechon, Nihon Keizai quoted U.S. officials and other sources in Washington as saying. Pyongyang recently told Washington “indirectly” about the work, the sources said, adding that satellite photographs and additional data had confirmed the statements. It would take several years to finish construction, according to Nihon Keizai. An official in Seoul familiar with North Korea intelligence, however, said there was no specific evidence work had resumed. “At this stage, there is no additional information to substantiate this report, which has been talked about before based on assumptions,” the South Korean official said (Reuters, June 30). U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to ask Chinese officials next month in Beijing what additional punitive measures against North Korea they are willing to accept, Bush administration officials told the New York Times. China, however, is likely to urge the United States to offer more incentives to Pyongyang, according to the officials. Washington has said it is not willing to make any new offers. The disagreement could leave the nuclear standoff “unresolved for a long time,” one senior diplomat said. Meanwhile, a senior North Korean official is expected to meet today in New York with U.S., Japanese and South Korean representatives, the Times reported (Joel Brinkley, New York Times, June 30). North Korean Foreign Ministry Director General Ri Gun confirmed yesterday that he was in New York to discuss the nuclear standoff, likely on the sidelines of an international conference, the Associated Press reported. “I’m here for consultations on that,” said Ri, referring to the nuclear issue. “Our position is that we want justification” for returning to the six-party talks, he said. Joseph DeTrani, U.S. State Department special envoy for North Korea negotiations, and another State Department official, Jim Foster, are also expected to attend the conference, according to AP. Ri refused to say whether or not Pyongyang would return to talks in July. “We will be able to know after consultations” with the United States, he said. No meetings between the U.S. officials and Ri were scheduled outside of the conference, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. “I would expect, since they will be at the conference, that they will be in the same room together,” he said. “But there are no planned meetings or exchanges” (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 30). Multilateral nuclear talks are more likely to resume this summer if Washington tones down its rhetoric, analysts told Agence France-Presse. “If only they (the U.S.) would shut their mouths and stop the public insults of Kim Jong Il, then North Korea will come around,” said Paul Harris, a political scientist at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. “When [U.S. President George W.] Bush called Kim Jong Il ‘Mr. Kim’ last month, it had an immediate impact in a favorable way,” Harris said (Robert Saiget, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 30). Back to top       EU Diplomats Pessimistic on Iran Nuclear Negotiations After Hard-Liner Presidential Victory Some British, French and German diplomats are pessimistic about chances for a deal on Iran’s nuclear program as hard-line President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepares to take office, the Financial Times reported today (see GSN, June 29). The European powers plan to put forth proposals to Tehran by early August that include nuclear fuel guarantees, technical assistance similar to the 1994 Agreed Framework between North Korea and the United States, and encouragement of regional contacts to address Tehran’s security concerns, the Times reported. Iran has, however, rejected similar offers in the past. “It is not exactly as if these will be completely new proposals, but they will be much more detailed and global,” said a French diplomat. At the same time, Washington may have extended itself as far as it intends to in supporting the diplomatic effort. Following last week’s election in Iran, “It may now be more difficult for the Europeans to convince the Americans to go further in helping out,” said one EU official. If Iran rejects the EU proposals and resumes sensitive nuclear activity, the European Union plans to back measures critical of the move at the International Atomic Energy Agency and, ultimately, at the U.N. Security Council, officials said. “The first step will have to be the IAEA,” said a European diplomat. “The basis for initial discussion in both the IAEA board and also the U.N. Security Council, if it gets there, will inevitably be the Paris agreement” (Daniel Dombey, Financial Times, June 30). Meanwhile, departing IAEA Deputy Director General Pierre Goldschmidt said yesterday that Washington and Moscow should support the EU diplomatic effort, Reuters reported. The agency’s goal is to verify whether there are any more “undeclared” nuclear materials or activities in the country, but doing so is only possible with Iranian cooperation, Goldschmidt told Le Figaro. “We haven’t advanced much lately,” said Goldschmidt. “It is very important that the United States and Russia support the EU in its mediation efforts, so that the European offers are taken seriously by Tehran,” he said. Asked if Iran might have mobile nuclear sites undetectable by agency inspectors, Goldschmidt said, “I haven’t heard talk of this hypothesis in the framework of Iran. But it is not unthinkable that modular installations for uranium conversion exist. If such installations are concealed in military, oil, or even urban sites, detecting them is extremely difficult” (Reuters, June 29). Back to top       Switzerland Extradites German Smuggling Suspect A German national has been extradited to his home country to face charges that he helped provide technology for Libya’s now-defunct nuclear weapons effort, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, March 31). Swiss authorities transferred Gotthard Lerch to German custody this morning at a border point between the two countries, said Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli (Associated Press, June 30). Back to top

Jordan CW Plot Suspect Admits Meeting with Zarqawi A suspect in a foiled plot to detonate a chemical weapon in Jordan met beforehand n Iraq with fellow defendant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to discuss the planned attacks, according to a videotaped confession played in court yesterday (see GSN, June 23). The tape shows defendant Azmi al-Jayousi confessing that he planned to carry out attacks in Jordan, the Associated Press reported. “I met with Abu Musab in Baghdad, who told me that a man called al-Jubouri will be the contact man between me and Abu Musab,” said Jayousi, one of 13 suspects in an alleged plan to attack Jordanian intelligence agency headquarters in Amman. Jayousi also admitted to agreeing to kill Lt. Col., Mahmoud Obeidat, a military prosecutor. “Abu Musab sent me [$70,000] and weapons with the so-called Jubouri as well as detonators to kill the prosecutor with a telecommunications device if we don’t succeed in shooting him,” Jayousi said on the tape. A second tape played in court showed how the defendants made the chemicals and explosives they intended to use against the intelligence service and other sites in Amman (Associated Press, June 29). Back to top       Conviction of Deseret Chemical Depot Worker Upheld An appeals court upheld the conviction of a man sentenced to six months in prison for falsifying test data to ensure that air quality monitors passed inspection at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah, the Deseret Morning News reported today (see GSN, Feb. 6, 2004).   David James Yarbrough was sentenced in February 2004. In his appeal, Yarbrough argued that his attorney failed to call a key witness during the trial and that the prosecution used standards from an out-of-date report. He also argued that a prosecution witness violated a sequester order and that prosecutors stated facts incorrectly during closing arguments. However, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said these arguments did not change substantive evidence against Yarbrough (Geoffrey Fattah, Deseret Morning News, June 30). Back to top       Blue Grass Storage Igloo Improvement Plan Approved The Kentucky Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet on Friday approved a plan to improve conditions inside chemical weapons storage igloos at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, the Richmond Register reported yesterday (see GSN, June 29). The plans calls for the replacement of rocket pallets, better igloo insulation and changes to the ground around the igloos so that water runs away from the storage facilities, according to Blue Grass spokesman Dave Easter. “Some of the pallets were being water logged,” he said of the wooden storage devices, which become weaker when exposed to water. “If the pallets become unstable, they could fall over. This could happen when an employee is in the igloo and cause physical harm or at worst, death either from trauma or from chemical agent if it spills. Spilling is not likely, but is possible. And, if there is a spill, that presents a threat to the local community.” “We will look at what the operation is and what the risks are," Easter said. "We'll go through the process with people watching to make sure that employees are doing the right thing. There could be a mishandling on the forklift or a chemical. People do make mistakes” (Ronica Brandenburg, Richmond Register, June 29). Back to top

Government Scientist Denies Tampering With Data on Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site A U.S. government scientist yesterday denied altering documents or data on the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository in Nevada, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 6). “I have never falsified any documents related to Yucca Mountain or any other project,” Joseph Hevesi, a U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist in Sacramento, told a House Government Reform subcommittee. E-mails written by Hevesi and other scientists suggest they tampered with data related to the site in order to improve its chances for approval, Yucca Mountain critics have said. In one e-mail, Hevesi wrote, “In the end I keep track of two sets of files, the ones that will keep [quality assurance] happy and the ones that were actually used.” The set of data for quality assurance was only different from the other set in that it had a header field, Hevesi told the subcommittee. “All the numbers in those files are identical, so in essence they are identical files,” he said. In another e-mail, Hevesi stated, “I don’t have a clue when these programs were installed. So I’ve made up the dates and names. … This is as good as it’s going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff.” “I’m making an off-the-cuff remark to identify I may not know the exact date. My wording here is poor, and I should have used ‘educated guess,’” he told the panel. Hevesi added that he never felt pressure from project managers to reach specific conclusions. “I feel the work is sound, and I realize it doesn’t seem that way with these e-mails,” he told lawmakers. “The e-mails I characterize, myself, as being water-cooler talk, and I would not do that again in hindsight.” Reviews of the work by Hevesi and others have thus far turned up nothing that would undermine the scientific underpinnings of the project, John Arthur, Yucca Mountain project deputy director, told the panel. “Preliminarily, we believe there is ample corroborating data ... that validates the technical basis for the project,” Arthur said (Erica Werner, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 29).             Back to top

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