IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei speaks at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, where he called on world powers to take a “time out” from pressuring Iran (Pierre Verdy/Getty Images). Status of Iranian Uranium Enrichment Activity Remains Unclear Iranian officials offered contradictory statements Saturday on the status of plans to install 3,000 centrifuges at the nation’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Jan. 26). “We are now installing the 3,000 centrifuges,” said Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of the parliament’s foreign affairs and national security committee.  “God willing, it will be finished in due time.” However, a spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization denied any such activity. “No new centrifuge machines have been installed in the Natanz facility,” said Hossein Cimorgh (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Jan. 27)...Full Story

Russia Kept Out of Georgian Nuclear Smuggling Investigation, Foreign Minister Says Russian officials have denied claims that they refused to cooperate with an investigation into the source of weapon-grade uranium seized from a smuggler in Georgia (see GSN, Jan. 26)...Full Story

Cheney Sought to Delay Iraq Report, Senator Says The Democratic chairman of the Senate intelligence committee last week accused U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney of placing “constant” pressure on his predecessor to slow the panel’s investigation of the White House’s use of intelligence regarding prewar Iraq’s weapons programs, McClatchy Newspapers reported (see GSN, Jan. 26)...Full Story

	Monday, January 29, 2007

Cheney Sought to Delay Iraq Report, Senator Says The Democratic chairman of the Senate intelligence committee last week accused U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney of placing “constant” pressure on his predecessor to slow the panel’s investigation of the White House’s use of intelligence regarding prewar Iraq’s weapons programs, McClatchy Newspapers reported (see GSN, Jan. 26). Cheney regularly made the administration’s wishes known to Republican staff members, said Senator John Rockefeller (W.Va.).  He said his comments were not based on “hearsay.” “It was just constant,” Rockefeller said.  Republicans “just had to go along with the administration.” Responding to Rockefeller by e-mail, Cheney spokeswoman Lea McBride said, “The vice president believes Senator [Pat] Roberts was a good chairman of the intelligence committee.” Democrats are to blame for the fact that the more than 2-year-old investigation remains unfinished, said Jackie Cottrell, chief of staff for Roberts (R-Kan.). “Senator Rockefeller’s allegations are patently untrue,” she said by e-mail.  “The delays came from the Democrats’ insistence that they expand the inquiry to make it a more political document going into the 2006 elections.  Chairman Roberts did everything he could to accommodate their requests for further information without allowing them to distort the facts.” In a July 2004 report, the committee criticized U.S. intelligence agencies for incorrectly assessing that Iraq had ongoing WMD programs (see GSN, July 9, 2004).  The panel then began studying the use of intelligence by top Bush administration personnel to make the case for the March 2003 invasion, McClatchy reported. Despite Roberts’ pledge to work quickly and pressure from Democrats, only two of the five reports from the second phase of the investigation have been published. One remaining report is expected to compare the contents of top-secret intelligence reports to public White House statements regarding Iraq’s weapons efforts and links to terrorism. The second phase of the investigation must be completed, Rockefeller said. “The looking backward creates tension, but it’s necessary because the administration needs to be held accountable and the country … needs to know,” he said (Jonathan Landay, McClatchy Newspapers/The Wichita Eagle, Jan. 26). Back to top       Foreign Students to Face More Scrutiny in U.K. The British government plans to increase security reviews of foreign postgraduate students in certain fields to ensure they do not use their education to produce weapons of mass destruction, the London Observer reported yesterday (see GSN, June 14, 2005). “We do not want students who come to the U.K. to gain knowledge going home and using it as part of a nuclear weapons program,” said a Foreign Office official.  “Overseas students from outside the EU who are pursuing courses will have to go through proper security vetting to check their credentials.” Students would be required to detail their previous studies and explain why they were coming to the United Kingdom.  The Academic Technology Approval Scheme would also prevent students from staying in the country after their visas expired, the Observer reported. Scrutinized study subjects include physics, metallurgy, microbiology, biophysics, and chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering (Anushka Asthana, The Observer, Jan. 28). Back to top       L.A. Seeks Antiterrorism Training, Education Sites The chief local law enforcement officials from Los Angeles have plans that could make Southern California a locus for terrorism preparedness efforts, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday (see GSN, Oct. 7, 2004). Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton hopes to develop a national academy for the study of terrorism. Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is pressing for creation of the Southern California Regional Homeland Security and Emergency Operations Center.  Emergency personnel would conduct terrorism drills, including simulations of attacks involving biological, chemical or radiological weapons.  Settings would include fake villages and neighborhoods, along with a mock airline terminal. “Sheriff Baca has been working very aggressively on creating … an actual strategic and tactical training area which would give hands-on training in every facet of counterterrorism and natural disasters,” Bratton said. The police department’s planned academy would “look at the theory, history and evolution of terrorism, whether it’s the Muslim fanatical issues dealing with al-Qaeda or the homegrown threats that the Brits have been looking at,” Bratton said. A curriculum is being developed that could be offered annually to hundreds of law enforcement personnel from around the nation, the Times reported. Both facilities could operate from the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base.  The police department is also considering housing the academy at its Ahmanson Training Academy or at a university. Baca and Bratton are scheduled to visit Washington, D.C. this week to discuss their plans with officials from the Homeland Security and Justice departments.  Bratton is expected to seek federal funding and involvement for the academy. The training center is seeking participants from different law enforcement agencies.  It would need approval from local, state and federal agencies (McGreevy/Pfeifer, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 27). Back to top

Status of Iranian Uranium Enrichment Activity Remains Unclear Iranian officials offered contradictory statements Saturday on the status of plans to install 3,000 centrifuges at the nation’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Jan. 26). “We are now installing the 3,000 centrifuges,” said Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of the parliament’s foreign affairs and national security committee.  “God willing, it will be finished in due time.” However, a spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization denied any such activity. “No new centrifuge machines have been installed in the Natanz facility,” said Hossein Cimorgh (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Jan. 27). The confusion could be indicative of Iranian troubles in building a major centrifuge facility, the London Observer reported yesterday.  While Iran has assembled two 164-centrifuge cascades, it has experienced significant difficulty in gearing up for an industrial-sized system, according to Western diplomats and technical experts. Iran has had trouble replacing the supply of nuclear equipment it received from the nuclear smuggling network once led by former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, according to the Observer. Tehran has been forced to attempt to produce key equipment domestically, but has had little success in manufacturing bearings for centrifuge rotors or in producing the high-grade steel needed for critical centrifuge components. Iran therefore remains years away from being able to enrich enough uranium for a nuclear weapon, the Observer reported. “The reality is that they have got to the stage where they can run a small experimental centrifuge cascade intermittently,” said one Western diplomat.  “They simply have not got to the stage where they can run 3,000 centrifuges.” “That is not to say they will not mast the technology eventually, but they are trying to master very challenging technology without access to everything that they require,” said another source familiar with Iran’s program (Peter Beaumont, The Observer, Jan. 28). “We have three to eight years, which gives us a lot of time to reflect,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Friday at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. He urged Iran and the world’s nuclear powers to take a step back from their brewing confrontation. “Iran should stop enriching uranium and the international community should take a timeout from implementing sanctions,” he said.  Such calming moves could allow diplomacy to find a solution that would serve all parties better than any military action against Iran. “We need to reverse course because we are heading into a crash course,” ElBaradei told reporters.  “The idea that there’s a military solution is absolutely bonkers” (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, Jan. 27). The United States has ratcheted up rhetoric recently about the possibility of considering military options.  President George W. Bush last week authorized U.S. troops in Iraq to fire on Iranian personnel suspected of aiding U.S. foes there.  He also recently ordered a second aircraft carrier battle group to the Persian Gulf. “You could interpret Bush’s recent actions towards Iran in two ways — either he is increasing pressure on the regime in order to soften it up for talks over its uranium enrichment plans, or this is classic gunboat diplomacy in which the U.S. is preparing for some kind of punitive action,” said Richard Haass, who led the State Department’s policy planning office during Bush’s first term. “My guess is that Mr. Bush’s actions leave room for either scenario, and the Bush administration remains divided over which to pursue,” he added (Edward Luce, Financial Times, Jan. 26).. Back to top       Russia Kept Out of Georgian Nuclear Smuggling Investigation, Foreign Minister Says Russian officials have denied claims that they refused to cooperate with an investigation into the source of weapon-grade uranium seized from a smuggler in Georgia (see GSN, Jan. 26). Oleg Khinsagov was arrested, tried and imprisoned last year after Georgian authorities ran a sting operation in which the Russian tried to sell 100 grams of uranium for $1 million. Subsequent analysis of the material in Russia and the United States failed to pinpoint where the uranium was manufactured, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday, and a Georgian official suggested Russia was not as helpful as he would have liked. “We think it is extremely dangerous that such material can get into the hands of terrorists,” said Shota Utiashvili, head of the Georgian Interior Ministry’s analytical department.  “We think it is in everybody’s interests, and especially in the interests of Russia, to get to the bottom of it and assist us in this investigation” (David Holley, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 27). A top Russian official, however, said Georgia had refused a Russian request for a larger sample of the confiscated uranium to determine its origin. “Georgia did not answer our request, so their accusations that we refuse to cooperate look incoherent at best,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday. “I hope very much that this is not an attempted political provocation,” he added.  “If they want to get to the bottom of this incident, we are more than ready to help” (Agence France-Presse, Jan. 26). One nonproliferation expert expressed doubt that Khinsagov truly had access to the 3 kilograms of uranium he purportedly offered to sell if the 100-gram sale had succeeded.  Past nuclear smuggling incidents often involved traffickers falsely advertising their access to dangerous materials, said Ivan Safranchuk, head of the Center for Defense Information’s Moscow office. “Genuine serious terrorists would rather go to Pakistan if they wanted to lay their hands on nuclear materials,” he said.  “They must know better than to try to fish for that stuff in the waters of the former Soviet Union, where they most likely will end up stiffed, cheated and robbed rather than get back with the real thing.” Utiashvili said he and other Georgian officials were surprised when Khinsagov produced weapon-grade nuclear material after being known previously only as a “small-time smuggler specializing mostly in foodstuffs.” “When we received information that this man claimed to be in possession of some weapons-grade nuclear materials, we didn’t really believe it was true, given the trade habits of this person,” Utiashvili said.  “But we decided to follow that trace anyway because we can’t leave any information like this without proper investigation.  So we set up an operation in which one of our men posed as an extremely wealthy customer who was interested in obtaining that material.” “When the man and his three Georgian accomplices were arrested and the material was analyzed by our experts, we were shocked to hear that the material in question was indeed weapons-grade uranium 235,” he said.  “We are completely convinced he brought the nuclear material from Russia.” “Unfortunately,” he added, “Khinsagov never either during the investigation or during the trial testified where he got the dangerous material and who helped him get that in Russia” (Holley, Los Angeles Times). Back to top       Demand Set for North Korean Nuclear Dismantlement Nations involved in the six-party talks are expected to demand that North Korea begin dismantling key nuclear sites in a matter of months, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 26). The targeted sites would include a five megawatt reactor, a fuel reprocessing facility, a radiochemical laboratory and unfinished 50- and 200-megawatt reactors, according to the Yonhap News Agency. “We want the facilities shut down, not just frozen or suspended,” a government official told Yonhap.  “What the United States, South Korea and other six-way talks partners — except North Korea — want is to make it difficult for Pyongyang to fire up the nuclear facilities again.” “The idea is that North Korea should begin dismantling (its key facilities) within several months after agreeing on initial steps to take for the implementation” of the September 2005 agreement in which Pyongyang pledged to end its nuclear weapons program (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Jan. 28). The six-party talks are likely to reconvene on Feb. 8, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said yesterday. “North Korea has been mentioning the eighth.  If the United States accepts it, it will be the eighth,” he said. Meanwhile, a senior U.S. Treasury Department official is expected to meet Tuesday in Beijing with North Korean officials, AFP reported.  They will discuss U.S. sanctions against Pyongyang, which have been a major roadblock in efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff. Daniel Glaser, deputy assistant treasury secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, said he hoped for “productive meetings” (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Jan. 28). Macau-based Banco Delta Asia froze $24 million held in North Korean accounts following U.S. allegations last year that the bank was abetting counterfeiting and money laundering by Pyongyang. The United States has determined that $13 million of the frozen funds are not connected to illicit activities, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.  That money could be unfrozen (Agence France-Presse III/Spacewar.com, Jan. 28). Back to top       India Begins Developing Nuclear Missile Submarine Fleet, Former Naval Chief Discloses India has begun to develop a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed submarine to give the nation a sea-based platform for its strategic nuclear deterrent, according to a former head of the Indian navy (see GSN, June 7, 2004). “Development work is reported to be under way,” said retired Adm. Arun Prakash in an article to be published in Indian Defense Review, the Press Trust of India reported yesterday. “India’s nuclear doctrine clearly envisages a deterrent in the form of a triad with land-based, aircraft-borne and submarine-launched legs,” Prakash wrote.  “Of these, we possess only the first two at the moment.” “We must have a small number of SSBNs,” he said, using the designation for nuclear-powered submarines armed with ballistic missiles. “When this platform becomes operationally available, we will need suitable areas in the distant reaches of the Indian Ocean from where it can be safely deployed to pose deterrence to our adversaries,” he added (Press Trust of India, Jan. 28). Despite its nuclear submarine plans, India remains committed to global nuclear disarmament, the head of the nation’s ruling political party said today. “Nuclear weapons became a strategic compulsion for India, born out of its failure to persuade the world to abolish them,” said Sonia Ghandi.  “But the commitment to comprehensive, universal nuclear disarmament remains our profound conviction which we intend to carry forward” (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Jan. 29). Back to top       Fire Reported at Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant There was a small fire last month at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported today (see GSN, Oct. 25, 2006). There was no immediate word on where within the plant the Dec. 15 fire occurred.  It was extinguished quickly, and caused no injuries or damage. The fire occurred when an “alcohol-moistened cloth ignited during a spark-producing task to separate parts,” according to a Dec. 22 staff report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  The report was made public last week. The dismantlement operation involved “a uranium component manufactured at Y-12,” said facility spokesman Steven Wyatt.  He would not say if the component came from a nuclear weapon. “What we said is what we’re going to say,” Wyatt said.  “I don’t think I can provide any further clarification.” “This appears to be the first such fire for this particular dismantlement program,” the report says.  However, fires would not be unusual, given that uranium can ignite spontaneously in air. Uranium in this situation did not ignite, Wyatt said (Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel, Jan. 29). Back to top

Japanese Police Arrest Elderly Married Couple on Suspicion of Aiding North Korean Missile Program Japanese authorities arrested a man and his wife suspected they assisted the transfer of missile technology to North Korea, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Oct. 15, 2004). The two, 74-year-old engineer So Sok-hong and his 72-year-old wife Pak Chong-sun, were arrested for violating the nation’s labor laws.  They allegedly recruited Korean workers to work for Japanese electrical machinery firms without filing the proper notifications (Reuters/New York Times, Jan. 29). Back to top

U.S. Tests THAAD Missile Interceptor A U.S. missile interceptor destroyed a ballistic missile target in a Friday test, marking the second success in three tries using the system’s current configuration, the Missile Defense Agency announced (see GSN, Sept. 14, 2006). The Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense interceptor hit its target just inside the Earth’s atmosphere, according to a MDA release.  The target was a “nonseparating” missile intended to simulate a Scud missile. It was the first test of the system from Hawaii and all equipment was operated for the first time by soldiers from the 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade based at Fort Bliss, Texas (U.S. Missile Defense Agency release, Jan. 27). Back to top

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