EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana (left) and top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani (right) chat at their Berlin meeting yesterday (Sean Gallup/Getty Images). EU-Iran Nuclear Talks End Nuclear talks between Iran and the European Union ended today in Berlin with no agreement and dimming hopes for a resolution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, Reuters reported.  EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the talks could resume by the middle of next week, but “we still have some issues that have not been closed” (see GSN, Sept. 27)...Full Story

U.S. Missile Defense Gets Extra Funding By Jon Fox, Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators last week gave the U.S. Defense Department’s missile defense program $110 million more than requested for the fiscal 2007 budget (see GSN, Sept. 12)...Full Story

	Thursday, September 28, 2006

Terrorist Attack Could Overwhelm Hospital ER Crowding that already exists at U.S. hospital emergency rooms could severely undermine their ability to treat victims of a terrorist attack or another major disaster, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, July 20). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in a recent study that there was crowding at 40 to 50 percent of emergency departments from 2003 to 2004.  Nearly two-thirds of metropolitan-area emergency rooms experienced such conditions in that period. Indicators of crowding included the diversion of ambulances to other hospitals, delays of more than an hour on average in treating patients in urgent need of care, and exits by 3 percent or more of patients who no longer wanted to wait to receive care. The national nursing shortage contributes to the problem, according to the report.  Half of all metropolitan-area emergency departments had vacancies of more than 5 percent of nursing jobs. Three reports published in June offered similar warnings, finding that the U.S. emergency medical system is “overburdened, underfunded and highly fragmented,” the Post reported. “If our emergency rooms are stretched thin now, how will they provide medical care in the event of a disaster,” Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said in a statement.  Burr chairs the Senate Health Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness Subcommittee, which met yesterday with experts to discuss the problem. The practice of “boarding” — keeping patients admitted to hospitals in emergency rooms because there is no bed space elsewhere — must be reduced, said Frederick Blum, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.  Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement reductions have contributed to the drop in inpatient beds, he said. “We currently have no surge capacity to deal with the next big thing that comes along, be it a terrorist attack or a natural disaster,” he said. Primary care physicians could be given incentives to see patients after hours to reduce the number of people seeking nonemergency care at emergency rooms, said Leon Haley Jr., emergency medicine chief for the Grady Health System in Atlanta. Nancy Bonalumi, president of the Emergency Nurses Association, said more federal money is needed for nursing education programs.  Faculty shortages forced programs to reject roughly 147,000 qualified applicants in 2004, she said. Federal money is also needed for creation of regional emergency care systems, according to experts cited by Robert Bass, executive director of the Maryland Institute of EMS Systems.  A federal agency should also be chosen to lead emergency care, he said (Christopher Lee, Washington Post, Sept. 28). Back to top       U.K. Terror Suspects Plead Innocent Three men pleaded innocent yesterday to charges in the United Kingdom of trying to incite another man to execute a terrorist attack outside the country, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 25). Younes Tsouli, 23, Waseem Mughal, 23, and Tariq al-Daour, 20, are also charged with possessing documents that could be used to prepare a terrorist strike. Authorities in London say Tsouli had a Microsoft PowerPoint file entitled “carbombzip” and a file containing six video clips of Washington, D.C.  Additional material carried details of chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological equipment, according to prosecutors. Mughal allegedly kept notes on chemicals and instructions for preparing a suicide belt, AP reported.  Prosecutors say al-Daour had computer files with information on making explosives and use of rocket-propelled grenades, along with books and recipes for poisons and explosives. The three suspects were ordered to remain in custody until their trial, which is scheduled for January (David Stringer, Associated Press, Sept. 27). Back to top

EU-Iran Nuclear Talks End Nuclear talks between Iran and the European Union ended today in Berlin with no agreement and dimming hopes for a resolution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, Reuters reported.  EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the talks could resume by the middle of next week, but “we still have some issues that have not been closed” (see GSN, Sept. 27). Solana and top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani met for five hours last night and continued with two more hours of talks today, Reuters reported. The meetings produced “some possible conclusions,” Larijani said without offering details.  “We hope to be able to embark on the main negotiations as soon as possible.” The Berlin talks were an attempt to find a way to get Iran, the United States and five other major powers to the negotiating table, where they could discuss ways to press Tehran to curb its nuclear ambitions. With most officials offering little optimism, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed some hope for progress. “I expect we will see some movement in this conflict that will enable us to avoid escalating it by getting the [U.N.] Security Council involved,” he said (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters I, Sept. 28). Meanwhile in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday reaffirmed his opposition to freezing Iran’s uranium enrichment program and shed some light on the EU-Iranian talks. European officials “asked us to suspend work for three months. … Three months’ suspension means a huge loss, means three months’ reversal from technology.  Who will pay for the losses? … Then they reached a point that they asked for a one-day halt.  We said we won’t do it,” he told a crowd in Karaj. Iran would pursue a peaceful nuclear energy program, he said. “Those who have filled their arsenal with nuclear weapons and conduct new tests every day want on political pretexts to deny the Iranian nation its full definite right of using nuclear energy,” he said.  “The Iranian nation won’t give in to one iota of coercion” (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Houston Chronicle, Sept. 28). Echoes of Israel Iran’s pursuit of nuclear technology has partly mirrored that of Israel’s 40 years ago, according to a leading Israeli nuclear scholar. “Whether deliberately or inadvertently, there are elements of resemblance between the way Iran is pursuing its nuclear program today and the way Israel was pursuing its own program in the 1960s,” said Avner Cohen, a senior research scholar at the University of Maryland and author of Israel and the Bomb. Using such Israeli strategies as secrecy, ambiguity and doubletalk, Iran is probably trying to project the impression that it has nuclear weapon capabilities without testing weapons or declaring that it has actual weapons, Cohen said. “This is a great irony of history, but Iranian policy-makers and nuclear technocrats may be strategically mimicking the Israeli model,” he said (Bernd Debusmann, Reuters II/Washington Post, Sept. 27). Back to top       Warrants Issued in Mitutoyo Nuclear Smuggling Case Japanese authorities have issued arrest warrants to four people suspected of illegally selling equipment to Singapore that could be used to help produce nuclear weapons, Kyodo News reported today (see GSN, Sept. 15). At least two of the suspects once worked for precision equipment maker Mitutoyo Corp., which is already implicated in selling similar technology to Malaysia.  In that case, Japanese officials say Mitutoyo exported measurement technology that could be used to produce uranium enrichment centrifuges. The new warrants were for former Mitutoyo Vice Chairman Norio Takatsuji, former Mitutoyo President Kazusaku Tezuka and two others.  Tezuka has already been charged in the Malaysian case (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Sept. 28). Back to top       Urgency Grows Over North Korea Nuclear Talks U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill yesterday called on North Korea to prove that it is committed to resuming the six-nation negotiations on its nuclear program, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 27). “I just want to know:  Are they serious about making progress in this next round,” Hill, chief U.S. envoy to the talks, said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event.  “I just want to get some idea of whether they’re” readying for a resumption of negotiations that have been stalled for nearly a year. “We’re trying to get ready to fulfill our obligations,” he said.  “I just would like some indication from (North Korea) that they’re doing something similar.” The coming weeks are “critical,” Hill said, adding that a “certain sense of urgency” has developed to restart the talks involving China, Japan, Russia, the United States and North and South Korea. Hill and lead South Korean negotiator Chun Young-woo met this week.  The U.S. envoy has also been in contact by phone with his counterpart in Japan, AP reported. “When things are stopped for so long, you really want to find ways to restart them,” Hill said.  “We are in the crucial phase.  We’ve not made any progress” (Foster Klug, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 27). Hill also yesterday warned North Korea again against conducting a nuclear weapon test, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Aug. 18). “All parties have made it clear that this would be a very, very serious step,” he said during a congressional hearing. “It is a very small piece of the world. … It is frankly speaking, rather shocking that anyone would even think of exploding a nuclear weapon on the Korean Peninsula,” Hill added. U.S. lawmakers offered a warning of their own — against imposing new sanctions on Pyongyang. “Let the administration think long and hard before taking this dramatic step,” said Representative Tom Lantos (D-Calif.). “Pyongyang will undoubtedly cite these new sanctions as evidence of hostile intent, and strengthen its refusal to return to the six-party talks,” he said. Hill said North Korea’s July missile tests could still lead to new U.S. sanctions (see GSN, July 5). “We are of course looking at the issue particularly in the light of the fact that the North Koreans had a missile moratorium, some measures were relaxed … and they violated the moratorium,” he said (Stephen Collinson, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 28). Pyongyang’s potential move toward a nuclear test might be a ploy designed to offset international pressure that followed the missile launches, said Joseph DeTrani, North Korea mission manager at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The nuclear test “seems to be something they have put into play,” he said.  He could not speak to the likelihood of such an act, Kyodo News reported.  “I really don’t have anything that I could really say yes or no, it’s likely, it’s unlikely,” DeTrani said (Kyodo News/Yahoo!News, Sept. 28). Meanwhile, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon yesterday expressed frustration and disappointment over North Korea’s rejection of further six-nation talks, the Associated Press reported. His comments followed a speech Tuesday at the United Nations in which a senior North Korean official said it would be “preposterous” for Pyongyang to return to the talks while faced with U.S. sanctions and counterfeiting allegations. “I was very much frustrated and disappointed by the same inflexible positions by North Korea,” Ban said. The U.S. financial sanctions “have nothing to do with the six-party process,” he said.  “This is part of law enforcement activities over the issue of illicit activities by North Korea, including counterfeiting currencies,” Ban said (Paul Alexander, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 28). Back to top

Congressman Requests FBI Briefing on Anthrax Case A U.S. lawmaker yesterday asked the FBI for a classified briefing on its investigation into the 2001 anthrax mail attacks.  The request followed reports that investigators no longer believe the anthrax used in the attacks was of weapon-grade quality (see GSN, Sept. 25). “Resources were diverted and countless agents wasted their time investigating a small pool of suspects, instead of the broader search we now know was needed,” Representative Rush Holt (D-N.J.) wrote in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller. Holt asked Mueller to allow FBI scientist Douglas Beecher to testify before the House Intelligence Committee.   In a recently published scientific article, Beecher wrote that there was “a widely circulated misconception” that the mailed anthrax spores appeared similar to material developed for military purposes (Donna de la Cruz, Associated Press/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sept. 27). Back to top       Anthrax Vaccine Passes Early Test An experimental anthrax vaccine has passed early safety and efficacy tests, its British manufacturer announced yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 2, 2003). The United States provided London-based Avecia with $71 million to develop the vaccine to ensure a supply in case a larger contract with a different manufacturer falls through. An $877 million contract with California-based VaxGen Inc. has seen repeated delays and delivery of the vaccine is expected no earlier than 2008, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 11). Both contracts are for a less-complicated alternative to an existing vaccine that requires six injections over 18 months. “We want to make sure we cover ourselves,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  “You want to make sure you don’t have everything invested in one particular product.” In its test results announced yesterday, Avecia said that the vaccine had proven safe when administered to 111 volunteers, and that it produced an immune response of varying levels.  The new vaccine did appear, however, to offer less protection than the existing treatment. “The implication [of the test results] … is that the immune response was not as good,” said Arthur Friedlander, a senior U.S. Army researcher. Nevertheless, the new vaccine’s protection could still be adequate, AP reported. A larger Avecia study involving 600 volunteers has begun, according to a British defense researcher (Marilynn Marchione, Associated Press/Washington Post, Sept. 28). Back to top       Idaho Lab Upgrade a Bust, State Says Upgrades that would allow the Idaho state laboratory to test for anthrax and other biological agents have cost $1.5 million to date but have been a bust, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, June 28). The funding from the U.S. Homeland Security Department was meant to convert the laboratory into a Biosafety Level 3 facility.  However, an independent analysis found that it would require another $1.5 million in work for the laboratory to meet federal standards for such a site. The more than 20 deficiencies included contamination of filtration ducts and damage to all but one of 14 special filters, AP reported. “I don’t think anyone can remember when we have been in this kind of situation before,” said Governor Jim Risch. Contractor Hobson Fabricating Inc. had finished 95 percent of the project when the state canceled the laboratory contract.  The company sued the state for defamation, while the state sued Hobson Fabricating for failure to comply with the contract (Associated Press/The Times-News, Sept. 28). Back to top

Japanese Search Yields Chemical Shells in China Japan has completed a third round of chemical weapons collection in the Chinese city of Dunhua, securing 418 shells abandoned during World War II, the Xinhua News Agency reported (see GSN, Aug. 18).  Workers determined that another 20 munitions were not of Japanese origin and turned them over to Chinese officials.  The remaining shells will be stored temporarily in a Chinese warehouse, according to the Japanese Cabinet Office. The recent effort in the Jilin Province city, conducted from Aug. 22 to Monday, followed two others that have collected 605 shells, Xinhua reported (Xinhua News Agency, Sept. 28). Back to top

U.S. Missile Defense Gets Extra Funding By Jon Fox, Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators last week gave the U.S. Defense Department’s missile defense program $110 million more than requested for the fiscal 2007 budget (see GSN, Sept. 12). Congressional appropriators set the overall funding mark for ballistic missile defense at $9.4 billion for fiscal 2007 — $1.6 billion more than allocated in this budget year.  The funds were part of a voluminous $447.6 billion defense appropriations bill that covers every aspect of armed forces spending.  Funding is directed to research and development of missile interceptor technology as well as purchasing and deploying existing antimissile systems.  The legislation that emerged from the bicameral conference committee includes $32.8 million for the proposed missile defense site in Europe, $24 million less than requested by the Pentagon (see GSN, Sept. 14).  Lawmakers also expressed confidence in the Airborne Laser program, urging the Defense Department to rush into operations the technology designed to bring down missiles in their boost phase.  The committee designated $630 million for the program in fiscal 2007, the level requested. As late as December 2005, the White House budget office designated the Airborne Laser a “high-risk” project and suggested the program could be eliminated in the fiscal 2007 budget.  The high-powered laser, which would be fired from a 5-foot-telescope perched in the nose of a modified 747, is expected to cost slightly more than $5.1 billion through 2009 to develop. Budget negotiators were encouraged by the recent test firing of the laser while on the ground and flight testing of a beam control system, they wrote in a conference report released this week (see GSN, June 28).  They objected to a two-year delay proposed by the Missile Defense Agency in the development of an operational laser, which has been designated as the primary boost-phase defense If the Missile Defense Agency is successful in its goal of using the Airborne Laser to down a test missile within two years, the agency should rush the defense system into operation as quickly as possible, congressional appropriators wrote (see GSN, March 2). Recommendations for funding of the European missile defense site were polarized; the House of Representatives included no funding for the site in its version of the defense appropriations bill, while the Senate fully met the more than $55 million Defense Department request. The conference version contains $32.8 million for the to-be-determined site, most of which the Defense Department says it needs for design and development.  Poland and the Czech Republic are reportedly being considered as possible locations for the base. The Pentagon this month sent an appeal to Congress, arguing that the European site was integral to protecting the United States against a future Iranian long-range missile threat (see GSN, Sept. 15).  The base would also contribute to European defense against intermediate- and medium-range Iranian missiles, defense officials wrote. Officials in Moscow recently said they reserve the right to employ tactical nuclear weapons to neutralize potential European missile defense sites that could mitigate the effectiveness of Russia’s strategic missiles (see GSN, Sept. 22). The defense funding bill also includes funding for nonproliferation programs here and abroad. It provides $1.2 billion for disposal of U.S. chemical weapons, including $111 million for “chemical stockpile emergency preparedness.”  More than half of that — $70 million — is to be made available to as grants to state and local governments. The “Chemical and Biological Defense Initiative” saw an increase of $25 million.  Those funds are allocated at will by the defense secretary among “the programs that yield the greatest gain in our chem-bio defensive posture,” according to the conference report. Congressional appropriators backed the full $372 million request for assisting former Soviet republics in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.  That includes establishing nonproliferation programs and helping former weapons sector employees find alternative employment. Those funds — a nearly $40 million decrease from fiscal 2006 — will be available through September 2009.   Of that, $15 million is earmarked for dismantlement and disposal of nuclear submarines and submarine reactor components, and for security enhancements for the transport and storage of nuclear warheads in the Russian Far East. The House passed the conference version of the defense spending bill this week, but debate over potential amendments to the appropriations legislation has stalled passage in the Senate. Back to top       U.S. X-Band Radar Activated in Japan A U.S. Army X-band radar has been activated in Japan to track ballistic missiles, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, June 23). Brig. Gen. John Seward attended an activation ceremony Tuesday at Camp Shariki in northern Japan. The powerful radar is able to identify small objects at distances of thousands of miles, and can distinguish actual missile warheads from decoys, AP reported.  Work on the radar by Japan and the United States began following a 1998 North Korean long-range missile launch.  It is part of the two allies’ ongoing collaboration on missile defense, which includes development of new missile interceptors. The radar is located across the Sea of Japan from North Korea, AP reported.  Maj. Martha Brooks, U.S. Army Japan press officer, however would not say whether the radar is designated specifically to monitor the Stalinist state. “We’re here in defense of Japan, and they put it in a location where they could best track the ballistic missiles,” she said (Hans Greimel, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 28).   Back to top

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