New rules require emergency responders, such as these police patrolling a Los Angeles rail station in July, to modify some long-standing practices before they can receive federal antiterrorism grants (Getty Images/Robyn Beck). Local Emergency Teams Resist Federal Rules for Receiving Antiterror Funding By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A month before the United States begins tying antiterrorism grants to recipients’ observance of a new national emergency system, U.S. officials are cautioning state and local agencies against “continued resistance” to the system (see GSN, April 15)...Full Story

Iran to Avoid Emergency IAEA Meeting The United States and the European Union have decided not to push for an emergency International Atomic Energy Agency meeting even if Iran does not meet a Sept. 3 U.N. deadline to reinstate a nuclear freeze, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 25)...Full Story

Date for North Korea Talks Remains Unsettled Participants in six-nation negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear effort have not yet set a specific day to resume the talks, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Aug. 25)...Full Story

	Friday, August 26, 2005

Local Emergency Teams Resist Federal Rules for Receiving Antiterror Funding By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A month before the United States begins tying antiterrorism grants to recipients’ observance of a new national emergency system, U.S. officials are cautioning state and local agencies against “continued resistance” to the system (see GSN, April 15). As of Oct. 1, prospective recipients of federal terrorism grants must show “good-faith efforts” to implement the National Incident Management System (NIMS), Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Don Jacks said yesterday. Full compliance with the system is required after a year. With the “good-faith” deadline approaching, the federal NIMS Integration Center has issued two cautionary bulletins in the past 10 days to response agencies around the country. “The point is that all responders at all levels use the same organizational structures, terminology, procedures and systems all the time,” the center said Aug. 17 in the first of the two bulletins. “The idea is to achieve interoperability among jurisdictions and disciplines.” Created under a 2003 presidential directive on incident response, the new system is often described as the “playbook” for the related National Response Plan. Together, the two documents govern cooperation among different agencies and levels of government in a terrorist attack or other crisis. Assigning responsibilities to different agencies and laying out common national practices for emergency operations, they replace a hodgepodge of previous plans that officials feared could make it more difficult for agencies to work together across jurisdictions and governmental levels. Could Saying “10-4” Mean Forfeiting Terror Grants? In the second of the two recent bulletins, dated Aug. 23, the center addressed the NIMS requirement that emergency responders use “plain language” — rather than traditional “10-codes,” such as “10-4” for “message received” — when communicating by radio. “They’ve got to get in the habit of saying, ‘We have a bank robbery at First and Main,’ instead of, ‘We’ve got a 10-40 at First and Main,’” Jacks said. In the bulletin, the center warned, “Continued resistance to complying with NIMS requirements and [using] plain language will result in the loss of federal preparedness funding.” The fiscal 2006 Homeland Security Department budget includes more than $3 billion in assistance to state and local emergency responders. Police departments are concerned that officers’ security could be compromised by speaking in language that suspects can readily understand, said Gene Voegtlin, legislative counsel for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “Of all the issues moving forward,” Voegtlin said today, “I think this is the one that’s going to cause the most consternation.” The integration center acknowledged it “understand[s] that the use of 10-codes is not going to be completely eliminated by October 2006” and that its goal for now is “that good-faith efforts are under way at all levels nationwide to move to plain English for all emergency operations.” Nevertheless, federal officials are making it clear that the eventual goal is the complete elimination of the codes. “Some reporter asked me just the other day, ‘Will the 10-codes just be relegated to movies and Barney Fife?’” Jacks said. “Well, yes.” The police departments say they understand the need to use plain language in interagency operations, but that police should not have to stop using 10-codes in their everyday work. Washington should consult further with state and local agencies in order to agree on what is required of police, Voegtlin said. “I think there is confusion about the 10-code issue,” Voegtlin said. “If two people look at the same statement, they could see it two different ways.” FEMA Wants State, Local Responders to “Practice Like They Play” The codes are addressed in an appendix to the main NIMS document, in a section on how to set up the communications unit of an incident command. “Codes should not be used for radio communication,” the document reads. “A clear spoken message — based on common terminology that avoids misunderstanding in complex and noisy situations — reduces the chances for error.” Although the placement of the requirement appears to support the police departments’ contention that common language is required only in interagency crisis operations, the NIMS Integration Center maintains that state and local agencies must implement NIMS requirements in everyday operations in order to be capable of doing so in a catastrophe. “The first-responder community understands that they have to practice like they play,” FEMA spokesman Jacks said, “and, you know, there will be some teaching old dogs new tricks here.” In the first of the two bulletins, which did not specifically address the codes, the integration center warned, “The requirement to adopt and implement NIMS and ICS [the Incident Command System, an aspect of the NIMS approach to managing incidents] means NIMS and ICS for incident management every day.” The center said it was responding to “a number of questions recently” about whether the management system could be reserved for use “during major incidents involving federal participation.” “Those who do not train for, exercise and use NIMS and ICS in their day-to-day operations will not be able to integrate their activities into a system they do not know, haven't practiced and don't use,” the center said. Voegtlin said police officers’ security in routine situations, though, depends upon using codes. Plain-language radio communications can push suspects within earshot of police radios — those being apprehended by or already in the custody of an officer — to dangerous measures they might not take if they did not understand the radio communication, he said. “The 10-codes actually serve a purpose. They serve a security purpose,” he said. As for the federal position that agencies must “practice like they play,” Voegtlin said officers are already accustomed to using plain language and instructed to do so in interagency operations. “It’s not like they talk in 10-codes when they go home,” he said. “They have the ability to switch languages or to switch speaking styles.” Voegtlin expressed confidence that a solution would be reached and that no antiterrorism grants would be denied over the use of the codes. “I think this confusion is just being identified at the moment,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting things clarified.” Back to top       CIA Report Criticizes Tenet, Others on Al-Qaeda Former CIA Director George Tenet and other former and present agency officials have been criticized in an internal report for their efforts against al-Qaeda prior to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Jan. 7). The report by CIA Inspector General John Helgerson states that Tenet in a 1998 memo said the United States was “at war” with al-Qaeda, but that he failed to produce a plan to counter the terrorist organization. The report details other troubles at the agency before 2001 and includes both criticism and some praise for officials including Tenet, former Deputy Director of Operations James Pavitt and former agency Counterterrorist Center chief Cofer Black, sources told the Times. CIA Director Porter Goss should organize “accountability boards” to make recommendations on personnel actions for officials criticized in the report who remain with the agency. Former officials could receive letters of reprimand. Goss has sent the report to the House and Senate intelligence committees. In an e-mail to CIA employees, he said “much has been done at CIA and throughout the intelligence community to improve and reform the way we do business.” “The major changes to our agency are behind us,” Goss said. Helgerson plans to compile responses to his report from Tenet and around 24 other officials. The responses will be submitted to Congress. Tenet has asked former Senator Warrren Rudman (R-N.H.) to review the report, the Times reported. An official who has seen the report called it “thorough and professional.” However, a former intelligence official close to Tenet said the inspector general’s office did not interview policy-makers or non-CIA intelligence personnel, and failed to report that the agency put the most focus on al-Qaeda of any governmental body prior to 2001 (Shane/Risen, New York Times, Aug. 26). Back to top

Bolton Defends Effort to Amend U.N. Reform Draft U.S. Ambassador John Bolton yesterday defended Washington’s recent push for hundreds of proposed changes to a U.N. reform document the organization hopes to finalize next month, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 25). The amendments “are not that dissimilar to changes that we’ve been talking about here at the U.N. for months,” Bolton said. “Our hope is to have a strong consensus document for the high-level event,” he said, referring to next month’s summit in New York. Some of the amendments would eliminate calls for the nuclear powers to relinquish their weapons, according to AP. Egyptian U.N. Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said many difference remain, including agreement on a definition of terrorism (Edith Lederer, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Aug. 26). Some U.N. ambassadors criticized the U.S. move and encouraged openness to compromise, Reuters reported. “It is not mathematics. It is politics,” said Russian Ambassador Andrei Denisov, referring to the hundreds of changes proposed by the U.S. delegation. “We need to produce something tangible before our leaders come here in September,” Denisov said. “We will do more work to try to find some sort of compromise and try to reach something which is more or less acceptable to everybody.” “I think there is a general sense that these comments come rather late in the process,” said Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima. “But still there is time that we can spend in working on the documents, in refining them on various issues” (Irwin Arieff, Reuters, Aug. 25). Back to top       U.S., British Officials Discuss Libya Relations High-level U.S. and British officials yesterday discussed their Libyan policies, as Washington moves toward normalizing relations with Tripoli, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 23). State Department Near East bureau chief David Welch was in London to go over “Libya’s policies on terrorism, human rights, and ways to strengthen our cooperation on the outstanding issues we have between us as we develop a different kind of relationship with Libya,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. The United Kingdom resumed relations with Libya in 1999 after Tripoli took responsibility for the 1984 death a police officer shot by someone from within the Libyan Embassy in London, AP reported. The U.S. relationship with Libya improved after the North African nation renounced weapons of mass destruction in 2003. “We’ve come quite a ways and have a different relationship with Libya than we had three, four years ago,” McCormack said. “There are still outstanding issues regarding human rights, terrorism, democratization that we’re talking to them about,” he said (Jill Lawless, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Aug. 25). Back to top

Iran to Avoid Emergency IAEA Meeting The United States and the European Union have decided not to push for an emergency International Atomic Energy Agency meeting even if Iran does not meet a Sept. 3 U.N. deadline to reinstate a nuclear freeze, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 25). A Sept. 6 emergency meeting proposed by Washington that might have led to the referral of Iran’s case to the U.N. Security Council is “not going to take place,” a senior EU diplomat told AFP in Vienna. “With the Russians dead set against it, it’s not going to happen,” said a Western diplomat (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Aug. 25). Speaking today after a meeting in Vienna with IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, new chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Tehran was not afraid of being sent to the Security Council. “With the power that Iran enjoys in the region, there is no way that Iran can be worried about the threat of the Security Council,” he said, according to Reuters. Iran plans within a month to offer a new proposal regarding its nuclear efforts. The plan is expected to include a call for adding nations to the EU-Iranian nuclear negotiations (Francois Murphy, Reuters, Aug. 25). “Based on what logic and agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency have the negotiations been limited and dependent on the three European countries?” Larijani said, according to AFP. The U.S. State Department immediately rejected the call for broader talks. “Any discussion of trying to change with whom they negotiate ... is really an attempt to change the subject,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Aug. 26). The European negotiating partners were unenthusiastic about Iran’s call for fresh talks, AP reported. There is “no basis for negotiation with Iran until they respond” to an IAEA resolution adopted earlier this month calling for suspension of nuclear activities at the Isfahan facility, the British Foreign Office announced (George Jahn, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Aug. 26). Some analysts said that talks have reached an impasse, AFP reported. “It’s clear that the whole deal is stuck,” former IAEA official Georges Le Guelte told AFP. “The Iranians are saying: ‘we’ve left last year’s agreements but we can still negotiate what points are left.’  It’s staggering,” said Francois Heisbourg, head of France’s Foundation for Strategic Research. “Iran feels now ... that the wind is at their back and they can be more assertive than they have been in the past,” said Karim Sadjadpour, of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. “It’s very difficult to have formal talks when there is no negotiating framework and no basis for negotiation,” said a European diplomat close to the talks (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 25). An exiled Iranian opposition group said yesterday that Iran is “95-percent ready” to manufacture a nuclear weapon, AP reported. The EU “policy of appeasing the Iranian regime has to be abandoned,” said Ali Safawi, a member of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran. “If anything ... it is the regime (in Tehran) that has benefited from these talks” by buying time to diversify its nuclear program, Safawi said. He said Iran could have a nuclear bomb by 2007 (Robert Wielaard, Associated Press I/Pravda, Aug. 25). Back to top       Date for North Korea Talks Remains Unsettled Participants in six-nation negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear effort have not yet set a specific day to resume the talks, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Aug. 25). “The talks will reopen next week, although we’ve not yet fixed the exact date,” South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told the Yonhap news agency. Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said today that North Korea’s insistence on being allowed to keep a nuclear energy program was holding up the return to talks. “After all, peaceful use (of nuclear technology) is a difficult issue,” Machimura said. “It seems that we haven’t had a breakthrough yet for this difficult issue. Unless we have some idea of that, it appears that it will be difficult to have any prospect on the date for the resumption of talks” (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Aug. 26). Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei yesterday told a Japanese opposition politician that talks might resume on Sept. 2. Machimura, however, dismissed that account. “That is false information,” he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 26). The U.S. State Department said there was no reason to believe talks would not resume next week. “When the groups recessed ... they all committed to returning back to the talks in this round,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday. “We haven’t heard anything that would contradict that.” Chinese and North Korean officials were holding talks, according to McCormack, and a date was likely to be set “in the coming days” (Associated Press, Aug. 26). Back to top       U.S. Conducts Successful ICBM Flight Test The United States successfully test-fired a Minuteman 3 ICBM yesterday morning, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 22). The unarmed missile flew 4,000 miles from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, hitting its target at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands (Associated Press/San Jose Mercury News, Aug. 25). Back to top

Correction In an Aug. 16 article about the United States ordering 80 million doses of smallpox vaccine, Global Security Newswire mistakenly identified vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic as being a Dutch company. The biopharmaceutical firm is headquartered in Kvistgard, Denmark. Back to top

Faulty Chemical Agent Monitors Endangered Workers at Blue Grass Army Depot, Worker Says Workers at the U.S. Army’s Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky were put at risk by equipment that was not correctly configured to monitor possible leaks of VX nerve agent, an employee charged this week (see GSN, Aug. 25). Air-monitoring unit operator Donald Van Winkle made his allegations Wednesday in a signed affidavit, AP reported. Van Winkle said he informed depot officials of the problem in February, but that they failed to take quick action. He said his public complaints about the situation led the depot to deny him overtime pay and revoke some of his security clearance. Depot commander Lt. Col. George Shuplinkov said the facility made an optional switch in monitoring procedures in March or April. That does not mean there were problems with the replaced method, he told AP. “The previous method that we utilized is still a valid method,” he said. A Defense Department spokesman said the Pentagon would look into Van Winkle’s allegations. The department’s inspector general’s office is also considering Van Winkle’s request that it review the Blue Grass monitoring system and records, a spokesman said (Jonathan Katz, Associated Press/Messenger-Inquirer, Aug. 26). Meanwhile, traces of sarin vapor were detected Wednesday during regular hazardous waste work in a processing facility at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah, the Army Chemical Materials Agency said. Three workers underwent observation and testing, but showed no signs of exposure. There was no danger to other workers or the community, the Army said. The source of the vapor was not immediately known (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency press release, Aug. 24). Back to top       Army Ready to Restart CW Disposal at Newport Chemical weapons disposal is scheduled to resume today at the U.S. Army’s Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Indiana, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 11). Tests on Tuesday and Wednesday indicated it was safe to start work, according to the Army.  “Disposal operations will begin again in a slow and deliberate manner,” said Army project manager Jeff Brubaker. Work stopped June 10 following a leak of 30 gallons of wastewater created by the neutralization process. Diaphragms on the neutralization reactor have been replaced to prevent another spill. Officials also discovered the flashpoint of hydrolysate wastewater is 68 to 88 degrees, rather than more than 200 degrees as previously believed. Workers will initially dispose of VX nerve agent that remained in holding tanks when work stopped, the briefly suspend neutralization again for testing to ensure the flashpoint issue has been resolved, AP reported (Associated Press, Aug. 26). Back to top

Correction Global Security Newswire erroneously reported yesterday that a U.S. missile defense intercept test was attempted in January 2005. That test, the most recent one to date, was attempted February 2005 (see GSN, Feb. 14). Back to top

U.S. Missile Defense Command Could Move to Alabama The U.S. Base Realignment and Closure Commission yesterday recommended relocating the Space and Missile Defense Command from Washington, D.C., to the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 25). The move would save $349 million and focus missile defense personnel in one area, the Defense Department said (Bob Johnson, Associated Press, Aug. 25). The commission also voted against moving chemical and biological defense work from the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indiana to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, AP reported. The Crane work involves logistical support rather than research and development. A final report on the commission’s recommendations must be delivered to President George W. Bush by Sept. 8. Bush can either accept or reject the entire document, or return it to the panel for additional work. Congress also could reject the full report (Charles Wilson, Associated Press/South Bend Tribune, Aug. 25).   Back to top

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