Iran is reportedly working “feverishly” to prepare the Natanz uranium enrichment facility (shown in 2005) for the installation of 3,000 centrifuges (Henghameh Fahimi/Getty Images). Work Advances at Iranian Uranium Enrichment Site Iran has begun preliminary work to install thousands of centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility as a dispute roiled over whether the International Atomic Energy Agency was receiving the access it wants to monitor the site, wire services reported today (see GSN, Feb. 1)...Full Story

U.S. Seeks North Korean First Steps on Disarmament The United States is looking for North Korea to take the first concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament at the upcoming round of six-nations talks scheduled to begin next week, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Feb. 1)...Full Story

Congress Rejects Trident Conversion Lawmakers have told the U.S. Defense Department not to continue with efforts to place conventional warheads on Trident missiles now armed with nuclear weapons, DefenseNews.com reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 5, 2006)...Full Story

	Friday, February 2, 2007

Intelligence Nominee Promises Independence U.S. President George W. Bush’s nominee to head U.S. intelligence efforts vowed yesterday that his work would not be affected by political pressure, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, Jan. 5). Bush tapped Retired Navy Adm. Mike McConnell to become the second national intelligence director.  He would succeed John Negroponte, who is slated to become deputy secretary of state. “I believe that the first calling of an intelligence officer is to … speak truth to power,” McConnell said in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Committee Democrats urged McConnell to avoid the erroneous assessments that led up to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which many critics have charged were the result of White House pressure. “If I was aware that anyone was using information inappropriately,” he said, “I would tell all of those responsible for this process what the situation was.  And in the role of this committee for oversight, you would be part of that process, to be informed (David Morgan, Washington Post, Feb. 1). Back to top       Bill Defines Terrorism in New Mexico Legislation submitted this week in New Mexico would provide the first definition of terrorism in the state, the Albuquerque Journal reported yesterday (see GSN, July 5, 2005). Terrorism would be the threat or act of violence that causes more than $20,000 damage and is meant to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population” or government. Committing an act of terrorism would be a first-degree felony, as would an act of terrorism involving a “radiological, nuclear, chemical or biological agent, including a virus, bacteria or other germ.” The bill’s sponsor, Democratic state Representative Jeff Steinborn, said it would promote security while protecting civil liberties. “It’s a carefully calibrated act,” he said.  “This bill does not overreach on civil liberties.” The New Mexico branch of the American Civil Liberties Union disagreed, the Journal reported. “This is an unfortunate attempt to recreate the Patriot Act in New Mexico,” said executive director Peter Simonson.  “What this law would do is create an overly broad definition of terrorism that could easily be used to criminalize acts of civil disobedience and even nonviolent protests” (Trip Jennings, Albuquerque Journal, Feb. 1). Back to top

Work Advances at Iranian Uranium Enrichment Site Iran has begun preliminary work to install thousands of centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility as a dispute roiled over whether the International Atomic Energy Agency was receiving the access it wants to monitor the site, wire services reported today (see GSN, Feb. 1). Hundreds of workers “were working feverishly” to place piping and wiring in Iran’s underground enrichment facility at Natanz, said a diplomat accredited to the agency.  The work is preparation for Iran’s plans to install 3,000 centrifuges at the site, but so far no centrifuges have been emplaced, according to the Associated Press. Two smaller “cascades” of centrifuges have been operating in above-ground buildings at the site since last year, and a smaller set of machinery has been tested underground since November without using any uranium gas, according to AP (George Jahn, Associated Press/Houston Chronicle, Feb. 2). The nuclear agency had hoped to monitor the larger centrifuge cascade with cameras, but Iranian officials were “not allowing the IAEA to install the cameras inside the cascade halls in Natanz and are causing further delays in the inspectors’ activity,” a diplomat who closely monitors the agency said yesterday. “The Iranians are now willing to accept the installation of cameras only outside the cascade halls, which will not enable the IAEA to monitor the entire uranium enrichment process,” the diplomat said.  “This way the IAEA will only be able to see the crates that are taken into the hall and the workers coming and going.” “Uranium enrichment will nevertheless proceed inside the halls uninterrupted and unmonitored by the international community,” the diplomat added (Michael Adler, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Feb. 1). For its part, Iran today denied that it prevented the agency from positioning cameras, but did not specifically address the location of the cameras. “The installation of cameras has taken place in Natanz.  We have cooperated with the IAEA based on the safeguards and we will continue to do so in the framework of cooperation and treaties,” said a senior Iranian diplomat in Tehran. “The installation of monitoring systems and surveillance is taking place correctly and in the past days, the monitoring system has been strengthened, and there is no problem regarding this issue between Iran and the agency,” the official added (Reuters/New York Times, Feb. 2). Back to top       U.S. Seeks North Korean First Steps on Disarmament The United States is looking for North Korea to take the first concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament at the upcoming round of six-nations talks scheduled to begin next week, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Feb. 1). “What we hope to do in this round is to implement the first tranche of measures, which will be the beginning of the full implementation of the September (2005) agreement leading to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said yesterday. Hill, lead U.S. envoy to the negotiations, declined to discuss details of what those measures might include.  He made clear, though, that Washington would expect Pyongyang to continue making progress on denuclearization after those initial steps. “Clear denuclearization is not achieved unless North Korea can get back into the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear state and they are not going to be able to do that until they give up these nuclear weapons and nuclear programs,” Hill said.  “I think they understand that they have to move beyond the first tranche” (P. Parameswaran, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Feb. 1). A South Korean official said today he believes that tensions are reduced between Washington and Pyongyang, the Associated Press reported.  Their stances in the nuclear standoff have shifted in a “mutually reinforcing” fashion, the official said. “They have good feelings about each other and think well of each other,” he said (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Feb. 2). Working-level negotiations could begin following the six-party talks involving China, Japan, Russia, the United States and North and South Korea, an official in Seoul said yesterday. “If the countries reach an agreement on early steps of implementing the Sept. 19 joint statement, they will need working-level groups to carry out those plans,” the Foreign Ministry official said. While discussions involving lower-level officials have been discussed before, the official’s remarks could indicate optimism about the chances of success for the multilateral talks beginning Feb. 8, the Yonhap News Agency reported. At least six groups would be needed to carry out the actions identified in the six paragraph statement from 2005 (Yonhap News Agency, Feb. 2). Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso today joined other officials in playing down the likelihood of quick success in the next set of talks.  “We always start out with high expectations in the beginning but face uncertainty until the very end,” he said (Associated Press, Feb. 2). Back to top       Congress Rejects Trident Conversion Lawmakers have told the U.S. Defense Department not to continue with efforts to place conventional warheads on Trident missiles now armed with nuclear weapons, DefenseNews.com reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 5, 2006). The Pentagon believed that converted submarine-launched missiles could serve as quick-strike weapons against “fleeting targets,” Lisa Marie Cheney, acting assistant defense undersecretary for legislative affairs, said yesterday at an industry event.  Officials believed that converting existing missiles would take less time and money than developing a new weapon for eliminating safe houses or other time-sensitive targets. Critics of the plan argued that converted Tridents could be mistaken for nuclear weapons and produce an atomic response from nations such as China and Russia. Congressional aides from both parties last month told Pentagon officials, “If you come back with that kind of solution, it will be DOA,” Cheney said. They instead urged the Pentagon to deploy a “commercial off-the-shelf technology … in the near-term,” she said (John Bennett, DefenseNews.com, Feb. 1). Back to top       Nuclear Terror Prevention Group to Meet This Month Thirteen nations plan to convene a second set of meetings this month to improve international cooperation on preventing nuclear terror, the U.S. State Department announced yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 31, 2006). The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism held its initial meetings last year in Rabat, Morocco, where participants agreed upon a set of principles to aid individual nation’s efforts to improve their nuclear security measures. The next session is scheduled to convene Feb. 12-13 in Ankara, Turkey.  Officials are expected to approve activities for implementing those principles, according to the State Department  (U.S. State Department release, Feb. 1). Back to top       U.S. Scientists Call on Congress to Limit Presidential Authority to Order Nuclear Strikes A group of prominent U.S. physicists has urged Congress to limit the president’s ability to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon nations, the University of California at San Diego announced yesterday. The 22 scientists, including 12 Nobel laureates, said in a letter to Congress that they were concerned that President George W. Bush was considering a nuclear first strike against Iran, even though Iran had no nuclear weapons and posed no immediate threat to the United States.  Last April, Bush refused to rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons against Iran, saying, “All options are on the table” (see GSN, April 19, 2006). “The very fact that nuclear weapon use is not being ruled out as an option — against a state that does not have nuclear weapons and does not represent a direct or imminent threat to the United States — illustrates the extent to which the Bush administration has changed U.S. nuclear weapons policy,” Kurt Gottfried, and emeritus physics professor at Cornell University and the chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a press release. The letter urges Congress “to pass binding legislation to restrict the authority of the president to order nuclear strikes against non-nuclear-weapon states.” “By not legislating on this issue, Congress is implicitly condoning and even abetting such a potential action by the executive,” said UCSD physicist Jorge Hirsch in the release (University of California at San Diego release, Feb. 1). Back to top

Judge Details Hatfill Lawsuit Rejection A federal judge said this week he dismissed former government scientist Steven Hatfill’s defamation lawsuit against the New York Times because the plaintiff was a public official who was unable to prove the newspaper knowingly printed incorrect information (see GSN, Jan. 16). Authorities at one point described Hatfill, a former scientist for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Maryland, as a “person of interest” in the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people. He claimed he was defamed in pieces by Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.  The columnist first wrote that investigators were focusing on “Mr. Z,” a government scientist.  Kristof identified Hatfill in August 2002, saying he had acknowledged being Mr. Z and felt he was receiving unfair treatment from the press. Judge Claude Hilton dismissed the lawsuit last month, and issued his opinion on Tuesday, the Times reported. “The opinion is more or less what we expected, given the judge’s earlier statements,” Mark Grannis, Hatfill’s lawyer, told the Times.  “We will appeal, and we expect to prevail.” Hilton said he had determined that Hatfill was both a public official and a public figure, meaning a successful defamation claim would require a higher level of proof than would be needed for private citizen.  A public figure would have to show “actual malice” on the part of the writer — knowing or greatly suspecting that the published material was false. Hatfill performed contract work for the federal government after leaving his job, meaning he remained a public official.  He also identified himself as a bioterrorism expert and was interviewed by various news organizations, meaning he was a public figure, the judge said. Hilton’s opinion details the FBI investigation of the anthrax attacks, including as it related to Hatfill. “Notes regarding the anthrax mailings, a spinner flask of anthrax stimulant and a container of Cipro” were found in Hatfill’s car and his girlfriend’s condominium, the judge said. The flask could be used in the study of anthrax, while Cipro is an antibiotic used to threat anthrax infection (Stephen Labaton, New York Times, Feb. 2). Back to top

U.S. Seeks New Chemical Weapons Waste Disposal Plan The U.S. Army is seeking a new plan for disposing of waste produced by chemical weapons neutralization at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana, following DuPont’s announcement that it would not perform the work, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Feb. 2). “We’re back to square one and we’ve returned to reviewing all the options available.  That includes disposal either on or off site,” said Greg Mahall, spokesman for the Army Chemical Materials Agency. Weapons disposal at Newport is expected to produce 1.8 million gallons of hydrolysate wastewater.  DuPont had agreed to treat the waste at a facility in New Jersey, and then discharge it into the Delaware River.  That plan withered under fierce opposition from environmental organizations and officials from Delaware and New Jersey. The Army is considering four options for eliminating the wastewater without moving it from the depot, Mahall said.  All of the plans would require construction of a treatment plant, which would take several years, AP reported. The options are incineration, chemical oxidation, wet-air oxidation, and high-pressure treatment to produce solid matter that could be placed underground at a landfill. The Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility has destroyed 40 percent of the chemical agent at the depot, creating 613,000 gallons of hydrolysate.  Disposal is scheduled to finish in summer 2008. The state has issued a permit allowing the depot to store as much as 2.4 million gallons of wastewater on site, said Indiana Environmental Management Department official Tom Linson. “They keep adding space as they need it,” he said.  “Of course, they were banking on being able to ship that hydrolysate out at some point in time.  Now, there’s really no clear path open for them” (Rick Callahan, Associated Press/phillyBurbs.com, Feb. 2). Two studies released yesterday indicated there would be no cost savings from shipping wastewater from weapons neutralization at plants in Colorado and Kentucky to another location for treatment, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. The Army has argued that transporting 6 million gallons of waste from the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky alone would save as much as $52 million. However, a report by the independent firm Mitretek found that facing public opposition and potential lawsuits to the waste relocation, along with changing regulatory permits, could delay the effort by years and eliminate any savings.  The Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program, which is managing weapons disposal efforts at Blue Grass and Pueblo, Colo., reported that opposition and permit changes could delay off-site shipping by 66 months.  The cost would be nearly $150 million more than expected if the waste were treated at the depots, the Herald-Leader reported. The Chemical Destruction Community Advisory Board for Blue Grass is set to make its recommendation on the matter at its next meeting on March 13 (Cassondra Kirby, Lexington Herald-Leader, Feb. 2). The Colorado Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously against off-site shipments of wastewater from the Pueblo Chemical Depot, The Pueblo Chieftain reported (John Norton, The Pueblo Chieftain, Feb. 1). Back to top

U.S. Lawmakers React to Chinese Antisatellite Test U.S. lawmakers have issued different policy recommendations following China’s antisatellite test last month, Inside the Pentagon reported yesterday.  One Republican senator has encouraged the Bush administration to spur development of space-based missile defenses, and a Democratic representative has urged the administration to avoid an arms race in space through diplomacy (see GSN, Jan. 24). China used a modified ballistic missile on Jan. 11 to ram and destroy one of its own weather satellites. The test demonstrated that space has already been militarized and therefore the United States must act to defend its satellites by deploying space-based missile interceptors, Senator John Kyl (R-Ariz.) said in a speech this week to the Heritage Foundation. “U.S. weapons based in space could … patrol the commons for the good of all,” he said. Other lawmakers, however, expressed support for arms control measures to limit the deployment of weapons in space. “It should cause us to reconsider whether or not there should be some arms control regimen to restrict these kinds of tests,” said Representative John Spratt (D-S.C.).  “We probably will have some kind of provision in this year’s defense authorization act, encouraging the administration — imploring the administration” to explore such diplomatic avenues, he said. U.S. presidents have long resisted international efforts to negotiate space arms control measures at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (see GSN, June 14, 2006; Sebastian Sprenger, Inside the Pentagon, Feb. 1). Back to top

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