Researcher Discovers New Anthrax Treatment

A University of Okalahoma scientist has discovered a drug that stops the growth of anthrax bacteria, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, Dec. 20, 2005).

Microbiologist Jimmy Ballard introduced an inhibitor, which is used to fight cancer, while studying the effects of anthrax on human cells. He found that the drug stopped the growth of anthrax as well as the growth of human cells, and discovered a protein on anthrax that the inhibitor targets.

Ballard said anthrax shows no resistance to the inhibitor. He added that the finding could lead to treatments for other bacteria.

The microbiologist now plans to work on an anti-anthrax drug, which should be available in the next two years, according to AP (Associated Press/Shawnee News-Star, Dec. 31, 2005).

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U.S. to Direct Money to Cities with Multiple Threats

The U.S. Homeland Security Department plans this year to direct grant funds to cities that face various threats beyond terrorism, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, July 13, 2005).

Changes to the department’s allocation policy for the $765 million available this year through the Urban Area Security Initiative were outlined in documents sent to state and local officials and are expected to be addressed today by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. 

In past years most of the money has gone to cities considered to be at greatest risk for a terror attack. This year, however, cities at risk for natural disasters and health troubles are also eligible for the funds.

“In light of several major new national planning priorities, which address such issues as pandemic influenza and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the allowable scope of (grant) activities (include) catastrophic events — provided that these activities also build capabilities that relate to terrorism,” according to the documents.

“For example, mass evacuation planning supports terrorism preparedness but also other types of catastrophic events,” the documents said. “Planning for pandemic influenza and linking that effort to a larger bioterrorism preparedness effort offers another example. Grantees must demonstrate the dual-use nature of any activities implemented under this program that are not explicitly focused on terrorism preparedness.”

A Homeland Security official familiar with the new plans said that highly specific data, including zip codes, would be used in determining how much money a community receives. Infrastructure is also ranked, allowing for differences between a subway and a nuclear power plant, according to the officials.

The amount of money available this year is down from $829 million in 2005, according to AP (Lara Jakes Jordan, Associated Press/Washington Post, Jan. 3).

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Nine Foreign Companies Sanctioned by U.S. for Supplying Chemical Weapons, Missile Materials to Iran

The United States has issued sanctions against nine foreign companies for selling materials to Iran that could be used to make chemical weapons and missiles, the Associated Press reported last week (see GSN, Oct. 25, 2005).

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the sanctions are based on “credible evidence.” Six of the companies are Chinese, while two are Indian and one Austrian.

Under the sanctions, the U.S. government will not give export licenses to or purchase goods from the firms. The restrictions are allowed under the 2000 Iran Nonproliferation Act, which was passed to deter international support for Tehran’s WMD programs, according to AP.

“It's an important and effective tool in constraining Iran's efforts to develop missile and weapons of mass destruction capabilities,” Ereli said. “It does have an impact, particularly in alerting governments to activity taking place in their countries.”

The six sanctioned Chinese companies are: China Aerotechnology Import Export Corp., China North Industries Corp., Zibo Chemet Equipment Co., the Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, Ounion International Economic and Technical Cooperative Ltd., and the Limmt Metallurgy and Minerals Co. The Indian companies are Sabero Organics Chemical and Sandhya Organics Chemical, while the Austrian company is Steyr-Mannlicher (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/Washington Post, Dec. 28, 2005).

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Book Claims CIA Dismissed Word That Iraq Had No WMD

The CIA recruited roughly 30 family members of Iraqis to inquire about prewar Baghdad’s alleged WMD programs but then ignored the agents’ findings, according to a new book by New York Times reporter James Risen (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2005).

In “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration,” Risen describes how the CIA recruited Iraqi-American anesthesiologist Sawsan Alhaddad in 2002 to obtain information from her brother, who had been involved in Iraq’s prior nuclear weapons efforts.

Alhaddad traveled to Iraq, where her brother informed her that Baghdad’s nuclear program had ended a decade earlier. About 30 family members of Iraqis made such trips to contact weapons scientists, according to the book, and all told U.S. intelligence that the regime’s WMD programs were inactive.

However, the agency concluded that Alhaddad’s brother was lying, a CIA operative later told her husband. In October 2002, the U.S National Intelligence Estimate concluded that Iraq was reforming its nuclear program, the Associated Press reported yesterday (Associated Press/Washington Post, Jan. 2).

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Congress Allows for 2006 Penetrator Test

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Congress last month approved a bill allowing the Defense Department this year to conduct a controversial earth penetrator research test, despite opposition from minority Democrats (see GSN, Dec. 15, 2005).

In approving a massive $441 billion fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill, Congress denied authorization for $4 million in funding requested by the Bush administration for the Energy Department to conduct a major “sled test” of a mock Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP).

However, in report language accompanying the final version of the bill approved on Dec. 18, House and Senate leaders authorized $4 million for the Defense Department to conduct such a test as part of a new, related “penetrator study.” A senior Air Force official said last month that the test could support efforts to develop a nuclear penetrator.

The report says House and Senate conferees “agree to authorize no funding for the RNEP study under the Department of Energy, but instead authorize a related study effort within the Department of Defense.”

“The conferees agree to authorize $4.0 million … to conduct a sled test and a study on the physics of penetrating geologic media, to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2006,” it says.

Both houses subsequently approved the version of the bill agreed to in the report and it now awaits the president’s signature.

The test, which involves slamming the mock warhead into a huge block of concrete, is considered necessary for assessing whether it is feasible to develop a weapon better able to withstand slamming into solid earth before detonating than an existing conventional penetrator.

Critics have called the program — with a potential price tag of hundreds of millions of dollars — a waste of money. They argue that a nuclear penetrator would not likely be used because of potential casualties, and that it undermines U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts. Supporters have said a sturdier penetrator is needed for reaching deeply buried foreign facilities.

Senate Democrats unsuccessfully sought to include in the report a provision barring any testing that could support the feasibility assessment of a nuclear penetrator. 

Nevertheless, after Congress approved the report, Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) suggested in a press release that the bill would only allow for study of conventional penetrators.

“I’m pleased that the FY 2006 Defense Authorization bill will not allow the creation of new nuclear weapons, but instead provides our military with resources to destroy hard and deeply buried targets with conventional weapons,” she said.

Supporting that notion, Congress on Dec. 18 also approved the fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill report containing language that specified the Defense Department study be a “conventional” one.

However, an Air Force official said in a Defense Daily report on Dec. 6 that the sled test in fiscal 2006 is intended to determine the feasibility of the nuclear penetrator and that the Defense Department planned to complete the nuclear feasibility assessment by fiscal 2007 if money could be secured.

“There is some misunderstanding that the Defense Department has dropped the nuclear part of the [Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator]. Without the nuclear portion, the RNEP is not very attractive,” Billy Mullins, deputy director of strategic security for the Air Force, told Defense Daily.

“The defense appropriations conference report approved by Congress last month specifies on page 289 that the Defense Department appropriation is for a conventional penetrator study,” said Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl Kimball.

“The reality is that the sled test that this money would support would produce data that is relative not only to a conventional penetrator but [to] a nuclear penetrator. But the DOD should be mindful that the legislative intent of Congress is that the RNEP program is not authorized,” he said.

Senate Armed Services Committee ranking Democrat Carl Levin (Mich.) in a Dec. 22 floor statement urged the Pentagon to use the $4 million only for studying conventional penetrators.

“I hope and urge the department to use at least the $4 million to support conventional, non-nuclear weapons development,” he said.

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Iran Pledges to Study Compromise Nuclear Proposal

Iran yesterday announced it would only consider a compromise nuclear offer from Russia if the deal acknowledged Tehran’s right to enrich uranium domestically, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Dec. 23, 2005).

“As we said before we want to have enrichment inside Iran ... and any proposal which is based on this principle will be studied,” said government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham.

“We are studying the Russian proposal based on this framework,” he said.

Moscow has proposed enriching uranium on Iran’s behalf in Russia, ensuring that nuclear material would not be diverted to weapons work.

Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani criticized the proposal without fully eliminating it from consideration, AFP reported.

“It is an idea, not a structured proposal, we don’t see it as mature and it has serious problems,” Larijani told state television.

“The (Russian) plan could be complementary and supporting, there are technological benefits, we have to examine them. It is not rigid and there is room for maneuver,” he added (Farhad Pouladi, Agence France-Presse/Middle East Online, Jan. 2).

Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Wednesday that Tehran would “seriously and enthusiastically” study the Russian offer, the New York Times reported.

The change in tone from previous regime statements should not be taken as a signal that Tehran has changed its policy on uranium enrichment, said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security.

“The trouble is that when they say they’ll give it serious study, it doesn’t mean they’ll accept it,” Albright said. “Iran’s problem is that just to turn down the Russian proposal adds a lot of support to those who want to bring the matter to the Security Council.”

“They’d seemed to be hardening over the last several months, so I’d be surprised if this statement was a real change of position,” he said.

Vaeedi’s tone could be aimed at persuading the EU to resume talks and blocking China or Russia from supporting sanctions, according to the Times (Bernstein/Sanger, New York Times, Dec. 29, 2005).

Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko is scheduled to visit Iran next month to discuss the completion the Bushehr nuclear plant as well as Moscow’s uranium enrichment proposal, the Associated Press reported Friday (Associated Press/Washington Post, Dec. 30, 2005).

Meanwhile, Iran has developed a mixer-settler, a device used to separate uranium from its ore to produce uranium oxide, or yellowcake, AFP reported.

“The mixer-settler can be used effectively in the fuel cycle for producing zirconium and uranium,” one engineer who helped develop the machinery told state television Sunday (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Jan. 1).

Iran on Sunday warned of harsh retaliation to any attack on its nuclear or military installations, the Associated Press reported.

Larijani, however, dismissed discussion of such an attack as “psychological warfare.”

“Iran has prepared itself ... they will get a crushing response if they make such a mistake,” Larijani told state television.

“If there is any truth in such talks, Israel will suffer greatly. It’s a very small country within our range. Our (defense) preparedness is a deterrence,” he said.

CIA Director Porter Goss, FBI Director Robert Mueller and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have all recently visited neighboring Turkey, boosting speculation about plans for a possible military strike against Iran, according to AP (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Billings Gazette, Jan. 1).

Turkey yesterday denied reports of U.S. requests for permission to use Turkish military bases for possible strikes on Iran, Reuters reported.

“This speculation has no connection with reality,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry announced in a statement.

“Turkey considers that the problems in its region should be resolved by dialogue and negotiations. It believes our region does not need any new problems and that everyone should fulfill their responsibilities with this aim in mind,” the statement says (Reuters, Jan. 2).

Top Israeli military commander Gen. Dan Halutz dismissed the notion of an imminent strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, the Australian reported today.

“I don’t think an operation by the Israel defense forces against the Iranians will be necessary soon,” he said. “All political options for halting the Iranian program must be exhausted before other options are considered” (Abraham Rabinovich, The Australian, Jan. 3).

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U.S. Checking for Radiation at Muslim Sites

The U.S. government since 2002 has been using radiation detectors to monitor Muslim sites around Washington, D.C. and in at least five other cities, U.S. News and World Report reported last month (see GSN, Nov. 9, 2005).

Sites monitored for potential nuclear weapons activity include homes, businesses, mosques and warehouses. Surveillance of these sites was often conducted without search warrants or court orders, even as agents entered private properties, according to sources familiar with the program. Some personnel involved in the monitoring questioned whether the program was legal and were subsequently threatened with job loss.

Federal officials maintain that warrants are not needed to conduct the radiation monitoring, a claim disputed by some legal scholars. 

News of the radiation surveillance follows the recent revelation of a secret National Security Agency spying program in which U.S. citizens were monitored without warrants or court orders. 

The FBI and the Energy Department’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team operate the radiation watch program. At one point, three vehicles in Washington monitored 120 primarily Muslim sites each day. This occurred daily for 10 months and continues during high-threat periods. The program has also been used in Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York and Seattle, according to U.S. News.

Surveillance in the Washington area included mosques and offices in Virginia and Maryland. Participants in the program “were tasked on a daily and nightly basis,” and Energy Department and FBI officials met often to update the list of sites being monitored, according to a source close to the program.

 “The targets were almost all U.S. citizens,” said the source. “A lot of us thought it was questionable, but people who complained nearly lost their jobs. We were told it was perfectly legal.”

However, questions exist about the legality of monitoring without a search warrant. Up to 15 percent of the surveillance was conducted from private property like driveways and parking lots in order to obtain accurate radiation readings. Government officials said that no warrant is needed to monitor from areas that could be accessed by the public.

“If a delivery man can access it, so can we,” said one official.

David Cole, a constitutional law expert and professor at Georgetown University, disputes this claim. He said that while public mosques and businesses might be acceptable for surveillance, private homes and offices are not.

“They don't need a warrant to drive onto the property — the issue isn't where they are, but whether they're using a tactic to intrude on privacy. It seems to me that they are, and that they would need a warrant or probable cause,” he said.

Cole said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that police needed a warrant to use heat sensors to detect lamps used to grow marijuana in private homes. However, officials close to the monitoring program said that radiation detectors differ because they are testing air. 

“This kind of program only detects particles in the air, it’s nondirectional,” one official said. “It's not a whole lot different from smelling marijuana.”

Officials also deny the program targets Muslims.

“We categorically do not target places of worship or entities solely based on ethnicity or religious affiliation,” said an official. “Our investigations are intelligence driven and based on a criminal predicate” (David Kaplan, U.S. News and World Report, Dec. 22, 2005).

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said news of the surveillance came as a “complete shock” to his group and to the Muslim community, the Associated Press reported.

“This creates the appearance that Muslims are targeted simply for being Muslims. I don't think this is the message the government wants to send at this time,” he said.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said that the Bush administration “is very concerned with a growing body of sensitive reporting that continues to show al-Qaeda has a clear intention to obtain and ultimately use chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear” weapons.

To counter these threats, Roehrkasse said the government “monitors the air for imminent threats to health and safety,” but does so only in response to specific threats.

“FBI agents do not intrude across any constitutionally protected areas without the proper legal authority,” he said (Larry Margasak, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, Dec. 23, 2005).

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North Korea Refuses Nuke Talks, Cites U.S. Sanctions

North Korea today announced it would boycott multilateral nuclear disarmament talks until Washington lifts sanctions imposed for Pyongyang’s alleged illegal financial activities, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 23, 2005).

“While under U.S. sanctions, it’s impossible to sit face-to-face and discuss abandoning our nuclear deterrent,” said the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper.

Meanwhile, the pro-Pyongyang Choson Sinbo newspaper in Japan stated that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is “determined to go on an all-out offensive” and will take a “resolute measure” on the nuclear standoff, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University in Seoul, said Pyongyang could be considering boosting its nuclear arsenal or testing a missile. A nuclear test was unlikely, though, according to Koh, “as it would provoke China and other neighboring countries too much” (Associated Press/Washington Post, Jan. 3).

Elsewhere, a top U.S. nuclear scientist has claimed that North Korea is working to restart a reactor that could produce 10 atomic bombs worth of plutonium per year, the London Times reported yesterday.

Former Los Alamos National Laboratory director Siegfried Hecker, who visited North Korea twice in the past two years, also said Pyongyang reprocessed 8,000 fuel rods last summer to produce up to 14 kilograms of plutonium.

“They have the plutonium,” Hecker told the London Times. “We have to assume the North Koreans can and have made a few nuclear devices.”

During his first trip to the country in 2004, Hecker visited the Yongbyon nuclear facility and was shown a small steel receptacle that contained a wooden box.

“They slid open the box and inside were two glass jars — two marmalade jars, actually — with screw-on tops,” he said. One contained powder, the other a thin scrap of metal, the “stuff you would use for the bombs,” according to Hecker.

Hecker said he then told the Yongbyon director that the material was not very warm, to which the official replied, “Well, Dr. Hecker, that’s because the plutonium 240 content is low, which means that it’s good bomb-grade plutonium.”

“I held the plutonium and it passed the test,” Hecker said.

On his second visit, the Yongbyon director told Hecker that the North Koreans had been reprocessing up to another 14 kilograms of plutonium.

Hecker expressed concern that the regime in Pyongyang, which is facing another financial crisis, could sell nuclear material to terrorists.

“Forty kilograms of plutonium, some number of briefcases anywhere in basements, in one of the 15,000 tunnels in North Korea — nobody will find it,” he said (Michael Sheridan, The Times, Jan. 2).

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Oak Ridge Laboratory Works to Help Secure Russian Nuclear Materials Carried by Trains

The U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory transportation security group has been supporting efforts to secure nuclear materials in Russia, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, Dec. 16, 2005).

Oak Ridge researchers have been working with Russian scientists for almost 20 years. The recent focus has been on improving the rail system in Russia, which transports plutonium, uranium and weapons components around the country.

“Under the old Soviet system, with closed borders, they didn't have a real problem or issue. Nobody crossed the line under the Soviet system. They knew what would happen,” said Oak Ridge engineer Gary Sullivan. “But once they opened the borders, theoretically at least, that all changed.”

Older rail cars that carry sensitive materials have undergone security upgrades, including the addition of steel reinforcements and warning sensors.

Oak Ridge scientists have helped design the next generation of rail cars being manufactured in Russia and have helped with the installation of technologies to track and secure nuclear materials.

“Some of these systems were developed jointly with us, but it's all designed and built in Russia by Russians,” said Sullivan, although the U.S. government does provide funding for these and other nonproliferation projects in Russia.

“We don't want it growing mushrooms,” Sullivan said, referring to mushroom clouds (Associated Press/Tennessean, Dec. 31, 2005).

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India and Pakistan Exchange Nuclear Facilities Lists

India and Pakistan on Sunday exchanged lists of their respective nuclear facilities, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Dec. 23, 2005).

The information was provided under the auspices of a 1988 agreement in which the countries pledged not to attack each other’s nuclear installations, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry announced (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Jan. 1).

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Ex-Nuclear Minister Extradited to Russia

Former Russian Nuclear Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov was extradited to Russia on Friday to face an investigation into U.S. allegations that he embezzled millions of dollars in nuclear safety aid delivered by the United States to Moscow, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 6, 2005).

The United States had sought Adamov’s extradition from Switzerland, but a Swiss court ruled he would be returned to Russia. Adamov was indicted in the United States last year on conspiracy, money laundering and tax evasion charges.

Russian prosecutors made a formal pledge to Switzerland’s Justice Ministry that they would investigate the U.S. charges, AP reported (Associated Press/Washington Post, Dec. 30, 2005).

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Fire Stops Work at Umatilla Incinerator

Work at Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Oregon stopped Dec. 23 following a fire that occurred during destruction of a rocket that had been drained of sarin nerve agent, the Tri-City Herald reported (see GSN, Dec. 14, 2005).

This was the sixth time a M55 rocket caught fire while being destroyed at Umatilla. This fire occurred during the fifth of seven cuts to the rocket and was contained in the processing room. 

Fire suppression systems were added at Umatilla following fires in April, May and July, according to the Herald (Jeannine Koranda, Tri-City Herald, Dec. 24, 2005).

Both weapons processing lines were running again by the end of the day on Dec. 23, the East Oregonian reported.

The facility as of Dec. 26 had eliminated 50,007 M55 rockets, about 54 percent of those stockpiled at the Umatilla Chemical Depot (Hal McCune, East Oregonian, Dec. 28, 2005).

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India Test-Fires Nuclear-Capable Missile

India last week conducted a successful test of its nuclear-capable Dhanush missile, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Nov. 22, 2005).

The short-range ballistic missile, a naval version of New Delhi’s Prithvi missile, was launched Wednesday from a ship in the Bay of Bengal, the Press Trust of India quoted official sources as saying.

The Dhanush has a 156-mile range and a 1,100-pound payload capacity, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 28, 2005).

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NYC Hospitals to Get Radiation Detectors

Hospitals in New York City are expected to receive radiation detectors that would aid the response to a radiological “dirty bomb” incident, the Associated Press reported last week (see GSN, Nov. 11, 2005).

Equipment purchases totaling $1.4 million would be funded mostly by federal grants and are expected to help hospitals diagnose victims following an attack, according to the city’s heath department.

“In the event of an incident in New York City involving radioactive contamination, hospitals will be on the front lines of receiving potentially contaminated persons with and without injuries,” said the department in a statement.

The detection systems are expected to be used in private and public hospitals. Staff members are to receive training on diagnosing and treating radiation illnesses, along with instruction on how to protect themselves while treating contaminated patients.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases last year issued more than $47 million in grants and contracts to improve diagnosis and treatment of dirty-bomb victims. Columbia University is leading a team of researchers who are working on new technology that will allow large numbers of people to be screened for radiation exposure, allowing for quicker treatment (David Caruso, Associated Press/Washington Post, Dec. 28, 2005).

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