Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Christopher Hill (left), Japanese Foreign Ministry Director General Kenichiro Sasae (right) and South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon before their meeting Saturday in Seoul. The United States is reportedly prepared to end its involvement in the multilateral negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program if no progress is made in the next round of talks (Getty Images/Chung Sung-Jun). U.S. Reportedly Prepared to Pull Out of North Korea Nuclear Talks if No Progress is Made The United States is reportedly prepared to end its involvement in the multilateral negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program if no progress is made in the next round of talks, scheduled for later this month, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 15). “If there is no progress at this time, (the United States) will not allow talks to continue,” a report today in the Asahi Shimbun quoted a Japanese official as saying. U.S. officials made the warning during a meeting with Japanese and South Korean officials in Seoul last week, Japanese sources told the Asahi...Full Story

International Atomic Energy Agency Looks to Increase Monitoring of Nuclear Facilities The International Atomic Energy Agency is seeking increased oversight of uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing at nuclear sites around the world to ensure they are not producing nuclear weapons, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, June 27)...Full Story

EU Official Sees Iran Security Council Referral France, Germany, the United Kingdom and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana are expected to brief European Union foreign ministers today on the proposal they plan to offer next month in nuclear negotiations with Iran, Reuters reported Friday (see GSN, July 15)...Full Story

	Monday, July 18, 2005

Former Inspectors Want Release of Iraqi Scientists There is no reason to continue holding Iraqi scientists involved in the WMD programs of Saddam Hussein’s deposed regime, former U.S. weapons inspectors said in an Associated Press article published yesterday (see GSN, March 25). U.S. military command in Iraq said between eight and 12 “high-value detainees,” reportedly including Amer al-Saadi, Iraq's former liaison to U.N. inspectors, and Rihab Rashid Taha, a biological weapons expert, are in custody at Camp Cropper at the Baghdad airport. Former chief U.S. weapons inspector David Kay said that Charles Duelfer, who led the Iraq Survey Group as it finished its search for unconventional weapons, called for the release of the scientists. “I absolutely agree with his interpretation, that in terms of WMD reasons there's no reason for continued detention,” Kay said. “Whatever they knew about WMD, we now know.” Rod Barton, an Australian biological weapons expert and Survey Group member, said it was “outrageous” that scientists were still in custody. He used biological weapons scientist Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash as an example. “Huda is there accused of restarting the bioweapons program in the mid-1990s. And there was no such program,” Barton said. Meanwhile, the U.S. military refused to provide additional details on the death of bioweapons scientist Mohammad Munim al-Izmerly. The scientist’s body was delivered to a Baghdad hospital from Camp Cropper with a death certificate that said he died on natural causes. However, an autopsy revealed that he died of blunt force trauma to the head. Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Pamela Heart said no one has been charged in the matter and refused to provide AP with details on the investigation’s progress (Charles Hanley, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, July 17). Back to top

U.S. Reportedly Prepared to Pull Out of North Korea Nuclear Talks if No Progress is Made The United States is reportedly prepared to end its involvement in the multilateral negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program if no progress is made in the next round of talks, scheduled for later this month, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 15). “If there is no progress at this time, (the United States) will not allow talks to continue,” a report today in the Asahi Shimbun quoted a Japanese official as saying. U.S. officials made the warning during a meeting with Japanese and South Korean officials in Seoul last week, Japanese sources told the Asahi. “If no end result is seen by the end of the year, the United States will likely ask concerned parties to join in taking tougher measures” against Pyongyang, the official said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, July 18). North Korea said today it would require compensation for relinquishing its nuclear weapons, the Associated Press reported. "The U.S. should … bear in mind that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula cannot be realized through unrequited demands for denuclearization and will only lead to augmenting the nuclear crisis,” the official Rodong Sinmun daily announced. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told visiting former Secretary of State Colin Powell that the United States was ultimately responsible for the outcome of the negotiations. “The United States still has the final key to the six-party talks,” said Roh (Associated Press/WINKtv.com, July 18). North Korea has produced a 1-ton plutonium bomb and is trying to devise 500-kilogram weapons that could be mounted on missiles, a North Korean lawmaker who defected to South Korea in May told officials in Seoul, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo daily reported today (Reuters, July 17). However, many North Korean experts doubt the effectiveness of their devices, the defector added. “We cannot say for certain that large warheads, for instance, will really explode,” the defector was quoted as saying (Vasily Golovnin, ITAR-Tass, July 18). Meanwhile, North Korea’s ambassador to Russia, Pak Ui Chun, met today with Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev, AP reported. Pak and Alexeyev discussed “the situation surrounding the resolution of the atomic problem” and the six-nation talks, said the Russian Foreign Ministry (Associated Press/Jerusalem Post, July 18). Elsewhere, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, the top South Korean nuclear negotiator, visited Russia and China over the weekend, AFP reported. Song was to have met with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, and Alexeyev to discuss the upcoming talks, officials said. Song met with his counterparts from the United States and Japan on Thursday, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, July 16). Back to top       International Atomic Energy Agency Looks to Increase Monitoring of Nuclear Facilities The International Atomic Energy Agency is seeking increased oversight of uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing at nuclear sites around the world to ensure they are not producing nuclear weapons, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, June 27). Sources said the U.N. agency at a September board meeting is expected to submit a report asking that up to 10 nuclear facilities be placed under international control by 2010, the Kyodo news agency reported. That would include facilities in the United States, Japan and Russia. The agency wants to limit the nuclear processes to sites under international management, then provide the fuel to countries without nuclear facilities. Iran, the United States and Japan are likely to oppose additional supervision, according to AP (Associated Press, July 16). Back to top       EU Official Sees Iran Security Council Referral France, Germany, the United Kingdom and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana are expected to brief European Union foreign ministers today on the proposal they plan to offer next month in nuclear negotiations with Iran, Reuters reported Friday (see GSN, July 15). The election as president of hard-liners Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, however, has led to increasing pessimism about the negotiations, officials said. “Most people still want to proceed and present the comprehensive package in August, once Ahmadinejad takes office, so that Iran has a clear choice between the benefits of cooperation and the risks of isolation,” said one EU official. “It is very, very difficult to see this ending up anywhere but in the [U.N.] Security Council,” said the official (Paul Taylor, Reuters, July 15). The European powers may be prepared to offer Tehran assistance in building nuclear energy reactors and a fuel supply, a top Iranian official said yesterday. Iranian negotiator Hossein Mousavian added, however, that Iran could resume uranium enrichment activities if the EU negotiators push to keep in place a voluntary suspension of the work. “We will continue negotiations because we are very close to a solution,” he said. “But continuing the suspension under current conditions is not possible, and if the Europeans don’t accept this, we will resume (uranium enrichment) activities at Isfahan,” he said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, July 17). Iran announced today that an unsatisfactory European proposal could lead to quick resumption of uranium enrichment, Agence France-Presse reported. “(The European proposals) will be unacceptable if they do not acknowledge Iran’s right to (uranium) enrichment and Iran will not wait long before taking other decisions,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi (Agence France-Presse/TurkishPress.com, July 18). Meanwhile, Iran and Russia are investigating former Russian nuclear energy minister Yevgeny Adamov in connection with construction delays at Iran’s Bushehr power plant, AFP reported yesterday (see GSN, June 28). “We agreed on a parallel probe into the reasons why it took so long to implement this project. And we have reached not very pleasant conclusions,” said the president of Russia’s audit chamber, Sergei Stepashin. Adamov was arrested in Switzerland in May on charges of embezzlement related to U.S. nuclear security assistance funds. “The Iranians have many questions for former minister Adamov, because, according to their data, several projects worth a lot of money, millions of dollars, were paid for but have not been implemented,” Stepashin said. “We are waiting for our Iranian colleagues (to send us) documents and we will study them very closely with our specialists,” he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, July 17). Back to top       China Refuses to Retract General’s Nuclear Threat A Chinese Foreign Ministry official on Saturday did not disavow statements by a top military official that China would use nuclear weapons if the United States were to intervene militarily in Taiwan, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 15). The official added, however, that Gen. Zhu Chenghu’s comments were only his own views and that China would seek a peaceful settlement to the standoff over Taiwan. “We will never tolerate ‘Taiwan Independence,’ neither will we allow anybody with any means to separate Taiwan from the motherland,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman told AFP (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, July 16). The U.S. State Department on Friday called Zhu’s remarks “highly irresponsible,” the New York Times reported. “We hope that these are not the views of the Chinese government,” said spokesman Sean McCormack. “The United States is not a threat to China. We have a broad and deep relationship,” said McCormack. “The remarks from that one individual are unfortunate” (Joel Brinkley, New York Times, July 16). Back to top       On Trinity Anniversary, Manhattan Project Scientist Calls for End to Nuclear Weapons Production On the 60th anniversary of the first nuclear blast, one of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project called for an end to the production of nuclear weapons, the Scripps Howard News Service reported Friday (see GSN, June 15). “We must stop the production of nuclear weapons,” said Wolfgang Panofsky, director emeritus of Stanford University's Linear Accelerator Center. “Each sovereign state must be convinced that its security is better off without nuclear weapons than with them.” Other Manhattan Project scientists also offered their thoughts on the present-day nuclear situation while gathered last week in Washington. “Common sense” is needed to focus on reducing nuclear stockpiles rather than developing programs such as the ballistic missile defense system, said Val Fitch, chairman emeritus of the Princeton University Physics Department. Louis Rosen, a senior laboratory fellow emeritus at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, is troubled by the lack of civilian control of nuclear weapons in Pakistan and other countries, according to Scripps Howard. Lawrence Johnson, a Manhattan Project scientist and former University of Idaho professor, offered prayer as his solution to proliferation problems. “I am asking that God will give us good ideas,” he said (James Brosnan, Scripps Howard News Service/Albuquerque Tribune, July 15). Back to top

San Francisco Plans Bioterrorism Isolation Units San Francisco General Hospital plans to set up isolation units for victims of bioterrorism and for serious tuberculosis cases, the San Francisco Examiner reported yesterday (see GSN, March 8). Money for the unit comes from a $1 million grant from California and the National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program. The Regional Tertiary Event Response Facility is expected to have 18 isolation rooms where diseases like smallpox or plague could be treated, according to the Examiner. Under the terms of the grant, patients could not leave the facility until they pose no danger to others. California has had for 10 years a plan for detaining tuberculosis patients. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is expected to review plans for the unit tomorrow. If approved, the unit is expected to be installed by Sept. 1 (Jo Stanley, San Francisco Examiner, July 17). Back to top

Anniston Finishes Destruction of 8-Inch Sarin Shells The Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Alabama yesterday completed destruction of 8-inch shells containing the nerve agent sarin (see GSN, June 28). Completion of destruction of 16,026 8-inch shells brings the total number of weapons destroyed at Anniston to 68,388. Workers are now preparing to destroy 105 mm sarin-filled shells. Destruction is expected to begin later this month and could be completed by the end of the year, according to an Anniston press release. After the 105 mm shells are destroyed, the facility is expected to begin destruction of M55 rockets filled with VX nerve agent. Anniston officials expect work on the M55 rockets to being in spring 2006 (Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility release, July 18).  Back to top       Fire Stops Weapons Destruction at Pine Bluff Arsenal A small fire yesterday at the U.S. Army’s Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas has again halted chemical weapons disposal at the facility, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 26). The fire ignited in the explosive containment room of an incinerator used to destroy chemical munitions. There were no weapons being destroyed at the time or in the vicinity of the fire. A sprinkler system extinguished the flames in 40 seconds, according to AP. “The event is currently under review, however, ignition of residual material contained in the feed-gate drain pan was been preliminarily identified as the most likely cause of the event,” said project manager Randy Long. Work at the facility will resume “when measures required to prepare the facility for rocket processing are completed,” according to an arsenal press release. That could occur on Wednesday. The fire was the sixth in the last four months at either Pine Bluff or the Umatilla Chemical Weapons Depot in Oregon, AP reported (Associated Press/Dateline Alabama, Jul 17). Back to top

U.S. to Allow Japanese Production of PAC-3 Missiles Washington and Tokyo have signed an agreement allowing for licensed production of U.S.-developed Patriot Advanced Capability 3 interceptor missiles by Japan, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday (see GSN, July 1). A memorandum of understanding was signed in March, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Lockheed Martin and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are expected to sign a production contract by March 2006, according to Asahi (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, July 16). Back to top

Veterinarians Warn of Agroterrorism Risk Veterinarians and other animal-health experts meeting in Minnesota warned that plants and animals are susceptible to terrorist attack, the Associated Press reported yesterday (See GSN, Dec. 23, 2004). “Agroterror would in fact be very easy to do, and we are quite vulnerable,” said Corrie Brown of the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. Brown warned attendees at the joint convention of the American Veterinary Medical Association and World Veterinary Congress that animal diseases are highly contagious and can be obtained easily in less-developed countries. Brown used an image of a list of livestock diseases found in a cave in Afghanistan as evidence that terrorists are considering attacks on agriculture, AP reported. “We know that there are numerous operatives that were planning these things,” Brown said. Other convention attendees expressed concerns about the lack of veterinary laboratories and a shortage of veterinarians, according to AP.  Terrorists could use diseases such as avian flu, anthrax or rabies against animals and people, said Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health. He also fears terrorists could introduce a disease that affects livestock. “The foot-and-mouth disease virus could be a terrible agent for bioterrorism because it could destroy totally the production of milk in a country,” Vallat said (Associated Press/Grand Forks Herald, July 17).           Back to top

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