Protesters in Belarus on Sunday protest the imprisonment of presidential critic Alexander Kozulin. A U.S. mention of his case in the U.N. Security Council led Russia to postpone talks on Iranian nuclear sanctions (Viktor Drachev/Getty Images). Russia Delays Iran Sanctions Meeting at Security Council Russia yesterday postponed six-nation talks on a U.N. Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on Iran after the United States discussed a seemingly unrelated issue in the council, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 12). Yesterday, the five permanent council members and Germany appeared to be close to agreeing on a sanctions package that would press Iran to freeze its nuclear activities while a long-term solution to the crisis can be negotiated.  ..Full Story

North Korea Says It Is Open to Reactor Shutdown North Korea has expressed its willingness to close its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and to allow international nuclear inspectors to re-enter the country, providing the United States lifts economic sanctions and provides energy assistance, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Dec. 12)...Full Story

U.S., India Ready for Next Steps of Nuclear Deal U.S. President George W. Bush plans Monday to sign into law legislation that clears a major hurdle in the path of U.S.-Indian nuclear trade, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Dec. 12)...Full Story

	Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Russia Delays Iran Sanctions Meeting at Security Council Russia yesterday postponed six-nation talks on a U.N. Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on Iran after the United States discussed a seemingly unrelated issue in the council, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 12). Yesterday, the five permanent council members and Germany appeared to be close to agreeing on a sanctions package that would press Iran to freeze its nuclear activities while a long-term solution to the crisis can be negotiated.  However, Russia canceled the scheduled meeting after U.S. representative William Brencick criticized the jailing of a political opposition leader in Belarus.  The close Russian ally has imprisoned Alexander Kozulin since March after he led a march protesting presidential elections in Belarus, AP reported.  Kozulin and two others had campaigned against President Alexander Lukashenko. “We raised this issue and our goal was to highlight the plight of this individual and what it means for the state of democracy in this country,” said a U.S. official in Washington.” “It wasn’t the best timing by the U.S.,” said British U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry. Asked to explain the cancellation of the Iran meeting, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said, “Because I said so” (Edith Lederer, Associated Press I/CBS News, Dec. 13). Meanwhile, Moscow has asked Tehran to maintain its financial payments to enable delivery of fuel in March to the nuclear power station Russia is building for Iran at Bushehr. “We have confirmed that everything will proceed according to plan, but only if Iran provides $20-25 million for the construction of Bushehr every month,” said Sergei Shmatko, head of the nuclear power firm Atomstroiexport.  His statement yesterday reflected financial disputes that have troubled the Iranian-Russian deal, AP reported. Shmatko said Iran had recently made a $22 million payment and “promised us that the Iranian side will maintain the pace” (Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press II/The Hindu, Dec. 12). Back to top       North Korea Says It Is Open to Reactor Shutdown North Korea has expressed its willingness to close its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and to allow international nuclear inspectors to re-enter the country, providing the United States lifts economic sanctions and provides energy assistance, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Dec. 12). Pyongyang relayed its offer to Washington through China as nations involved in the six-party talks negotiated the beginning of the next round of negotiations, a U.S. State Department official told the Hankook Ilbo newspaper.  Talks are scheduled to resume Monday after a 13-month layoff. “We have the minimum hope that North Korea will not come (to the talks) empty-handed,” the official said (Associated Press I/Belfast Telegraph, Dec. 13). U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today there is no set date for the talks to finish, AP reported.  However, they must conclude with Pyongyang’s commitment to eliminate its nuclear weapons program if it wants to receive the benefits offered in the September 2005 agreement between the six nations, she said. “I don’t think anyone would ask us that we set a firm deadline by which, if we cannot do this, then the talks end,” Rice said.  “I do think there is an expectation in the international community that these talks are not for the sake of talks.” In the wake of its Oct. 9 nuclear test, North Korea “needs to demonstrate that it is in fact committed to denuclearization,” Rice said. In return, “we would be talking about economic assistance, about energy assistance, about increased political contact toward, over some period of time, normalization of relations,” she said (William Mann, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, Dec. 13). New South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon echoed Rice’s comments, according to Reuters. “I believe it is unmistakably in North Korea’s interest to enter into initial steps to implement the joint statement for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” he said today. “I hope that the North will well heed the importance of this opportunity and act in a way that will lead to visible steps,” he said (Reuters/New York Times, Dec. 12). Lead South Korean nuclear negotiator Chun Young-woo warned diplomats against raising bilateral issues during the nuclear talks, Kyodo News reported.  Japan reportedly plans to address the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea. “We should avoid overloading the agenda of the six-party talks,” Chun said.  “Bringing thorny bilateral issues into the six-party talks can hold back the denuclearization process,” he added (Kyodo News/Yahoo!News, Dec. 12). Back to top       U.S., India Ready for Next Steps of Nuclear Deal U.S. President George W. Bush plans Monday to sign into law legislation that clears a major hurdle in the path of U.S.-Indian nuclear trade, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Dec. 12). Congress last week approved a bill exempting New Delhi from U.S. nuclear nonproliferation laws, allowing the Bush administration to focus on the next stages of implementing an agreement that would permit the sale of nuclear technology and materials to India.  For decades, U.S. law has prohibited atomic trade with nations that are not party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. “There are still many steps before it becomes something that is complete,” said Michael Levi, a nonproliferation expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. Those steps include:  preparing a bilateral pact, known as a “123 Agreement” for its place in U.S. law, on the technical details of the proposed trade; finalizing an international inspections system that would monitor India’s civilian nuclear sector; and modifying international nuclear trade guidelines set by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. “There is a long process towards the finish line, but it is not going to be, in my judgment, as difficult as the last 18 months,” said U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. Levi said negotiating the inspections agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and altering the NSG guidelines would be the “primary obstacles.” “The main point of conflict is over how permanent the safeguards will be,” he said. India earlier agreed that safeguards would be permanent, Levi said, but later asked for the freedom to step away from them if the U.S.-Indian cooperation were to fall through. Under the legislation passed last week, the United States would end its cooperation if India were to conduct another nuclear test, AFP reported (P. Parmeswaran, Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Dec. 12). Meanwhile, India has undertaken a campaign to build international support for the deal.  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flew today to Japan to urge leaders there to support the necessary NSG modifications.  Japan has not yet decided whether to back changing the group’s key guidelines, which require that all nuclear trade recipients be NPT parties to allow international oversight over all their nuclear facilities, AFP reported. “On the one hand, there are the people who say that we should at least publicly approve of the pact and then Japanese firms can benefit,” said Takako Hirose, a South Asia expert at Senshu University in Tokyo.  “But there are some people who are sort of NPT fundamentalists.” A Foreign Ministry official said Japan would hear what Singh had to say and see what the 123 Agreement looked like before formally adopting its policy. “We should wait for these developments before Japan can define its own positions,” the official said (Shaun Tandon, Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, Dec. 13). Back to top       Israel Reasserts Nuclear Ambiguity Israeli officials yesterday reaffirmed the nation’s long-standing policy of neither confirming nor denying its possession of nuclear weapons, one day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seemingly diverted from the policy of nuclear ambiguity (see GSN, Dec. 12). “The fact that some fear that we have the nuclear option is enough dissuasion,” said Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, according to Agence France-Presse. “As far as the world is concerned Israel does not have nuclear weapons and we have not carried out a single (nuclear) test,” Security Cabinet member Rafi Eitan told public radio.  “If we change our policy we will give (nuclear) arms to our enemies.” In an interview Monday with German television, Olmert listed Israel alongside several nuclear powers while addressing the threat posed by Iran’s suspected atomic weapons program.  Critics immediately began lambasting the prime minister, while his government declared that Olmert had not made any sort of admission (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 13). Olmert himself yesterday fell back to standard language regarding the existence of an Israeli nuclear weapons program, the Los Angeles Times reported. “Israel has said many times … that we will not be the first country that introduces nuclear weapons to the Middle East,” he said.  “That was our position; that is our position.  Nothing has changed.” Israel has been seeking a way to publicly state its own nuclear capabilities in order to deter Iran from developing weapons, according to some experts. “It could be that Olmert wanted to hint at Israel’s capability as part of the aggressive statements he has recently been making, with the goal of warning the West that if they don’t take care of Iran, Israel will,” Israeli security analyst Ronen Bergman wrote in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper. “On the other hand,” he added, “this may have been a slip of the tongue” (Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 13). The head of a coalition of Arab nations in the Persian Gulf yesterday called for sanctions on Israel in the wake of Olmert’s comments, the Associated Press reported. Olmert’s statement “spelled destruction for the area and humanity,” said Abdul Rahman al-Attiyah, secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The United States should “seek the implementation of international resolutions, international laws and Chapter 7,” the U.N. Charter provisions that allows for sanctions or even military action against nations, Attiyah said. “I believe it is time now for the international community to see that peace and security are now threatened by this announcement,” he said (Diana Elias, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Dec. 12). Back to top       Energy Department Probes Pantex Safety Issues The U.S. Energy Department has begun an investigation into safety conditions at its Pantex nuclear weapons facility near Amarillo, Texas, after workers complained anonymously that some staffers were working 72- and 84-hour weeks in poor conditions, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, Nov. 30). The investigation was spurred by a five-page letter sent by employees to contractor BWX Technologies, which runs the plant’s activities, including the disassembly of U.S. nuclear warheads. The letter says engineers are required to work up to 84 hours in seven-day work weeks and technicians must work 72 hours a week with just one day off, the Times reported (Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 13). “While your brief visits and bulletized briefings may have provided you a general sense of comfort regarding the operations at Pantex, please know that your employees are very concerned with the existing work environment and the potential for significant, life-threatening events to occur if significant changes in operational policies are not made,” the Nov. 7 letter says (Jim McBride, Amarillo Globe, Nov. 21). “Senior management is distracted, losing sight of the overall picture and circumstances,” the letter adds.  “The consequences [of an accident] are almost too awful to speak.” An Energy Department safety board mentioned some of the same problems in a report issued in August, the Times reported. The report confirmed that BWXT was assigning workers to 12-hour shifts, six days a week, the maximum work week allowed. In addition, the board found that “leaks through facility structure left puddles of water in several nuclear facility interlocks and bays and equipment rooms that support nuclear operations.” The employee letter also complained about the facility conditions. “Look around the plant.  You will find leaking roofs, crumbling buildings, waist-high weed-infested landscapes, barricades and safety tape that makes this once-proud plant look like a crime scene.” Plant officials have disputed the employees’ charges. “BWXT Pantex takes seriously any employee concerns about safe operations, and the company is currently comparing the specific concerns expressed in the letter with the reality of its day-to-day work,” according to plant General Manager Dan Swaim.  “The company strongly disagrees with the writers’ viewpoint that successful production negatively impacts worker safety” (Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times). Back to top

U.S. Health System Not Ready for Bioterror The U.S. public health system remains largely unready to respond to an act of biological terrorism or a natural outbreak of disease, the Trust for America’s Health said in a report issued yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 22). “The nation is nowhere near as prepared as we should be for bioterrorism, bird flu and other health disasters,” said Jeff Levi, the organization’s director.  “We continue to make progress each year, but it is limited.  As a whole, Americans face unnecessary and unacceptable levels of risk.” The organization used 10 indicators to assess the readiness of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to USA Today.  These included the capabilities to manage a surge in patients and to disperse countermeasures from the Strategic National Stockpile, and whether states had sufficient laboratories and scientists for identification of natural or intentional outbreaks. Only Oklahoma was found to meet all 10 indicators.  California, Iowa, Maryland and New Jersey tied for the lowest score, meeting only four of the measures, USA Today reported. The trust also reported that the Centers for Disease Control has designated only 15 states as being capable of delivering drugs from the national stockpile to residents.  Eleven states and Washington, D.C. remain ill-equipped for testing of biological dangers, the report stated. Despite billions of dollars in spending on pandemic preparedness, the rate of progress has not been adequate, according to the report. CDC spokesman Von Roebuck said significant improvements have been made since Sept. 11, 2001, but that “more needs to be done” (Mimi Hall, USA Today, Dec. 13). Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control issued a report this week on the training of hospital personnel for bioterrorism.  The report, based on data from 2003 and 2004, found that: —Teaching hospitals received stronger training than their counterparts for bioterrorism, while hospitals certified by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations had prepared greater numbers of staff doctors, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners and laboratory personnel for such an event; —All but 12 percent of the 739 hospitals that responded to a survey said nurses had received training on identifying and treating victims of chemical or radiological agents, along with at least one of the following seven diseases — smallpox, anthrax, plague, botulism, tularemia, viral encephalitis and hemorrhagic fever; —Eighty-six percent of clinical staff at hospitals that operated round-the-clock emergency departments or outpatient clinics had been trained to identify and treat smallpox, while 82 percent had received such training for anthrax infection (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention release, Dec. 11). Back to top       U.S. Lawmakers Demand FBI Briefing on Anthrax Case Frustrated by the FBI’s refusal to brief them, 33 U.S. lawmakers on Monday wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales requesting a “comprehensive briefing” on the status of the federal investigation into the 2001 anthrax mail attacks (see GSN, Oct. 26). Led by Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the lawmakers complained that it was “inappropriate” for the FBI to refuse to brief them.  The bureau has said that leaks from Congress have hampered its 5-year-old anthrax investigation, which has so far failed to charge anyone for sending the anthrax-laden letters that killed five people. The letter, however, suggests that Congress might not have been the source of leaks to the media regarding the investigation.  “It appears that the FBI may itself be responsible for the inappropriate disclosures of sensitive case information,” the letter says. In any case, “Congress cannot be cut off from detailed information about the conduct of one of the largest investigations in FBI history,” the letter says.  “That information is vital in order to fulfill its constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight of the executive branch” (Congressional letter, Dec. 11). Back to top       DOD Workers to Sue Again on Anthrax Vaccinations A group of Defense Department workers have renewed their legal battle to prevent the Pentagon from requiring many of its employees to receive anthrax vaccinations (see GSN, Oct. 17). The mandatory vaccine program had been stalled by a 2004 class-action lawsuit filed by six unnamed Pentagon employees, but the department announced plans in October to resume the program.  The required vaccines have not yet begun to be administered, the Washington Post reported today. The vaccine has been offered voluntarily for the last two years, but DOD officials have said that only half the people it feels should take it are electing to be inoculated. Plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Zaid said he would file a new class-action suit today arguing that the vaccine has been improperly licensed. “We’ve never been antivaccine, we’re just against them forcing people to take it,” he said.  “This vaccine is just completely unscientifically justified based on its effectiveness or necessity.” A Pentagon official disagreed. “We’ve always thought it was safe and effective,” said spokeswoman Cynthia Smith.  “It’s necessary to keep people safe” (Josh White, Washington Post, Dec. 13). Back to top

Russian CW Disposal Could Face Delays Problems with foreign funding could force Russia to slow its rate of chemical weapons disposal, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 3). Moscow has vowed to eliminate 40,000 metric tons of chemical agents by the newly approved deadline of April 29, 2012 (see GSN, Dec. 11). However, the Russian Audit Chamber said yesterday that foreign nations in 2007 would supply only $72.3 million for weapons disposal.  That is less than one-third of the required amount, which “could disrupt the schedule to put three chemical weapons destruction plants into operation in 2008,” the agency said. A U.S. expert noted last week that Moscow only counts foreign funding that goes directly to the government, rather than money provided to Western contractors for work on disposal sites (see GSN, Dec. 6; Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Dec. 12). The Russian disposal plant at Maradykovsky so far this year has destroyed nearly 160 tons of chemical weapons agent and 14,000 munitions, the Russia & CIS Military Newswire reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 27).  The facility opened in September (Russia & CIS Military Newswire, Dec. 12). Back to top       Blue Grass Would Ship CW Waste Waste produced by chemical weapons neutralization at a still-unbuilt facility in Kentucky would be shipped to another site for final processing and disposal, the Richmond Register reported today (see GSN, June 13). The U.S. Defense Department believes it can save as much as $150 million each year by conducting secondary treatment away from the Blue Grass Army Depot, according to Bill Pehlivanian, deputy program manager for the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program. That is the same amount as is expected to be directed annually for weapons elimination at Blue Grass and the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado. The neutralization process creates corrosive hydrolysate waste, which must be mixed with water under high temperatures and pressure in order to be converted to standard industrial waste, according to the Register.  The Army has faced strong opposition in its efforts to ship hydrolysate from the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana to a DuPont plant in New Jersey for treatment.  It would then be discharged into the Delaware River (see GSN, Nov. 21). The Army has not identified any potential secondary treatment sites for waste from Blue Grass. Members of the Chemical Destruction Citizens Advisory Board at a meeting yesterday also expressed displeasure with the planned delay of the startup of the Blue Grass disposal site from 2015 to 2017.  Weapons destruction would last more than six years (see GSN, Nov. 22). Craig Williams, head of the nongovernmental Chemical Weapons Working Group, said community members should focus on working with the Pentagon rather than Congress to speed up disposal. “The administrative process is less complicated and less lengthy than attempting to get funding legislation through Congress,” he said (Bill Robinson, Richmond Register, Dec. 13).   Back to top

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

© Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.