North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan, shown in April, recently suggested that Pyongyang could export nuclear weapons or materials (Getty Images). North Korea Hints at Nuclear Weapon Transfer By Jon Fox, Global Security Newswire WASHINTON — North Korean officials have recently expressed an increased willingness to transfer a nuclear device or fissile material to another nation or a nonstate group, a U.S. expert said yesterday after his 10th visit to Pyongyang (see GSN, Sept. 28)...Full Story

Iraq Al-Qaeda Chief Calls to Weapons Scientists The head of al-Qaeda in Iraq in an audiotape released yesterday urged nuclear scientists and other weapons experts to join the jihad against the West, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 22, 2005)...Full Story

Bush Urges Iran to Freeze Nuclear Activity Promptly U.S. President George W. Bush is content for the moment to allow European nations the opportunity to try to resume nuclear negotiations with Iran, but he hopes the crisis can be resolved “sooner rather than later,” he told the Wall Street Journal yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 28)...Full Story

	Friday, September 29, 2006

U.S. Port Security Bill Nears Completion U.S. House and Senate lawmakers have reached a tentative deal on port security legislation designed to prevent terrorists from transporting weapons of mass destruction into the United States by sea.  The bill could be sent to the full houses today, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 27). Highlights of the current bill include: —Spending $400 million annually for the next five years on port security training and exercises; —Installing radiation detection equipment at the nation’s 22 largest ports by the end of 2007; 98 percent of all incoming cargo goes through these ports; —Creating pilot programs at three overseas ports to improve cargo scanning before the containers arrive at U.S. shores; and —Establishing plans to restore port operations after a terrorist attack. The measures “will make a real difference to the security of our country,” said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine). Some Democrats, however, said the bill was inadequate and should establish provisions for requiring overseas inspections for all cargo entering the country. “By the time they reach American ports it is too late,” said Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.). The current bill apparently does not include earlier provisions for $4.5 billion to improve rail and mass transit security, AP reported (Jim Abrams, Associated Press/Washington Post, Sept. 29). Back to top

North Korea Hints at Nuclear Weapon Transfer By Jon Fox, Global Security Newswire WASHINTON — North Korean officials have recently expressed an increased willingness to transfer a nuclear device or fissile material to another nation or a nonstate group, a U.S. expert said yesterday after his 10th visit to Pyongyang (see GSN, Sept. 28). Selig Harrison, a senior analyst with the Center for International Policy with decades of journalistic experience in East Asia, said the tone of discussions about a nuclear transfer had changed since his previous visit last year. As late as April 2005, North Korean officials he spoke with appeared reluctant to transfer either a functional nuclear weapon or fissile material to another nation or terrorist group.  Their language had changed during his five-day trip earlier this month, Harrison said yesterday during an address at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.  His comments were based on hours of discussions with seven high-ranking officials, including Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s lead nuclear negotiator. Harrison said he had three conversations with Kim.  In one, the North Korean official suggested that fissile material could move from North Korean hands to groups outside the country. Reading from a sheet of paper, Harrison recounted Kim’s words:  “The United States should be concerned about the possibility of fissile material being transferred to third parties or nuclear weapons being transferred to third parties.” North Korea claims to have functional plutonium-fueled nuclear weapons and there have been recent media reports of plans for a nuclear test.  Some analysts also believe the regime is pursuing a uranium-enrichment program. Kim volunteered the warning, which Harrison stopped short of calling a threat and said was not a response to a specific question. “There’s a difference in the tone of handling this,” Harrison said. “They want to bargain with this issue.” In return for a package deal from the United States, Kim said Pyongyang would be willing return to six-party talks, Harrison said.  North Korean officials did not detail what they would like to see in a U.S. incentive deal, he said. On July 5, North Korea launched a series of missiles, including a long-range Taepodong 2, which could reach the West Coast of the United States, according to Bush administration officials.  In the test, however, the Taepodong 2 crashed onto a North Korean beach after flying for only 40 seconds, a South Korean defense analyst said earlier this month.  The six other missiles — three intermediate-range Nodongs and three short-range Scuds — were fired successfully, traveling as far as 250 miles (see GSN, Sept. 19). Since leaving the North Korean capital, Harrison has said repeatedly that North Korea plans to remove fuel rods from its Yongbyon nuclear reactor later this year, yielding enough plutonium for three nuclear weapons (see GSN, Sept. 25). North Korean officials hope to use Yongbyon and the nation’s nuclear program as a bargaining chip to coax the United States to lift restrictive international banking sanctions and offer a package deal in return for a resumption of six-party talks, Harrison said.  Cut off from the world financial system by current sanctions backed by the Bush administration, Pyongyang is eager to return to the talks and “wants to come in from out of the cold,” he said.  The regime wants to find a “face-saving” compromise that allows for negotiations, he added. The U.S. Treasury Department has levied punitive action against Banco Delta Asia, a Macau-based bank that allegedly laundered money for the totalitarian state.  U.S. officials have said the move is an attempt to protect the United States from North Korean financial crimes. The sanctions came just days after the Sept. 19, 2005, agreement in which North Korea committed in principle to relinquish its nuclear program in return for incentives from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. Isolated economically by the U.S. Treasury action, North Korean officials “understandably see this as a regime-change policy,” Harrison said.  Pyongyang has inextricably tied lifting of the U.S. economic sanctions to its return to the six-party talks. Harrison said he saw no sign that the broad economic sanctions are undermining the regime of Kim Jong Il.  “My sense is that the North Korean hard-liners are stronger than ever because of the Bush administration’s economic policies,” he said, adding that the financial sanctions are impeding North Korean attempts to open up to the outside world. On the reports of a possible nuclear test, Harrison said North Korean officials want to keep the world guessing.  “They would neither confirm nor deny,” he said (see GSN, Aug. 18). They also suggested that they have no need to test their weapons and are confident in their design.  “We really want to co-exist with the United States in a peaceful way, but you must learn to co-exist with a North Korea that has nuclear weapons,” Harrison said, again recounting the words of Kim Kye Gwan.  “You have learned to live with other nuclear powers so why not us?” Back to top       Iraq Al-Qaeda Chief Calls to Weapons Scientists The head of al-Qaeda in Iraq in an audiotape released yesterday urged nuclear scientists and other weapons experts to join the jihad against the West, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 22, 2005). Support is needed from people who work in “chemistry, physics, electronics, media and all other sciences especially nuclear scientists and explosives experts,” said the speaker, believed to be Abu Ayyub al-Masri. “We are in dire need of you,” he said.  “The field of jihad can satisfy your scientific ambitions, and the large American bases (in Iraq) are good places to test your unconventional weapons, whether biological or dirty, as they call them.” A Web site known to air al-Qaeda messages carried the 20-minute dispatch, AP reported.  Al-Masri is thought to be the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in June by U.S. forces, as leader of a group in Iraq affiliated with al-Qaeda (David Rising, Associated Press/ABC News, Sept. 29). Back to top       Bush Urges Iran to Freeze Nuclear Activity Promptly U.S. President George W. Bush is content for the moment to allow European nations the opportunity to try to resume nuclear negotiations with Iran, but he hopes the crisis can be resolved “sooner rather than later,” he told the Wall Street Journal yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 28). EU and Iranian officials ended two days of talks yesterday without reaching agreement on how to resume negotiations to find a long-term resolution to the crisis.  The United States has said Iran must suspend its uranium enrichment activities before U.S. diplomats will join any talks. Asked if he were willing to wait to the end of the year for Iran to freeze its sensitive nuclear activities, Bush replied, “I certainly hope not.” “I talked to the secretary of state about this very subject this morning, who agrees with me that we ought to give the Europeans time to see whether or not the Iranians will make the proper choice about verifiably suspending, and at the same time, she assures me that she’s working with them to make sure that this process cannot go on forever,” he said. Bush said Iran should freeze its nuclear activities rapidly. “My judgment is, sooner rather than later, to make sure that these discussions are not their attempt to stall their way into us losing our interest in the subject,” he said (Wall Street Journal online, Sept. 28). This week’s EU-Iran talks made little progress, but did narrow the dispute down to a question of how to order the talks and an Iranian nuclear suspension, officials said. “It is now a question of sequencing,” one European diplomat told the New York Times.  “This is about Iran specifically agreeing to when it will start suspending its uranium enrichment program” (Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune/New York Times, Sept. 29). U.S. Sanctions Bill Advances The U.S. House yesterday passed a bill by voice vote to impose mandatory economic sanctions against companies and countries that assist any Iranian efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, the Associated Press reported. Supporters of the Iran Freedom Support Act said they hoped the Senate would pass similar legislation before the Congress begins its electoral recess tomorrow, but they acknowledged that Senate Democrats could slow the process, AP reported. “It would be a critical mistake to allow a regime with a track record as bloody and as dangerous as Iran to obtain nuclear weapons,” said bill sponsor Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.).  “Enough with the carrots.   It’s time for the stick.” Representative Tom Lantos (R-Calif.) concurred.  “If we fail to use the economic and diplomatic tools available to us, the world will face a nightmare that knows no end,” he said. Some Democrats, however, argued that the measure could interfere with international diplomacy. “It is, if you will, a cruise missile aimed at a difficult diplomatic effort just as they are reaching their most sensitive point,” said Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.).  “The timing for this legislation could not be worse” (Jim Abrams, Associated Press/Republican American, Sept. 29). Back to top       South Korea Promotes Plan to End Nuclear Impasse South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said yesterday that he has been preparing a plan to draw North Korea back to six-nation talks on its nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Sept. 28). Roh said, without elaborating, that the proposal offers a “comprehensive approach” to resumption of the negotiations.  Both Pyongyang and Washington know of the plan. “The North is aware of it and has not expressed proactively a negative opinion until now,” he said. “We continue to proceed with this proposal without giving it up,” Roh added. “Through the constant discussion and consultation with China, we need to come up with a proposal that is acceptable both to the U.S. and North Korea,” he said (Agence France-Presse I, Sept. 28). Meanwhile, top officials from China and South Korea met today in Seoul to discuss strategies for bringing Pyongyang back to the talks, AFP reported. “I will brief him on the outcome of my recent trip to the United States,” Chun Young-woo, South Korea’s lead envoy to the talks, said before meeting with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei. Chun met with Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and other U.S. officials over the last week while in the United States, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, Sept. 29). Back to top       Russia, IAEA to Discuss Uranium Enrichment Center A senior Russian official said yesterday that international nuclear officials plan to visit Moscow soon to discuss the creation of an internationally controlled uranium enrichment facility, RIA Novosti (see GSN, Sept. 19). Russia has proposed creating such facilities as a way to reduce developing nations’ interest in building their own nuclear fuel production facilities which could be used to make nuclear weapons materials. “[International Atomic Energy Agency] experts will soon arrive in Moscow to conduct work to establish an international uranium enrichment center in Angarsk, and then we plan to hold a working seminar with the IAEA,” said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency. The site could produce uranium fuel for nuclear power reactors, and it could also store a fuel reserve, a program promoted by the agency, he said. “The enterprise in Angarsk can be put under IAEA control, and it has additional reserve capacities,” Kiriyenko said (RIA Novosti, Sept. 28). Back to top

FBI Refuses Lawmaker’s Request for Anthrax Briefing The FBI yesterday refused a request to brief the U.S. House Intelligence Committee on the status of the bureau’s investigation into the 2001 anthrax mail attacks.  Committee member Rush Holt (D-N.J.) had asked for a classified briefing after news reports indicated that the FBI had misunderstood the nature of the anthrax used in the attacks (see GSN, Sept. 28). Citing leaks that followed past Capitol Hill briefings, and questioning the committee’s jurisdiction over a criminal investigation, Assistant FBI Director Eleni Kalisch refused Holt’s request in a letter yesterday. She also refuted the news reports. “The FBI and its partners in this investigation have never been under any misconceptions about the character of the anthrax used in the attacks,” she said in the letter.  “On the contrary, since the earliest months of this investigation, we have consulted with the world’s foremost scientific experts on anthrax and relevant bioforensic sciences, both inside and outside the FBI.  While there may have been erroneous media reports about the character of the 2001 anthrax, the FBI’s investigation has never been guided by such reports” (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Sept. 29). Back to top       Vaccine Delay Illustrates Bioshield Program Troubles The continued delay in delivery of a new anthrax vaccine is a central, but not the sole, problem facing the U.S. Bioshield program to develop new countermeasures against weapons of mass destruction, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 12). California biotechnology firm VaxGen Inc. in November 2004 received an $877.5 million contract to produce 75 million doses of a new anthrax vaccine that would be more easily administered than the current treatment. The company reported early on that delivery would occur a year after the initial deadline of November 2005.  Delivery of the vaccine is now not expected until 2008. VaxGen claims the government, after the contract was finalized, required the company to conduct extensive and expensive human safety testing on the vaccine (see GSN, May 11). “The heart of the problem right now is the government’s willingness to change the goal line,” said VaxGen spokesman Lance Ignon.  “The government unilaterally, and without compensation to VaxGen, changed the contract.” The government said that delivery of safety data was anticipated from the beginning, and that changes to the contract allowed for delayed delivery of the vaccine. Large pharmaceutical companies, put off by liability and intellectual property issues and questions over the plan — have not sought contracts under Bioshield, AP reported.  The $5.6 billion in available funding is not enough to attract companies that might spend $1 billion to develop one drug.  That leaves smaller firms such as VaxGen, which has seen its stock value fall in recent years following a failed effort to develop an AIDS vaccine. “The incentive is not there for the large pharmaceutical companies,” said Noreen Hynes, research and development coordination director at the Health and Human Services Department office that handled biodefense matters.  “Biotech companies, for the most part, are inexperienced.” The agency has issued $1 billion in contracts following the VaxGen contract.  None of the contracted firms have faced the same level of troubles as VaxGen. “The fact that a company doesn’t deliver is always disappointing,” Hynes said.  When it comes to production of vaccines, “delays are more the rule than the exception” (Paul Elias, Associated Press/Contra Costa Times, Sept. 28). Back to top

Senators Vow Tougher Chemical Security By Chris Strohm, CongressDaily WASHINGTON — Two U.S. Senate Democrats vowed Wednesday to keep the need for stronger chemical security regulations in the public spotlight, but conceded they will not be able to change compromise legislation that conferees added Monday to the fiscal Homeland Security appropriations bill (see GSN, Sept. 15). The spending bill includes a provision that gives the Homeland Security Department authority, for the first time, to regulate chemical facilities that “present high levels of security risk.” Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who co-wrote a chemical security bill earlier this year, said during a news conference that they will fight during the next session of Congress to pass a stronger regulatory measure.  They acknowledged they face an uphill battle. “We are certainly going to see if there is some way that we can get this back to the attention of the leadership and the attention of the Republican Party,” Lautenberg said.  “Our options are limited.” They acknowledged, however, that the provision agreed to by House and Senate negotiators Monday eventually will become law because it was attached to a must-pass fiscal 2007 appropriations bill to fund Homeland Security Department operations. “I guarantee you that if the public understands the potential hazards involved that they will respond rapidly [and] the Congress will be responsible,” Obama said.  “We want to raise awareness and my anticipation is that when we come back after the election we'll be able to revisit this.” The two said that new legislation should require chemical facilities to use safer technologies and processes, and should make clear that states can pass stronger laws than federal standards. Republican leaders contend that the compromise chemical security provision in the spending bill is a good step in the right direction. “The fact is, this is the best proposal we could get and it is, in my opinion, significantly better than nothing,” said Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H). Back to top       Umatilla Resumes Chemical Weapons Disposal The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Oregon yesterday began eliminating 14,246 8-inch artillery shells containing the nerve agent sarin (see GSN, Aug. 11). The new disposal campaign follows a seven-week plant “changeover” that began in August upon complete destruction of M55 sarin-filled rockets stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot, according to a press release. Disposal of the M426 projectiles is expected to begin slowly to ensure the process is conducted safely and efficiently.  The rate of destruction will increase over time. “We want to be sure everything is working properly and safely, and that we are environmentally compliant,” Doug Hamrick, project general manager for contractor Washington Group International, said in the release. To date, the facility has eliminated 91,000 M55 rockets and 2,445 bombs carrying sarin.  Following the present campaign, the facility is due to begin destroying 47,406 155 mm projectiles with the nerve agent.  The entire sarin campaign is expected to be finished by mid-2007, the release states (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, Sept. 28).   Back to top

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