U.K. Spent $7 Million on Anthrax Vaccine in 2005

The United Kingdom last year spent more than $7 million on anthrax vaccine, BBC News reported (see GSN, Dec. 16).

Defense Minister Don Touhig also announced that the shelf life of the vaccine has been extended to three years, up from two. Touhig said enough vaccine was stockpiled to “meet its project requirements” but would not give an exact number of doses.

“The precise numbers held cannot be released as this would be prejudicial to defense activities,” he said (BBC News, Jan. 11).

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Terror Suspect’s Manual of Western Targets Included Nuclear Plants, British Prosecutor Says

London-based Islamic cleric Abu Hamza possessed a terrorism manual containing a list of potential high-profile international targets, including nuclear power plants, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 21, 2003).

The “Encyclopedia of Afghani Jihad,” found at the cleric’s west London home, recommends attacks on famous sites such as Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, prosecutors said yesterday at Hamza’s trial.

Hamza, a British citizen, faces 15 charges, one of which is related to the encyclopedia. Prosecutors allege the manual contains information “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”

“This … is a blueprint, a manual for terrorism which echoes the things which feature in the defendant’s speeches,” said prosecutor David Perry.

Hamza has denied the charges — which include nine counts of “soliciting to murder” — and said he received the encyclopedia as a gift but had never read it, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse/Bernama.com, Jan. 11).

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Japan to Purchase Unmanned Drones

Japan plans to deploy long-endurance unmanned spy planes beginning in fiscal 2007, Kyodo News reported today (see GSN, Jan. 10).

The drones would be used for reconnaissance on ballistic missile launches and for collecting images in the event of a WMD incident, among other functions, Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga said yesterday.

The agency plans to initially import the aircraft from the United States, but would later seek to develop its own version, Nukaga said (Kyodo News/BBC Monitoring, Jan. 12).

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Russia Will Not Block Iran Security Council Referral

Russia has said it would not block moves to refer Iran’s nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council, U.S. and European officials said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 11).

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of Moscow’s policy shift during a Tuesday night phone conversation, the Washington Post reported today.

Lavrov said Russia would abstain if a vote is taken by the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors to move the issue to the Security Council, according to three senior diplomats.

Bush administration officials said they would lobby China for a similar commitment.

“We spent much of our time working on the Russians, but we’re now moving the focus to China,” said one administration official.

China and Russia are among the five permanent members that have veto power on Security Council decisions. Despite Moscow’s decision on referral, its potential reaction to efforts by the Security Council to punish Iran remains unclear, U.S. officials told the Post.

The White House is pushing for Security Council referral before President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union address in late February, according to two senior administration officials.

Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday told Fox News Radio that “the No. 1 item on the agenda” at the Security Council would be a “resolution that could be enforced by sanctions.”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said sanctions were possible.

“We don’t rule out any measures at all,” Blair said. “It is important Iran recognizes how seriously the international community treats it” (Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, Jan. 12).

British, French and German foreign ministers today announced plans for talks next week in London on the Iran nuclear issue involving the United States, Russia, China and the European powers, Reuters reported.

The European Union is expected to abandon its 2 1/2-year diplomatic effort with Iran, according to Reuters.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said it was “highly probable” Iran would be referred to the Security Council (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Jan. 12).

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman today declined to say whether Beijing would support Security Council referral, Agence France-Presse reported.

“We hope that the Iranian side can do more to help build mutual trust and promote the resumption of talks between Iran and the EU countries,” said spokesman Kong Quan.

“We also hope all parties concerned can exercise restraint and seek a solution on the Iranian issue through dialogue,” he said (Agence France-Presse I/al-Jazeera, Jan. 12).

The secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which represents Iran’s Persian Gulf neighbors, said today that Iran’s nuclear plans were alarming, the Associated Press reported.

Abdul Rahman al-Attiyah told the Al-Watan daily that neighboring Arab nations “fear and worry” about Iran’s nuclear plans, particularly potential accidents at atomic facilities (Associated Press I/Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Jan. 12).

A Western diplomat said today that Iran is not yet able to enrich uranium, Reuters reported.

Iran is “probably going to have to rebuild the entire (cascade of enrichment centrifuges). There’s a lot of humidity, corrosion. It’s going to take a long time,” said the diplomat (Reuters, Jan. 12).

Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said yesterday that sanctions would not prevent Iran from resuming sensitive nuclear work, AP reported.

“Even if (the Westerners) destroy our scientists, their successors would continue the job,” he said. “It would not be easy for them to solve the (nuclear) case by imposing sanctions or anything like that” (Associated Press II/USA Today, Jan. 12).

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran was not intimidated by international reaction to its resumption of nuclear research, AFP reported.

“I am telling all the powers that the Iranian nation and government, with firmness and wisdom, will continue its path in seeking and utilizing peaceful nuclear energy,” Ahmadinejad said yesterday.

“The Iranian nation is not intimidated by the fuss you have made,” he said (Agence France-Presse II/IranMania.com, Jan. 11).

Former IAEA Deputy Director General Pierre Goldschmidt has called for the Security Council to authorize a three-step program to push Iran to abandon its nuclear program, United Press International reported yesterday.

Goldschmidt, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, called for a resolution that would automatically authorize three steps if a state is found in noncompliance by the agency.

First, the council would increase the agency’s inspection authority, he said.

“In particular, the IAEA’s inspectors and experts should have immediate and unfettered ‘access at all times to all places and data and to any person,’” Goldschmidt said.

Second, the state would be requested to conclude a detailed safeguards agreement for all its nuclear facilities within 60 days.

Third, the state “would be suspended ... for a period of 10 years subject to an extension of suspension by the U.N. Security Council by further periods of 10 years,” he said (Martin Sieff, United Press International, Jan. 11).

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U.S. Envoy to Stalled North Korea Nuclear Negotiations Meets With Counterparts in Asia

The top U.S. envoy to stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea, traveling in Asia, said today he was pressing efforts to restart the talks, Reuters reported (see GSN, Jan. 11).

“We’re going to discuss a way forward on the six-party talks,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said on arrival in Beijing.

Leaving Beijing several hours later, Hill suggested that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il might also be in China, as reported earlier this week.

“I understand we have some North Korean visitors here today,” said Hill, adding that he had no plans to meet with the reclusive Kim or other officials from Pyongyang.

However, ITAR-Tass reported today the visitor to China might have been a high-level person other than Kim.

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow said the United States had few details on Kim’s whereabouts. He expressed hope that the North Korean leader was conducting meetings that might lead his country back to the six-party talks (Reuters, Jan. 12).

Hill met his Japanese counterpart, Kenichiro Sasae, yesterday in Tokyo and his South Korean counterpart, Song Min-soon, this morning in Seoul, Agence France-Presse reported.

“I had good discussions in Tokyo last night and with the South Koreans this morning and we are all pretty much on the same page,” he said.

“We are all pretty much anxious ... on implementing and to implement on the principles as they were laid out in the September agreement,” he added (Agence France-Presse, Jan. 12).

Meanwhile, Asian analysts said they do not expect China to exert much pressure on North Korea, the Washington Times reported today.

While China is seen to have substantial economic leverage over its impoverished neighbor, Choi Jin-wook of the Institute of National Unification in Seoul told the Times that Beijing is unlikely to threaten financial penalties if North Korea does not return to nuclear talks.

“Nothing would convince [the Chinese] to use their leverage,” he said. “China said it does not tolerate North Korea’s nuclear programs, but it does not want North Korea to collapse.”

“They (China) don’t want border instability,” said Moon Chung-in, a foreign policy analyst at Yonsei University in Seoul and an adviser to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun (Andrew Salmon, Washington Times, Jan. 12).

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Kerry Guardedly Backs Indo-U.S. Nuke Deal

U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) yesterday gave guarded support to a nuclear technology sharing deal between the United States and India, Reuters reported (see GSN, Jan. 9).

Kerry said he backed the agreement, “providing you are not undermining the broader goal of nonproliferation itself.”

“In principle, it is better to have India as a participant in the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) procedures and standards with respect to its civilian program than not to have it,” he said yesterday in New Delhi. “And to have a majority portion of that program under those constraints reduces what is available to go into military, so there is a step forward.”

“But ... we cannot only look at this agreement in its bilateral context, it also has larger implications,” he added.

“What Congress will or won't do is going to depend on what the four corners of the agreement finally say when it is arrived at,” Kerry said (Reuters/New York Times, Jan. 12).

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U.S. Appoints Intel Managers for Iran, North Korea

The United States yesterday announced the appointment of officials who will manage intelligence on North Korea and Iran, the New York Times reported (see GSN, Jan. 5).

National Intelligence Director John Negroponte named Joseph DeTrani, who recently left the position of special envoy to North Korea nuclear talks, the mission manager for North Korea. Leslie Ireland, a Middle East specialist, is the manager for Iran.

Ireland and DeTrani are charged with identifying and filling intelligence gaps on the two countries and leading intelligence-gathering efforts across federal agencies (Douglas Jehl, New York Times, Jan. 11).

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UT Will Not Protest Los Alamos Contract

The University of Texas and Lockheed Martin have decided not to protest their defeat in the competition for the contract to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 22, 2005).

The team led by the University of California and Bechtel Corp. received the contract last month.

“Although we are very disappointed with the outcome, we have decided not to protest the decision,” said Lockheed spokeswoman Wendy Owen (Associated Press/Denton Record-Chronicle, Jan. 11).

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Chemical Weapons Disposal Site to Start Up in Russia

Russian officials are preparing the chemical weapons destruction plant in Kambarka to go online at the end of this month, ITAR-Tass reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 4, 2005).

The facility last month destroyed more than 1.7 tons of lewisite in a trial run, according to ITAR-Tass.

“The state commission, which signed the commissioning documentation for the system, noted that all shortcomings identified earlier had been taken into account and eliminated. Over 50 installations built in Kambarka are 100 percent ready. These include waste treatment facilities of the production building, dual-use installations, a firefighting station for six vehicles, boiler houses, working area for international inspectors and social facilities,” said Udmurtia government official Aleksandr Perunov. “At the moment people on the site are waiting for the arrival of a group of international inspectors, which will carry out checks to see that the detoxification process meets technology and international safety norms.”

The Kambarka facility stores more than 6,400 tons of lewisite, 15.9 percent of the total Russian chemical weapons stockpile. The agent is expected to be destroyed within 3 1/2 years, according to ITAR-Tass (ITAR-Tass, Jan. 11).

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Sarin Attack Simulated in Arkansas

Emergency management officials in Arkansas on Tuesday simulated a sarin attack to test response readiness, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported (see GSN, Dec. 22, 2005).

The test was funded through a $12 million federal grant to improve the state’s preparedness for a biological attack. Fire and police personnel from the Little Rock area and officials from the state Emergency Management Department and the Arkansas National Guard participated in the drill.

During the drill, high school students acted as if they were afflicted with different injuries and symptoms. Some students wore makeup and others wore combat fatigues so that responders could practice cutting off clothes.

Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Terry Hastings said the drill gave first responders a chance to coordinate efforts as if a real attack had occurred.

“If we don't have the training and practice, we can't make a determination of what may work and what won't in the case of a real event. The incident may not be real, but the experience we get in working with the other agencies is helpful,” he said (Jim Brooks, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Jan. 11).

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U.S. Classifies Missile Defense Interceptor Status

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency says it will make secret future tallies of anti-ICBM interceptors it fields, and classify the operational status of the interceptors and other assets of its long-range missile defense system (see GSN, Dec. 15, 2005).

“In the interest of operational security, future interceptor emplacements will not be announced,” the agency said in a Dec. 20 press release.

In addition, according to Missile Defense Agency spokesman Richard Lehner in a recent email: “Information regarding the operational status of missile defense assets, to include the number of operationally available ground and sea-based interceptor missiles, and the operational status of system sensors and radars has historically been and will remain classified.”

Critics say they suspect the policies are aimed at shielding delayed agency efforts to field and operate the multibillion-dollar Ground-based Midcourse Defense system from public scrutiny. 

This is “another way in which they’re trying to quell any negative stories about the program,” Center for Defense Information missile defense analyst Victoria Sampson said by e-mail.

Until now, “They’ve made certain that the public has known about it every time a new interceptor has gone into the ground,” she said.

“It’s to prevent embarrassment on their part,” Union of Concerned Scientists senior scientist Lisbeth Gronlund said. “Two years ago they wanted to make a big announcement about deployment. Why wouldn’t you want to announce to the world that it was ready to go if it was?” she said.

Lehner said that information on emplacements and operational capability could help a potential attacker.

“The MDA director, per the MDA charter, has the responsibility to protect information that could benefit a potential adversary, which if disclosed publicly could provide information on the capability or operational status of Ballistic Missile Defense System assets,” he wrote.

Until now, the agency has offered detailed information on deployment of missile interceptors. There are now eight installed at Fort Greely in Alaska and two at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Another interceptor missile is scheduled for emplacement at this month at Fort Greely, it said.

The agency has said in budget documents and testimony that it plans to field up to 26 interceptors at Fort Greely by the end of 2007 and has dug silo holes for a total of 40 there. It also has sought and obtained initial funding to build an additional missile base somewhere in Europe and up to 10 interceptors for that site.

“Long-term plans continue to include the procurement of up to 50 interceptors for deployment, and could include up to 10 for a third site,” Lehner wrote last month.

“The policy to no longer publicly announce or release information regarding interceptor emplacements went into effect after emplacement of the tenth Ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptor in December,” he wrote yesterday.

The decision comes as the agency failed to meet plans to field up to 20 Ground-based Midcourse Defense system interceptor missiles by the end of 2005 and to declare fielded components fully operational by the end of 2004 (see GSN, Jan. 9). 

Only 10 interceptors have been put in silos and none have made full-time operational status, ready to fire at any time, since the administration announced in December 2002 it would begin operating initial defensive capability. Only two interceptors went into the ground in 2005, the latest on Dec. 18.

A reason for the fielding delay, according to Lehner, is that Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Henry Obering last year decided to transfer four interceptors planned for deployment into the midcourse system’s test program, which also was behind schedule but is planning to increase the pace of testing this year. 

The decision followed two high-profile testing failures in late 2004 and early 2005, in which the interceptors failed to leave their silos. 

After reviewing the tests, two panels recommended improvements to agency review processes and management controls “to ensure better quality and configuration control as we prepared for more ‘production’ interceptors,” Lehner wrote last month in an e-mail.

“The overall delay was the result of the MDA director’s desire to ‘stand down’ testing and deployment from this past February until the panel’s reviews were completed and evaluated, and process improvements put in place,” he wrote.

The agency successfully fired a test interceptor on Dec. 13.

The agency also reduced the number of deployed interceptors at Vandenberg from four to two so their silos could be available for tests this year, according to Lehner.

The Missile Defense Agency is late in placing the defense system on full-time operational alert to attempt intercepts of foreign ICBM attacks. The military originally aimed to activate the system on Oct. 1, 2004, but pushed the date to the end of 2004.  

Senior officials in early 2005 then said the complex system of interceptors, sensors and command and control infrastructure — only partially developed and fielded — was not yet deemed ready for operation (see GSN, March 16). Some officials publicly suggested the system might never be declared operational (see GSN, Jan. 14).

Agency officials have said the ground-based system continues to undergo a “shakedown period” of uncertain duration to make sure it works correctly, after which it might be declared operational. First reported October 2004, the shakedown period originally was expected to last a couple of months.

Some prominent missile defense supporters, including former CIA Director James Woolsey, lately have criticized the ground-based approach as technologically misguided and argued for agency emphasis to shift toward developing other technologies for anti-ICBM defense, from sea, space or air.

Senate appropriators, in a report last year, said they saw signs the Pentagon was shifting emphasis away from ground-based interceptors and argued against that move (see GSN, Oct. 7). Obering said at a conference last month said there was a misunderstanding and that the agency would continue working to improve the system.

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Australia Developing Missile Defense Radar

A new radar network being developed in Australia would be used in the U.S.-led ballistic missile defense program, United Press International reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 24, 2005).

U.S. scientists said the Jindalee Operational Radar Network could identify missile launches as far away as Asia. Officials from Lockheed Martin told The Age newspaper in Melbourne that the system would give more time for intercepting targets.

While standard radar sends a signal along a sight line until a target is detected, the Jindalee system bounces signals off the ionosphere, which lies above the stratosphere and extends about 600 miles above Earth. This makes it possible to detect even sophisticated stealth bombers, UPI reported.

Canberra plans to spend tens of billions of dollars on missile defenses over the next decade, according to UPI. That includes equipping three destroyers with the Aegis missile control system (Martin Sieff, United Press International, Jan. 11).

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