Another Arrest Made in U.K. Airline Terror Plot

A total of 24 people are in British custody in connection with a foiled plot to detonate liquid explosives on passenger jets, following the arrest yesterday of one suspect, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, Aug. 14).

One individual has been released, while the remaining 24 are being held without charges, according to the Post.

Meanwhile, German authorities said one or more of the suspects had contact via e-mail with Nese Bahaji, the wife of fugitive Said Bahaji, who is believed to have been a member of the Hamburg terror cell that plotted the Sept. 11 attacks (Partlow/Whitlock, Washington Post, Aug. 16).

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D.C. Seeks Report on Hazardous Rail Cargo Routes

The District of Columbia is using a $1 million Homeland Security Department grant on a feasibility study for plans to use a new rail route to redirect hazardous material shipments around the city, The Washington Times reported today (see GSN, Jan. 31).

The report from Parsons Brinckerhoff is due by early 2007. Options being considered include construction of a new rail line circumventing the city, using existing railways to direct dangerous cargos away from the city or reactivating unused routes, according to the Times.

The project is likely to cost more than $1 billion, said David Zaidain, project manager for the National Capital Planning Commission.

The D.C. Council and the Homeland Security Department have raised concerns about potential terrorist attacks on tank cars containing toxic materials. 

“A terrorist attack on a freight car with hazardous cargo, such as liquid chlorine, could kill thousands within a very short time and imperil the functioning of critical federal facilities,” said Rick Rybeck, deputy administrator of the D.C. Transportation Department.

The council last year banned hazardous-material shipments within 2.2 miles of the Capitol. CSX Transportation, the firm that owns the rail line through the city, opposed the ban. A lawsuit is pending while shipments, with the exception of cars carrying chlorine, continue through the city.

Railroad firms to date have beaten such local laws in court by arguing that interstate commerce is regulated solely by the federal government, according to the Times.

“If cities all along your route have these rules, it would be impossible to ship these materials,” said Tom White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads (Tom Ramstack, Washington Times, Aug. 16).

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Nuclear Explosion at California Port Seen as Potential National and Global Catastrophe

The detonation of a nuclear weapon at the Port of Long Beach in California would be catastrophic for the entire United States, leading to 10 times the economic damage caused by the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a report released yesterday by the RAND Corp. (see GSN, Aug. 25, 2005).

RAND’s Center for Terrorism Risk Management Policy examined the effects of a 10-kiloton nuclear explosion at the port. Such a blast could “devastate a vast portion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area” within 72 hours, kill 60,000 people immediately and expose another 150,000 to radiation, according to the analysis.

The explosion and fires could destroy the infrastructure of the Port of Long Beach and neighboring Port of Los Angeles, along with all ships docked at the two facilities. The ports handle about one-third of U.S. imports.

Some 2 million to 3 million people might also be forced to relocate from contaminated areas, and destruction of port area oil refineries could result in large-scale gasoline shortages. If all U.S. ports were subsequently closed for security reasons, there could even be global repercussions, the report warns.

“It would take years to recover economically” from such an attack, Michael Wermuth, RAND homeland security research director, told the Los Angeles Times. “It would take any number of years before some of the area close to ground zero could be rebuilt, and some of it would not be habitable for 20 years” (Greg Krikorian, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 16).

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Iran’s President Blasts U.N. Demands on Nuclear Work

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday rejected the U.N. Security Council resolution demanding a freeze on Tehran’s sensitive nuclear work, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Aug. 15).

“If they think they can use a resolution as a stick against us, they should know that Iranian people do not bend to language of force,” Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran would respond Tuesday to the world powers’ incentives offer aimed at curbing his country’s nuclear program.

Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, meanwhile, said Tehran planned to maintain “industrial enrichment” (Aresu Eqbali, Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Aug. 15).

Washington this week reaffirmed its intention to seek economic and political sanctions against Iran, either through the United Nations or unilaterally, should the regime defy the U.N. resolution.

“There are steps that individual states can take,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, according to AFP.

The Security Council set an Aug. 31 deadline for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment. However, some analysts have suggested that other crises in the Middle East might prevent the United States from acting hastily on Iran.

“I don’t think the world is ready to take the Iranians to the mat at the end of August over this,” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The Bush administration has a full plate.”

“You still have problems in Gaza, you’re going to have monumental problems in Lebanon, and the administration is being hurt politically by Iraq, which is not going anywhere helpful,” he said. “They will push on Iran, they will make incremental progress, but this is not going to sweep away the rest of the agenda” (David Millikin, Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, Aug. 15).

An open letter by 21 former U.S. generals, diplomats and national security officials is expected to criticize the Bush administration's “hard line” on Iran, the Los Angeles Times reported today.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, one of the signatories, said the group — which includes retired Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Hoar, head of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994, and Morton Halperin, a senior State Department and National Security Council official during the Clinton administration — does not believe that Iran is capable of manufacturing an atomic weapon in the near term and that Washington should negotiate with Tehran.

“It’s not a crisis,” Gard told the Times. “To call the Iranian situation a ‘crisis’ connotes you have to do something right now, like bomb them.”

Gard added that warnings from former Israeli military officials about the possible need for a military strike on Iran was of particular concern (Peter Spiegel, Aug. 16).

Elsewhere, Indonesian Ambassador to the United States Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat yesterday urged the world to find alternatives outside the Security Council for addressing the standoff, AFP reported.

“When it comes to the dealing of this issue at the global level by the United Nations, we believe that there is still room for negotiations beyond the Security Council,” he said (P. Parameswaran, Agence France-Presse III/IranMania.com, Aug. 16).

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Russia Lauds Uranium Repatriation

Moscow yesterday announced it was pleased with progress made in a U.S.-Russian effort to repatriate highly enriched uranium from foreign nuclear reactors, United Press International reported (see GSN, May 30).

The Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power said 360 pounds of the nuclear material had been returned to Russia from power plants in Serbia and Montenegro, Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Libya, Latvia, Poland and Uzbekistan, RIA Novosti reported (see GSN, Aug. 10).

The agency has said it wants all spent nuclear fuel from 17 Russian-built reactors returned by 2013 (United Press International, Aug. 15).

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Russia Plans Further Topol-M Tests

Russia in December plans to conduct additional tests of its Topol-M mobile missile system at the Plesetsk spaceport, ITAR-Tass reported (see GSN, July 14).

The tests are set to involve the “modernized” RS-12M2 ICBM, according to Plesetsk.

“Missile test engineers are continuing to work on new versions of the Topol family missiles, which have much better specifications as compared with the ICBMs of the previous generation,” a source said. “The new system is equipped with a highly reliable and maneuverable missile which ‘is not afraid of’ the currently existing and future missile defense systems of a potential enemy.”

Roughly 500 ICBM launches have occurred at Plesetsk, including more than 80 involving Topol system missiles, ITAR-Tass reported. The facility has also been used to test 11 missile systems (ITAR-Tass, Aug. 15).

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South Korean, U.S. Presidents to Meet

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush are expected to meet next month in the United States, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Aug. 11).

Bush and Roh are expected on Sept. 14 to discuss “strengthening their alliance, handling North Korea’s nuclear and missile issue and other issues in Northeast Asia,” Roh’s office said in a statement (Agence France-Presse, Aug. 16).

Roh yesterday called on North Korea to resume multilateral nuclear disarmament talks and offered assistance to Pyongyang, the Associated Press reported.

“North Korea should return to the six-way talks without conditions,” he said, adding that Seoul “will spare no efforts and assistance to ensure that North Korea abandons its nuclear (weapons program), improves relations with major countries, including the U.S., and moves toward the path of peace and prosperity” (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Aug. 15).

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Recovered U.S. Chemical Munitions to be Destroyed

The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency this month plans to use mobile weapons disposal technology to destroy six 75 mm mustard-filled shells found earlier this year at a Delaware seafood processing plant (see GSN, March 6).

The Explosive Destruction System uses a stainless steel container to destroy chemical weapons. Munitions are sealed within the vessel, which uses an explosive charge to open the weapon and a reagent to neutralize the chemical.

The Army destroyed three shells yesterday, said agency spokeswoman Karen Drewen. Up to two more could be eliminated this week, with work possibly to continue into next week (Jon Fox, Global Security Newswire, Aug. 16).

The system has been used three times to neutralize World War I-era munitions found in Delaware, and has destroyed more than 500 items nationwide since 1999, the Chemical Materials Agency said in a press release.

The system is now being used to eliminate 1,200 weapons items found at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, Aug. 11).

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Sarin Leak Found at Umatilla Depot

Workers at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon on Friday detected a sarin nerve agent vapor leak inside a storage structure used to contain munitions that have previously been found leaking, the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency said (see GSN, July 21).

The structure used a passive filter system to prevent the escape of chemical vapor. Following the leak detection, the depot installed a powered filter.

Leaking weapons at Umatilla are placed in larger containers, and then moved to a “leaker” storage site that undergoes daily monitoring, according to an agency press release (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, Aug. 11).

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U.S. Reconsiders U.K. for Missile Defense Interceptor Site

The United States is again looking at placing its planned European missile defense site in the United Kingdom, the London Times reported today (see GSN, Aug. 11).

U.S. Defense Department officials are making “discreet inquiries” to London about placing 10 missile interceptors on British soil, officials said. The United Kingdom earlier this year was included on a shortlist of countries being considered for the missile defense facility, but the focus recently has been on Poland and the Czech Republic.

Interceptors located in Central Europe would be better placed for eliminating missiles launched from the Middle East, U.S. officials said. British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s perceived closeness with U.S. President George W. Bush, a political drawback in the United Kingdom, might also force him to reject housing U.S. interceptors.

“A few weeks ago it looked like we were out of the woods on this one. That has changed because Central Europe no longer looks like such an easy option,” on senior British source told the Times.

Hungary is no longer being considered in Washington because of its connections to Russia. Meanwhile, there is rising opposition in Poland and the Czech Republic to the U.S. plans.

“The U.K. has always been the fall-back option and there is some concern about whether Poland and the Czech Republic will turn out to be stable partners in the same way that you guys have been,” said Riki Ellison, president of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (Tom Baldwin, The Times, Aug. 16).

U.S. Missile Defense Agency chief Lt. Gen. Henry Obering yesterday said he plans in the next few months to make his recommendation on the European interceptor and radar site, Agence France-Presse reported.

The installation is scheduled to be operational by 2011.

Selection factors include the ability of the European location to destroy Iranian missiles, soil conditions, infrastructure needs for facilities, and potential sites for placement of an X-band radar.

“All that information is being gathered and should be available to use in the next several months,” Obering said. “We will have recommendations with respect to alternative sites. “In terms of a decision, I don’t know the decision timeline.”

The House of Representatives has eliminated funding in fiscal 2007 for development of a European missile defense installation (see GSN, Aug. 1).

Financing “is a major factor in terms of our timing, our scheduling of activity that may occur,” Obering said.

His agency is also planning another flight test this month. The interceptor would be fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at a target missile coming from Alaska, AFP reported.

“It’s about as close as we can come to an end-to-end complete operational rig-out of the system. And then we will have another flight against a target in the November, December timeframe that will be a planned intercept,” Obering said (see GSN, May 11).

The agency has successfully hit target missiles in five of 10 intercept tests, most recently in 2002 (Jim Mannion, Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 15).

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U.S. Successfully Tests SM-3 Maneuvering System

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said Monday that it had successfully completed a second ground test of the Standard Missile 3 kinetic warhead’s maneuvering system (see GSN, June 9).

The kinetic warhead, the missile’s final stage, is jettisoned just after the missile is fired. The Solid Divert and Attitude Control System maneuvers the warhead into position to destroy an enemy ballistic missile. Eight attempted flight tests have resulted in seven intercepts, according to the agency.

The Standard Missile 3 is part of the ship-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (U.S. Missile Defense Agency release, Aug. 14).

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Gambler Sets Off Border Radiation Alarm

An 83-year-old man driving to a Washington state casino last week set off radiation alarms at the border crossing between Canada and the United States, The Vancouver Sun reported (see GSN, March 28).

Stanley Smith said he recently suffered a heart attack, and was injected Thursday with radioactive dye during a cardiac scan.

“I had no idea I was radioactive,” said Smith, a native of Australia and World War II veteran. “I got the injection in the hospital, but I didn’t know what it was.”

Smith on Friday activated sensors designed to prevent smuggling into the United States of material that could be used in a radiological “dirty bomb.” 

“All I heard was buzz, buzz, buzz, and I thought, ‘What in the hell is that for?’” he said.

Border police questioned Smith and demanded to see his passport and medical paperwork, the Sun reported. After 30 minutes, they accepted his explanation for the alarm. He then continued on his way to the casino in Ferndale, Wash.

“It was a nightmare, believe me,” Smith said.

“Today’s security is so tough,” he added. “And those security people, they have no sense of humor whatsoever.”

Smith said patients who undergo medical procedures involving radioactive materials should be warned of their possible affect on security detection systems. Hospitals in British Columbia do provide warnings, along with signed documentation for patients who are going traveling, said Fraser Health Authority spokeswoman Lisa Thibeault.

Doctors “are aware of this issue. That’s why there are these procedures in place,” she said (Darah Hansen, The Vancouver Sun, Aug. 16).

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