A worker prepares a pallet of VX-filled rockets at the Deseret, Utah, chemical weapons depot several years ago. Although the site has now destroyed all such rockets, it is unlikely to eliminate the rest of its stockpile before a newly extended treaty deadline (U.S. Army photo). Nations Get CW Treaty Extensions By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Member nations of the Chemical Weapons Convention last week approved requests from Russia, the United States and several other nations for additional time to eliminate their stockpiles of toxic agents (see GSN, Dec. 6). The extensions were granted Friday shortly before states parties approved the final report for their 11th annual conference, after 9 p.m...Full Story

BWC Review Conference Hailed as Success By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire GENEVA — Still living with the memory of the diplomatic meltdown in 2001, delegates praised the outcome Friday of the sixth review conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (see GSN, Dec. 6)...Full Story

Congress Clears Way for U.S.-Indian Nuclear Deal Both houses of the U.S. Congress have approved legislation enabling the U.S.-Indian nuclear trade deal to advance, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to sign the bill into law soon (see GSN, Dec. 8)...Full Story

	Monday, December 11, 2006

Congress Clears Way for U.S.-Indian Nuclear Deal Both houses of the U.S. Congress have approved legislation enabling the U.S.-Indian nuclear trade deal to advance, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to sign the bill into law soon (see GSN, Dec. 8). The U.S. House passed the bill Friday by a 330-59 vote and the Senate passed it unanimously early Saturday morning. The legislation exempts India from U.S. nuclear nonproliferation laws, clearing the initial step for the United States to sell nuclear technology and materials to India’s civilian nuclear sector.  International nuclear export control guidelines must also be modified before trade can begin and the Senate would need to approve the pact as part of its treaty-review functions, the Times reported (James Gerstenzang, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 9). Passage of the U.S. bill drew praise from deal supporters and fire from critics, including leaders of India’s major political opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. “The U.S. act seriously compromises the independence of our foreign policy,” said a BJP statement.  “The act aims at capping, rolling back and eventually eliminating India’s nuclear weapons capability” (Reuters/New York Times, Dec. 10). Back to top       Six-Party Talks Set for Dec. 18 China announced today that the next round of six-nation negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear program is scheduled to begin in one week, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 8). “The second phase of the fifth round of six-party talks is to be held on Dec. 18 in Beijing,” according to a statement on the Chinese Foreign Ministry Web site. Participating nations indicated they want to see movement in ending the nuclear standoff once talks resume after 13 months. “The government expects substantial progress will be made at this round of talks for a resolution of the North Korea and will continue to closely cooperate with related countries for this,” the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement (Associated Press/New York Times, Dec. 11). Negotiators hope to make progress in implementing the September 2005 agreement in which Pyongyang agreed in principle to eliminate its nuclear weapons program in return for aid from the other countries, the Washington Post reported Saturday.  Details on how and in what order disarmament would occur are among the ambiguities in the plan. The timeline for implementation also remains unfixed, a U.S. official said. “There was a discussion about getting the September statement done in a reasonable amount of time,” he said.  “Eighteen months would be included in the definition of ‘reasonable,’ but there were lots of time frames given out.” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, in two meetings earlier this fall with his North Korean counterpart, did not offer additions to the list of humanitarian and economic support Pyongyang could receive for abandoning nuclear weapons, the Post reported. He reaffirmed existing U.S. plans. Several days of talks are planned, with a break for Christmas.  Concessions from North Korea, such as closing a nuclear reactor, are not anticipated early in the meetings, U.S. officials said (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Dec. 9). North Korea has already thrown a monkey wrench into the works, demanding that Japan be excluded from the talks, the Financial Times reported today. The demand results from sanctions that Tokyo swiftly imposed on Pyongyang in response to its Oct. 9 nuclear test. “Japan is nothing but an impostor, not qualified to take part in the six-party talks,” the official Rodong Sinmun said today in an editorial.  “Even if they do come to the six-party talks, there will be nothing useful, with them making it difficult to solve the issue and wasting time by bringing to the table irrelevant issues” (Anna Fifield, Financial Times, Dec. 11). “I find it extremely difficult to be optimistic about the next round of talks,” Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS, told Agence France-Presse.  “It seems to me so many people are now just defining success as holding talks” (Karl Malakunas, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 11). Back to top       Iran Begins to Install New Uranium Centrifuges Iran has begun to assemble a larger group of uranium enrichment centrifuges, indicating a “first step toward industrial production,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday (see GSN, Dec. 8). “We have started installing 3,000 centrifuges,” he told a group of students in Tehran.  “We will be able to produce our nuclear fuel once we install 60,000 centrifuges.” Enriched uranium is needed to fuel light-water nuclear power plants, but the same enrichment equipment can also produce nuclear weapon-grade uranium (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press I/International Herald Tribune, Dec. 9). The Iranian announcement could place additional pressure on U.N. powers which have been trying to reach agreement on sanctioning Iran for its refusal to heed a Security Council demand to freeze uranium enrichment activities, AP reported. The United States and three European Union nations could call for a council vote on an EU-crafted resolution, even if Russia and China would abstain or veto it, officials said yesterday. “They’re talking about a vote as soon as possible,” said a U.S. official, speaking of U.S., British and French diplomats in New York. France circulated a revised draft resolution Friday in an effort to narrow the gap between the Western states and Russia and China, according to AP. The latest version would ban the trade of nuclear or missile technology, but offers a more specific description of the banned items, rather than more sweeping terms that previously drew objections from Beijing and Moscow, AP reported. However, the draft retains provisions to bar the international travel of key Iranian officials and maintains a freeze on assets held by Iranian individuals and institutions in foreign banks.  Russia has strenuously objected to this measure in the past, according to AP. The new draft drops all mention of Iran’s nearly finished power reactor at Bushehr, built with Russian assistance, AP reported.  Another U.S. official said Russia was also demanding no mention of tentative Russian plans to build another power reactor in Iran. Russia has also asked for any sanctions to be limited to three months, requiring a review after that period, according to AP. The continuing disagreements have caused “a lot of frustration” among the Western nations, the second U.S. official said. The Western capitals were seriously considering offering to compromise only enough to gain Russian and Chinese abstentions in a Security Council vote on sanctions, the official said.  Beyond that, the United States was willing to force China and Russia to veto the resolution. “If we cannot get agreement on sanctions that are effective, we would want to table a resolution and take the chance of an abstention, or a veto,” he said. New talks on the latest European draft could be held today, AP reported (George Jahn, Associated Press/Forbes.com, Dec. 10). Google-Based Sanctions While the United States has backed the proposed travel bans on Iranian officials, the CIA has refused to identify which officials are key to Iran’s missile and nuclear progress, the Washington Post reported today. Fearing disclosure of how it acquires information about Iran’s programs, the agency has declined to aid a State Department request to help make the list of individuals who could be sanctioned. The State Department has partially resorted instead to using Google to search public documents for references to Iranian officials, the Post reported. As a result, none of the officials designated by the State Department is actually suspected of being closely involved with Iran’s nuclear activities, according to the Post. Aside from concerns about revealing its intelligence sources, the CIA is wary of repeating mistakes made prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when faulty intelligence was used to support U.S. military action. “Once you push intelligence out there, you can’t take it back,” said a senior intelligence official (Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, Dec. 11). Back to top

BWC Review Conference Hailed as Success By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire GENEVA — Still living with the memory of the diplomatic meltdown in 2001, delegates praised the outcome Friday of the sixth review conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (see GSN, Dec. 6). Delegates approved a final statement on the treaty, which includes an extension of annual intersessional meetings on treaty topics and the expansion of an administrative unit’s duties to support implementation of treaty requirements. “At times over the past three weeks, the shadow of the past has stalked us, but we have been nimble-footed, and we have moved quickly into the bright lights of the future,” Ambassador Masood Khan of Pakistan, president of the conference, said during his closing remarks. The United States led efforts at the 2001 conference that successfully scuttled creation of an inspections protocol to ensure compliance with the treaty.  The conference was thrown into disarray by the last-minute move, and delegates left without completing a final declaration. Representatives from 103 states parties — more than two-thirds of the treaty’s membership — this year were able to approve a final document after days of closed-door negotiations on contentious items. “We have succeeded.  I think we can say, without any exaggeration, that this is a historic moment, both for the Biological Weapons Convention and for multilateral security and disarmament,” Khan said.  “The documents that we have produced are not an empty cosmetic consensus.  They are a win-win result for all.” Difficulties in the final two days of the session seemed linked to preparing language in the final statement on Article 10 of the treaty, which calls for nations to exchange equipment, material and expertise in order to promote peaceful applications of biological science. U.S. and Iranian delegates worked into the early morning hours Friday to resolve differences.  Iran, at times backed by other Nonaligned Movement nations, was pushing for action under Article 10 to facilitate and widen the scope of scientific exchanges, and the United States was resisting, delegates said. The conference rejected inclusion in the final declaration of a plan for action on a number of treaty elements, including strengthening scientific cooperation and technology transfers.  They also dropped a national implementation action plan for the treaty, something the United States had supported. “We saw a tit-for-tat concession this morning,” one delegate said Friday.  Not authorized to speak to the press, the delegate spoke only on the condition of anonymity. Despite a late Iranian objection to the new administrative body — a last-minute tactic to “annoy” the United States — “I think the two sides showed significant conciliatory gestures,” she said. Oliver Meier, international representative for the Arms Control Association, said the U.S. concessions were limited.  “National implementation will figure prominently in the intercessional program, so I don’t think the U.S. gave up that much,” he said. During the U.S. delegation’s brief concluding remarks, U.S. Ambassador Christina Rocca called the final document an “important accomplishment.”  She declined to comment on the negotiations. Khan thanked the U.S. representatives for their “flexibility and constructive engagement.”  A number of delegates echoed Khan’s statement, describing the United States as being willing to bargain.  Overall, delegates described a positive atmosphere at the review conference. That seems a significant change from five years ago when the strong U.S. position dismantled the review conference, but the lightning rod issue of verification has been largely laid to rest.  States raised the issue of verification early during the three-week review but were aware it was not going to succeed, one delegate said.  It remained on the margins and was not the central issue it was in 2001. A Temporary Secretariat Toward Something Permanent? Unlike the treaties limiting nuclear weapons and banning chemical weapons, the Biological Weapons Convention does not have a permanent organization to oversee the treaty and monitor compliance.  Delegates agreed, however, to give more duties to what is now a temporary secretariat that provides administrative support for meetings. The three-person Implementation Support Unit (ISU) will work to facilitate communication among states parties, and also between states, the scientific and academic communities and nongovernmental organizations.  The 3-year-old unit will also help state parties implement the decisions and recommendations of the review conference. In addition, it will serve as a clearing house for confidence-building measures — information submitted by states regarding actions taken to implement the treaty.  The unit, which has a five-year mandate for its new responsibilities, will compile and distribute data on treaty confidence-building measures and create an online database accessible only to states parties. Some called this a small step toward something more permanent, the kernel of a dedicated support organization.  Khan singled out the support unit as one of the most significant achievements of the conference.  “For many years, the states parties have debated the need for institutional support,” he said.  “Now we have it.” Indian Ambassador Jayant Prasad said the temporary secretariat has been “marginally strengthened.” “I don’t think the ISU is even the thin edge of the wedge to something permanent,” said Jean Pascal Zanders of the Bioweapons Prevention Project, noting the limited mandate of the unit.  States parties will review the work of the body at the next full review in 2011.  “They’re going to have to prove their value in a number of areas,” he said. Meier said administrative support for the confidence-building measures might help a less-than-successful aspect of the convention that was designed to increase transparency by exchanging information about laboratories and measures taken to implement the treaty requirements The measures “haven’t worked very well both in terms of the number of returns and the quality of returns,” Meier said. That is a reality recognized by the delegates and made explicit in the final review.  The final document recognizes that “only a limited number of states parties make an annual … submission” and describes an “urgent need” to increase the number of states participating. Despite role the new unit will play as a clearing house for information from the confidence-building measures, Meier suggested more could have been done to address the issue.  Simply posting the electronically formatted information on a Web site is unlikely to solve the problems.  “I don’t think that’s good enough,” he said. Moving Forward With an Intersessional Agenda The intersessional meetings agreed upon in 2002 were recognized by the states parties as valuable, and delegates solidified a list of topics to be discussed leading up to 2011.  Between 2003 and 2005 national delegations met to discuss measure to enhance national implementation of the treaty; security and oversight of dangerous pathogens and toxins; investigating disease outbreaks, including disease surveillance; and codes of conduct for scientists.  The meetings were initially “set up with a degree of skepticism” but they came to be seen as a way to strengthen confidence in the treaty, Prasad said.  “That exercise was a success enough for us to adopt quite a forward-looking intersessional program,” he said. At the four upcoming intercessional meetings before 2011, states will discuss enhancing national implementation; measures to improve biosecurity, including security of laboratories; scientific codes of conduct; peaceful scientific cooperation, including disease surveillance; and assistance to any country that does fall victim to biological weapons. Prasad said discussion of peaceful scientific cooperation and assistance — to take place in 2009 and 2010 — could help highlight ways countries acceding to the treaty could benefit and induce more parties to become part of the convention.  “It will be seen as a plus,” he said. “The adoption of a new intersessional work program … is a significant achievement,” said Finnish Ambassador Kari Kahiluoto, speaking on behalf of the European Union.   “Its true value, however, can only be assessed as it unfolds over the years.” The delegates also agreed to actively promote the treaty among states that have yet to join.  Member countries are asked to hold regional and multilateral events to promote the convention. Just completing a complete review was heralded as a success, but observers outside the delegations were generally more reserved than the state representatives. “The outcome is generally good,” Zanders said.  “To meet the basic standard was to have a full review of the convention, and this has happened.”  If the process had failed again, “we would have seen the beginning of the end” of the treaty, he said. Meier called the conference a “modest success,”  He called for states to push the treaty into the future, taking into account the changing scientific and technical landscape, such as new nonlethal agents and methods of delivery of biological agents that harness nanotechnology. “They’re not talking about how you take this treaty forward,” he said.  “That’s what’s lacking.” Back to top

Nations Get CW Treaty Extensions By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Member nations of the Chemical Weapons Convention last week approved requests from Russia, the United States and several other nations for additional time to eliminate their stockpiles of toxic agents (see GSN, Dec. 6). The extensions were granted Friday shortly before states parties approved the final report for their 11th annual conference, after 9 p.m. Most other issues had been resolved hours earlier.  Delegates needed additional time to finalize language within the report, and the late approval did not represent dissent over the revised weapons disposal schedules, said Peter Kaiser, spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. “I don’t think it was anything of controversy whatsoever,” he said. “It went to the very end because the Iranian were obstreperous.  They were not helpful,” according to a U.S. official, who said Iranian diplomats used the meeting to criticize the U.S. deadline failure. There was minimal discussion during the final minutes of conference itself — Pakistan expressed support for the decisions and for rapid chemical demilitarization, while India, one of the nations to receive an extension, said that it has already destroyed 70 percent of its chemical weapons. The treaty sets the date for full weapons disposal at April 29, 2007, 10 years after the convention entered into force.  It allows for extensions up to April 29, 2012. Washington and Moscow sought and received the full five years, as did the governments in Beijing and Tokyo for destroying weapons abandoned by the Japanese army in China during World War II. The other countries requested shorter extensions.  India now has until April 28, 2009, to finish its work; Libya was given until Dec. 31, 2010; and South Korea has until Dec. 31, 2008. Albania received extensions of its intermediate deadlines but says it is able to finish disposal of an estimated 16 tons of mustard agent by the original deadline.  Work there could begin this month. “We think it was a good conference, we got all the extensions, the final deadlines,” a Russian delegate to the agency said today.  “I understand that the American delegation is satisfied with it also, as well as other nations.” The conference required that Russia and the United States accept visits by members of the OPCW Executive Council to chemical weapons sites as a condition of receiving the extensions.  The two countries own the great majority of the more than 71,000 known metric tons of chemical weapons agent to be destroyed under the treaty. The trips would be aimed at ensuring the two countries are making progress in destroying the banned weapons and agents.  They would begin in 2008 and would include at least one trip to each relevant site during the extension period. Kaiser said the organization hopes that the decisions last week will spur the nations to greater efforts in eliminating the munitions.  “If you’ve got the conference saying this is it, these are the deadlines, then that focuses attention on getting the work done,” he said. Washington said recently that disposing of the U.S. stockpile would not end before 2023, while Moscow has vowed to destroy its entire 40,000 metric-ton stockpile by 2012.  Experts have argued that is unlikely to occur. “We think we are going to get the deadline,” the Russian official said.  “We are strongly directed toward this.” Washington’s schedule is based upon the best data available, the U.S. official said.  Final destruction of nearly 28,000 metric tons of chemical agent could occur before 2023, or later.  “The short answer is we don’t know when we’re doing to be done,” he said.  “We’re trying to be as candid as possible.” When 2012 arrives, nations that failed to meet the deadline will have to explain why that occurred and how they plan to respond to the situation, the U.S. official said.  They could be required to increase the reporting on their activities, but are unlikely to face penalties, he said. The conference also approved the 2007 OPCW budget of 75 million euros, down from 75.6 million this year.  The spending plan includes funding for 200 inspections of industrial sites that use potentially dangerous chemicals, along with 175 missions to chemical weapons depots and destruction facilities. Conference states again pledged their commitment to bring all nations into the treaty (see GSN, Dec. 8) and to ensure they meet their obligations to internally establish the treaty’s provisions upon joining (see GSN, Dec. 7). The number of states parties to the treaty increased by six this year to 181.  That leaves 14 outside, including tough cases such as North Korea and several Middle Eastern nations. There is hope for treaty universality, but it will not be an easy task, said Paul Walker, director of the Legacy program at Global Green USA, who attended the conference. “They’re sort of into the red zone now and in the red zone, it always gets tougher to score a touchdown,” he said. Back to top       Umatilla Nearly Done Eliminating 8-Inch Projectiles The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Oregon has nearly finished destroying 8-inch projectiles filled with the nerve agent sarin, The Hermiston Herald reported Thursday (see GSN, Sept. 28, 2006). Disposal of all 14,246 projectiles is expected by Christmas. Afterward, the facility will begin preparing for disposal of more than 40,000 155 mm projectiles filled with sarin.  That project is due to begin in the first week of February and end in summer 2007.  That campaign will finish off sarin weapons housed at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. The following campaign will involve elimination of M55 rockets carrying VX nerve agent (Karen Hutchinson-Talaski, The Hermiston Herald, Dec. 8). Back to top

Pakistan Tests Short-Range Ballistic Missile Pakistan tested a short-range ballistic missile Saturday, the third missile test in the past three weeks, the military announced (see GSN, Nov. 29). Saturday’s test of the nuclear-capable Hatf 3 missile, which has a range of nearly 300 kilometers, “was carried out by the strategic missile group of the Army Strategic Forces Command,” said an official statement (PakTribune.com, Dec. 10). Back to top

Officials Consider Securing Polonium 210 The United States and other nations are considering whether they need greater security of polonium 210, a radioactive material that killed a former Russian spy and could be used in a radiological “dirty bomb,” the New York Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 25). The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency are among the agencies studying the matter. “Three are no sirens wailing,” said a senior European diplomat.  “But there’s a sense that we need to rethink how it is categorized.” “It’s fairly wise to put fairly strict limits on the commercially available amounts of polonium,” said Thomas Tenforde, president of the congressionally chartered National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. The amount of the material available commercially is “not trivial,” Tenforde told the Times. Even a minute amount can cause death, according to nuclear experts.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Energy Department in 2003 identified polonium 210 as one of 10 materials “of greatest concern” for use in a radiological weapon. NRC officials are considering lowering the threshold for tracking of polonium, which has hard-to-detect types of radioactivity. The material has several characteristics that might make it a poor candidate for use in a dirty bomb, according to experts.  Its radiation can be stopped by skin or paper.  Polonium 210 can only cause harm of breathed in, eaten or taken as a shot.  It has a half life of only 138 days (William Broad, New York Times, Dec. 10).   Back to top

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