Israeli combat aircraft, such as this F-15, attacked an unfinished Syrian nuclear reactor last month, the New York Times reported (David Silverman/Getty Images). Israeli Raid Targeted Syrian Nuclear Reactor The Israeli attack last month against an officially unidentified Syrian site targeted a partially completed nuclear reactor, the New York Times reported Saturday (see GSN, Oct. 10)...Full Story

Bushehr Reactor Tension to Mark Putin’s Iran Visit Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to travel to Iran this week amid tensions over delays in finishing construction of the Bushehr nuclear plant in the Middle Eastern nation, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 12)...Full Story

North Korea Boosts Nuclear Test Site Security North Korea is seemingly trying to prevent soil sampling at its nuclear test site by boosting security around the area, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Oct. 12)...Full Story

	Monday, October 15, 2007

EU Chief Knocks British Antiterror Commitment The president of the European Union has said the British government could undermine international antiterrorism efforts by choosing to opt out of certain clauses of a treaty, the London Observer reported yesterday (see GSN, July 11, 2006). British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a summit this week in Lisbon is expected to excuse his country from components of an EU reform treaty intended to promote law and order cooperation amongst nations. “I am not happy,” said EU President Jose Manuel Barroso “Sometimes it appears as a contradiction.  Britain, which is always first to ask for global action against terrorism, appears not to be as committed as other members of the EU when it comes to Europe.  This surprises me,” he added. The United Kingdom intends to select which treaty laws on police and judicial cooperation it would accept, and has demanded a five-year delay before the European Court of Justice could rule on implementation of the components, the Observer reported. Any attempt in the new system to amend EU initiatives from the old rules should make those initiatives available for renegotiation, according to the British government. In order to ensure the treaty is approved, Barroso said he would accept the British demands. “I think it is better to have opt-outs for one or two countries than not to have any progress at all for the EU,” he said.  “I would prefer not to have them, of course:  to fight international terrorism and crime, we will need more, not less, coordination and integration” (Nicholas Watt, London Observer, Oct. 14). Back to top

WMD Interdiction Drill Launched Near Japan Forty-one nations are participating in or observing a three-day exercise on halting the illicit movement of weapons of mass destruction off the coast of Japan, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday (see GSN, Sept. 14). Pacific Shield 07, begun Saturday, is the 23rd drill to be carried out under the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative. Japanese officials said that Japan as well as Australia, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States deployed ships and aircraft to the Sea of Sagami, near Japan’s Tokyo Bay, for the drill. Singapore dispatched personnel to the international exercise to take part in practice chases, searches and a mock chemical spill.  Another 34 nations sent observers (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Oct. 13). Back to top

Israeli Raid Targeted Syrian Nuclear Reactor The Israeli attack last month against an officially unidentified Syrian site targeted a partially completed nuclear reactor, the New York Times reported Saturday (see GSN, Oct. 10). Israeli officials have not acknowledged the air raid’s goal, but one official who demanded anonymity said Tel Aviv intended to “re-establish the credibility of our deterrent power.” Early reports suggested the Sept. 6 attack destroyed a missile or nuclear facility that had been constructed with North Korean assistance, but one U.S. official provided clarification that Syria had begun to build a graphite-moderated reactor at the site.  North Korea has used such a reactor to produce plutonium for its nuclear weapons program. The targeted site was clearly a reactor project, the official said. “There wasn’t a lot of debate about the evidence,” the officials said of satellite imagery first collected earlier this year.  “There was a lot of debate about how to respond to it.” Israel opted to conduct a military attack, and the lack of international outcry has suggested that other nations share Israeli concerns over a nuclear Syria, the Times reported. Following the attack, Bush administration officials have continued to debate the wisdom of the Israeli action.  Some hardliners felt the Syrian reactor effort posed an urgent problem, while other officials believed the plant was years from completion and therefore nonmilitary alternatives were available, the Times reported (Sanger/Mazzetti, New York Times, Oct. 14). In Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced today that it was investigating the Times report. The agency "has no information about any undeclared nuclear facility in Syria and no information about recent reports,” said spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.  “We would obviously investigate any relevant information coming our way.  The IAEA Secretariat expects any country having information about nuclear-related activities in another country to provide that information to the IAEA.” In addition, the agency was “in contact with the Syrian authorities to verify the authenticity of these reports,” she added (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Oct. 15). Meanwhile, a North Korean official is scheduled to visit Syria this week, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday. Choe Thae Bok, chairman of the nation’s Supreme People’s Assembly, left Saturday for a trip to Italy and Syria, according to North Korea’s state news agency (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Oct. 13). Back to top       Bushehr Reactor Tension to Mark Putin’s Iran Visit Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to travel to Iran this week amid tensions over delays in finishing construction of the Bushehr nuclear plant in the Middle Eastern nation, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 12). While Russia has opposed the push by Western powers for a new round of sanctions against Tehran, Moscow has also delayed completing the Bushehr nuclear plant and urged Iran to comply with U.N. Security Council demands that Iran halt its uranium enrichment activities (see GSN, Aug. 7; Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press/Google News, Oct. 14). “Putin is going to Iran to show the importance of continuing diplomacy,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Reuters. Following talks Friday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the United States and European Union nations against enacting independent sanctions against Iran. However, Lavrov added that Putin planned to “continue the current line of work with the Iranian leadership, which reflects the collective position of the six (states in talks with Iran) and the U.N. Security Council” (Oleg Shchedrov, Reuters I/Moscow Times, Oct. 15). In the first trip to Iran by a Russian head of state since Josef Stalin’s visit in 1943, a promise to quickly complete the Bushehr reactor or another strong statement of support to Iran by Putin could distance Russia from the West and encourage Tehran to pursue its nuclear ambitions, AP reported. Russia’s relations with Iran have been damaged by the repeated delays in completing the $1 billion Bushehr plant construction.  Moscow has said that the plant would not become operational this fall as scheduled because Iran had not kept up with its payments.  Russia has also held off on shipping nuclear fuel for the facility, which would occur six months before the plant became operational.  Moscow several years ago forced Iranian officials to agree to return spent nuclear fuel to prevent it from being used in nuclear weapons. Iran has maintained it has not been late in delivering the payments and accused Russia of colluding with the West to hinder its nuclear development.  Iran began its own uranium enrichment program with the stated goal of producing nuclear fuel for power production, but some in the international community suspect its real aim is to develop the key ingredient for nuclear weapons. “Tehran views Russia as an unreliable partner that uses Iran in its game with the West,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the magazine Russia in Global Affairs.  “Iran has been very difficult to deal with and the Kremlin has felt strong irritation about it.” Some experts said Putin might promise this week that Russia would finish the plant in 2008. “It requires political will to turn the launch key at Bushehr, and there is no reason to think that Russia lacks it,” said Vladimir Orlov, who leads the PIR Center, a nuclear think tank (Isachenkov, Associated Press). Another analyst said that completion of the Bushehr plant could become a vital incentive for Iran to halt its uranium enrichment, Reuters reported. “Putin may propose that the Iranians give up uranium enrichment in exchange for Russian fuel for Bushehr," said Rajab Safarov, head of the Center of Iranian Studies (Shchedrov, Reuters I). Meanwhile, the United States urged China and Russia as well as other nations opposed to new Security Council sanctions against Iran not to take advantage of business left there by other nations’ attempts to economically isolate it, the Financial Times reported. EU foreign ministers are expected to meet today to discuss enacting potential independent sanctions against Iran before the Security Council decides whether to adopt a third sanctions resolution. “We hear from the business community that it’s a concern of theirs — to act responsibly, only to see someone else act irresponsibly,” said U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt following discussions with four EU commissioners. “The Russians and Chinese have been signatories to each of the U.N. Security Council resolutions and I would think, whether it be in the financial sector or other sectors, someone else stepping in would be very inappropriate and very counter to what the Security Council has called on the world community to do. “It’s important for sanctions to have a multilateral base,” he said (Tony Barber, Financial Times, Oct. 15). German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview today that the Security Council must seriously consider a new round of sanctions against Iran if it does not halt its uranium enrichment, Reuters reported. “I'm emphatically in favor of solving the problem through negotiations, but we also need to be ready to impose further sanctions if Iran does not give ground,” Merkel told the newspaper Die Welt. “It is threatening the security of Israel which for me as German chancellor will never be negotiable.  It threatens the region, Europe and the world.  We must prevent that” (Reuters II, Oct. 15). In Washington, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday to obtain congressional backing for any military action against Iran unless the Middle Eastern nation attacks the United States first. “We don't believe that any authorities that the president has would give him the ability to go in without an act of Congress,” she said (Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters III/Washington Post, Oct. 14). Back to top       North Korea Boosts Nuclear Test Site Security North Korea is seemingly trying to prevent soil sampling at its nuclear test site by boosting security around the area, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Oct. 12). “U.S. spy satellites have spotted barbed-wire fences being built and troops being reinforced at the nuclear site in Punggyeri,” where Pyongyang set off a nuclear weapon in October 2006, a South Korean government official told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper. The move “aims to block outsiders from taking soil samples,” according to South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Oct. 15). Pyongyang’s moves might also be intended to allow for analysis of the nuclear blast — largely considered a dud by observers — and to remediate the site, the Associated Press reported.  A South Korean official told the Yonhap News Agency, though, that “activities spotted at Punggyeri are usual” ones (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Oct. 14). Back to top       Launch Delayed for Converted Trident Submarine Minor technical problems have delayed the launch of the USS Ohio, the first of four Trident-class submarines to be refitted with conventional cruise missiles, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 10, 2006). The submarine in 2002 docked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash., to have its 24 nuclear-armed, long-range ballistic missiles replaced with as many as 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles.  The project took two years and cost $750 million.  The submarine also underwent a one-year, $250-million refueling of its nuclear power plant. The submarine can carry a 66-member special operations team able to enter and exit the craft underwater through its missile tubes.  The submarine’s crew has been training since it rejoined the fleet on Feb. 7, 2006. The U.S. Navy said it plans to deploy the Ohio in the western Pacific Ocean.  It was initially set to leave the shipyard Saturday (Associated Press/Seattle Times, Oct. 13). Back to top       India, Russia to Sign Nuclear Pact Russia and India plan to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement next month in Moscow, a senior Russian official announced Friday (see GSN, Jan. 17). “It would be a framework agreement on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy,” said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, speaking to Indian reporters in Moscow. The pact would come in the wake of a pending U.S.-Indian nuclear agreement that has spurred other nations to ink deals with New Delhi (see GSN, Oct. 12). Russia already has a well-established program to supply nuclear reactors to India, including the construction of power reactors at Kudankulam (see GSN, Jan. 25).  Those reactors would operate with Russian-supplied fuel and would be subject to international supervision (Vinay Shukla, Press Trust of India, Oct. 12). Back to top       U.S. Graduates Advanced Radiation Detection Class A second group of participants has graduated from a five-day course that trains state and local responders to detect and investigate potentially dangerous nuclear material, the U.S. Homeland Security Department said Friday (see GSN, Sept. 11). The Advanced Radiation Detection course administered by the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office has trained participants to detect radioactive materials and determine the likelihood that materials could be used in weapons based on the indications of their detectors. “The Advanced Radiation Detection course is the capstone course in the national preventive radiological and nuclear detection curriculum,” DNDO chief Vayl Oxford said in a press release.  In order to qualify for the ARD course, students must complete an eight-hour training course on the use of personal radiation detectors and a 16-hour course on the use of radioisotope identification devices. The latest Advanced Radiation Detection program involved regional affiliates of the Securing the Cities initiative, a federal program piloted around New York City that aims to design and deploy systems for detecting and responding to the presence of weapon-capable radiological materials. “This graduating class will … assist in the capabilities of our regional partners that make up the Securing the Cities initiative that was jointly launched by DNDO and New York regional partners last July,” Oxford said (U.S. Homeland Security Department release, Oct. 12). Back to top       Berkeley Lab Responds to Miniature Airplane Breach The 45-year-old editor of Wired magazine riled security personnel at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California early last week when he flew a small remote-control airplane carrying a camera onto the grounds of the facility, the Contra Costa Times reported (see GSN, Jan. 21, 2005). In an amateur aerial reconnaissance effort, Wired Editor in Chief Chris Anderson snapped photographs of the Energy Department laboratory until his plane collided with a tree.  The Berkeley resident asked security personnel for help retrieving the airplane, alerting them to the security breach and involving the University of California, Berkeley in an investigation of the incident. Unlike the Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories, the Berkeley facility does not take part in classified studies or nuclear weapon-related work.  However, it contains sensitive equipment that requires protection, according to security chief Dan Lunsford. “I think, post-9/11, when we see an event that is out of the ordinary, those are things that gain our interest," Lunsford said.  “The greatest thing right now in the war on terrorism is prevention.” Anderson, who has worked at the Los Alamos laboratory, said he should have realized his flight could cause a security scare. “I promise not to fly over secure national labs anymore,” he said (Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times, Oct. 13). Back to top

Japan Plans November Missile Defense Drill Japan has scheduled a missile defense drill for next month around Tokyo, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 10). The drill is expected to occur at multiple locations around the capital city but not to involve weapons launches, the Nikkei newspaper reported. The goal of the drill is to determine the best strategy for moving Patriot Advanced Capability 3 air defense systems around Tokyo.  Authorities are expected to look for buildings or other potential barriers to deployment and to test the system’s tracking capabilities. A U.S.-Japanese ballistic missile defense drill is also set for November.  There was no immediate word on whether that drill would encompass the PAC-3 exercise, AP reported. The two countries’ cooperative missile defense efforts took on increased urgency following North Korean missile tests last year and an October nuclear blast in the Stalinist state.  The first Japanese Patriot missiles were deployed this year, and Japan is moving toward placing Standard Missile 3 interceptors on destroyers beginning in December (Associated Press I/International Herald Tribune, Oct. 14). Russia on Saturday expressed its concern about missile defense cooperation by Japan and the United States, AP reported.  The system could be pointed at Russia or China, said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “We oppose the construction of missile defense systems whose purpose is to ensure military superiority,” he said. Moscow has vehemently opposed to U.S. efforts to deploy missile defense installations in Europe (see GSN, Oct. 12; Associated Press II/Google News, Oct. 13). Back to top

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