Banco Delta Asia chairman Stanley Au tells reporters yesterday that North Korea has not withdrawn its once-frozen funds from his bank (Getty Images). New Activity Seen at North Korean Reactor Heightened activity at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear reactor could indicate preparations to close the facility, as required under an agreement reached at six-party talks in February, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, April 16). Satellite photographs recorded increased movement of vehicles and people at the reactor, which continued to operate, an unidentified intelligence official told the Yonhap News Agency. South Korean intelligence has been “following and analyzing some peculiar movements” at the site, an official told AP...Full Story

Pakistani Official Warns of Nuclear Terror Threat A senior Pakistani official has warned that shipments of spent nuclear fuel and other nuclear material in his country could be vulnerable to acts of terrorism, the Press Trust of India reported yesterday (see GSN, July 14, 2006)...Full Story

U.S. Urges Retention of Smallpox Virus The two known stocks of the smallpox virus should not be destroyed so as to preserve the opportunity to use them for defensive biological research, a Bush administration official argued in this week’s British Medical Journal (see GSN, Jan. 30)...Full Story

	Tuesday, April 17, 2007

U.K. Drops “War on Terror” Rhetoric British officials have stopped speaking the term “war on terror,” in a rhetorical strategy that diverges from U.S. policy, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 24). U.S. President George W. Bush and officials in his administration adopted the expression following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.  However, it serves only to empower terrorists by building their solidarity, said British International Development Secretary Hilary Benn. “In the U.K., we do not use the phrase ‘war on terror’ because we can't win by military means alone, and because this isn't us against one organized enemy with a clear identity and a coherent set of objectives,” Benn said in remarks at a meeting sponsored by the New York-based Center on International Cooperation. The true conflict is between the “vast majority” of people “against a small number of loose, shifting and disparate groups who have relatively little in common apart from their identification with others who share their distorted view of the world and their idea of being part of something bigger.” “By letting them feel part of something bigger, we give them strength,” he added (Associated Press/New York Times, April 16). Back to top

WMD Drill Begins Today in California The California National Guard today is beginning a three-day drill to test its ability to collaborate with local emergency personnel during a disaster, the Los Angeles Times reported (see GSN, May 5, 2006). “Operation Vector” is scheduled to begin this morning with a fake major earthquake in Los Angeles, which causes an “explosion” at a laboratory operated by an al-Qaeda cell.  The toxin ricin is released, causing a number of casualties. A mock chemical strike is scheduled for tomorrow in the Hollywood Hills, along with the siege at the Port of Los Angeles of a Coast Guard cutter playing the role of a cruise ship carrying numerous passengers.  On Thursday, participants are due to respond to Universal Studios for the simulated collision of two airliners. The exercise involves National Guard members from California, Colorado and Nevada, along with personnel from the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the county coroner’s office. Much of today’s activity is scheduled to occur at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus, the Times reported.  That has raised concerns about the effect of the event on veterans receiving treatment at the facility. “I am most concerned that the presence of a large military helicopter at the campus will be detrimental to the rehabilitation and recovery of recently returning veterans,” Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said in a letter Friday to local Veterans Affairs chief Charles Dorman. Two Black Hawk helicopters to be used in the exercise would land “far away from patient-occupied buildings,” said campus emergency manager Jenny Gonzalez.  The campus medical center would not be used in the drill, she said (Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times, April 17). Back to top

New Activity Seen at North Korean Reactor Heightened activity at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear reactor could indicate preparations to close the facility, as required under an agreement reached at six-party talks in February, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, April 16). Satellite photographs recorded increased movement of vehicles and people at the reactor, which continued to operate, an unidentified intelligence official told the Yonhap News Agency. South Korean intelligence has been “following and analyzing some peculiar movements” at the site, an official told AP. Some movements have been under U.S. and South Korean monitoring for a month. “The intensity of these activities has increased from about a week or two ago,” another official told Yonhap.  “There are activities other than cars and people moving busily.” Pyongyang agreed Feb. 13 to begin denuclearization by halting work at Yongbyon and by allowing international nuclear inspectors back into the nation.  Progress has been delayed by North Korea’s demand that it first receive $25 million in frozen funds from Banco Delta Asia in Macau. U.S. officials said last week the money had been released.  Bank owner Stanley Au confirmed that claim, but said North Korea had not collected the money “because they cannot transfer the money out.” “There are no banks accepting the so-called black money” which has been linked to illicit North Korean financial activity, Au said.  “The only thing they can do at the moment is to take the money in bank notes out of the bank” (Bo-Mi Lim, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 17). A Russian official yesterday blamed the United States holding up the transfer of funds, and thus delaying resolution to the nuclear crisis, Agence France-Presse reported. Washington is “not removing the obstacles to using this money and this is creating problems.  We cannot move forward as long as the North Korean side says that it has not received the money,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, according to Interfax (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, April 16). The United States rejected that claim, AFP reported. “It’s clear that this is an issue with the North Koreans and their banker,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.  “The ball is in the North Koreans’ court and we’ll see what they do” (Philippe Agret, Agence France-Presse II/Yahoo!News, April 16). Meanwhile, 31 nations have enacted economic sanctions against North Korea called for in a U.N. Security Council resolution, Kyodo News reported.  Another 27 nations are preparing punitive legislation, and 10 are considering the matter, said Italian Ambassador to the United Nations Marcello Spatafora, chairman of the council Sanctions Committee. The resolution followed Pyongyang’s Oct. 9 nuclear test (Kyodo News/Yahoo!News, April 16). Back to top       Pakistani Official Warns of Nuclear Terror Threat A senior Pakistani official has warned that shipments of spent nuclear fuel and other nuclear material in his country could be vulnerable to acts of terrorism, the Press Trust of India reported yesterday (see GSN, July 14, 2006). “Terrorist attacks against the transportation of radioactive material can occur almost anywhere in any industrialized country.  Consequences of a successful terrorist attack … could be disastrous,” said Abdul Mannan, transport and waste safety director at the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority. Mannan made his comments in January during a presentation at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington, where he was a visiting fellow. Pakistan has taken appropriate steps to prevent acts of nuclear terrorism, including tracking all radioactive material brought into the country in the last two decades, Mannan said. “To dilute the consequences of any successful sabotage event, preplanning is very important through well developed and coordinated efforts of various agencies,” he said.  “Periodic integrated tabletop and field exercises based on credible scenario[s] developed on the basis of intelligence information should remain the focus at all levels” (Press Trust of India, April 16). Back to top       Nuclear Guards Begin Strike at Pantex Unionized security guards at a U.S. nuclear weapons assembly site walked off the job yesterday to protest new physical fitness and security requirements, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Feb. 9).  The strike at the Pantex facility near Amarillo, Texas, followed several weeks of disagreement between the guards’ union and plant contractor BWXT, which has filled the vacancies with replacement guards, according to the Post. Pantex workers dismantle, refurbish and reassemble warheads from the U.S. nuclear stockpile. Under dispute are new security standards that require the guard force to transform from a defensive mode into “a combat-effective protective force designed to defeat a well-armed and dedicated terrorist adversary,” according to an Energy Department document. The move means guards must have greater military skills and physical fitness.  They are now required to run a mile in 8 1/2 minutes and a 40-yard dash in 8 seconds.  They are also required to carry about 40 pounds of protective gear and weapons during their 12-hour shifts, the Post reported (see GSN, July 14, 2005). The union is concerned that middle-aged guards would have trouble with these requirements and could lose their jobs.  Union leaders are seeking to provide a career path that would allow older workers to transition into jobs requiring less physical fitness, according to the Post. One U.S. lawmaker urged the parties to resolve their differences quickly. “This employment instability not only raises the potential for significant costs to the American taxpayer, but also raises serious nuclear security concerns,” said Representative Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee. The Energy Department insisted that security would be maintained at the site. “Security and safety are paramount at Pantex, and they will not be compromised regardless of any circumstances,” said Bryan Wilkes, spokesman for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration. “Both safety and security will continue to be consistent with the conditions that existed prior to the guard work stoppage.” A federal mediator called in to help recent talks between the union and BWXT called for 14-day cooling off period after the union voted to strike, a move criticized by the union leader Mike Stumbo. “Fourteen days is OK for general industry, but we're not protecting the Wal-Mart parking lot here. We're protecting nuclear weapons,” he said (Dale Russakoff, Washington Post, April 17). Back to top       U.S. Accelerates Warhead Dismantlement The Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee this year has accelerated the pace of nuclear warhead dismantlement by 50 percent from 2006, The Knoxville News Sentinel reported yesterday (see GSN, March 20). Work on four warhead types in storage — the W-55 used on antisubmarine rockets, the W-48 and W-79 placed on artillery shells and the W-70 ballistic missile tips — is expected to be finished this year. “We are definitely on schedule, and our plans are to at least stay on schedule, if not exceed it,” said program manager Dan Linehan. The speed of warhead dismantlement could be tripled over the next two years through a new “debonding” technique. “We have certain systems that are bonded together adhesively, and they weren’t necessarily designed to be dismantled,” he said.  “They can be very technically challenging to take apart.” Even with the new system, dismantlement of thousands of warhead parts is expected to take decades, Linehan said (Frank Munger, The Knoxville News Sentinel, April 16). Back to top       Mexico Joins Nuclear Smuggling Prevention Effort U.S. and Mexican officials agreed yesterday on a plan to install radiation detectors at major Mexican ports, the Energy Department announced (see GSN, Feb. 12). “The Megaports Agreement signed today solidifies the United States and Mexico's joint commitment to the safety, security and prosperity of our nations,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.  “This initiative builds on our ongoing cooperation to advance nonproliferation by deploying advanced technologies to reduce the threat of illegal shipments of nuclear and other radioactive materials into our countries.” The United States agreed to provide detectors to four ports that process about 90 percent of seagoing container traffic in Mexico, according to the department (U.S. Energy Department release, April 16). Back to top

U.S. Urges Retention of Smallpox Virus The two known stocks of the smallpox virus should not be destroyed so as to preserve the opportunity to use them for defensive biological research, a Bush administration official argued in this week’s British Medical Journal (see GSN, Jan. 30). No smallpox infections have occurred in decades, and the World Health Organization once decided that the two remaining repositories in Russia and the United States should destroy their stocks.  That decision was never implemented, however, and the plan is now opposed by U.S. and Russian officials (see GSN, Feb. 23, 2004). “Smallpox, one of the great killers in human history, remains dangerous,” wrote U.S. Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary John Agwunobi in his portion of a debate in the Journal.  “Malicious use of smallpox remains a threat because almost certainly clandestine stocks exist.” “The United States believes that the global community should avoid any action that would jeopardize the important research … conducted at the two authorized repositories of the virus,” he added.  “Destroying the virus would be irreversible and short sighted.” Agwunobi said that stored virus samples could aid research needed to develop better smallpox vaccines and treatments.  In addition, he said the samples could help to develop improved diagnostic methods, a technology that would be particularly valuable to health care workers who would be likely to misdiagnose the first case of smallpox because they haven’t seen the disease in so long (John Agwunobi, British Medical Journal, April 14). Countering the U.S. position in the Journal debate was Edward Hammond, head of the Sunshine Project, a biological weapons watchdog group.  He said the Bush administration has overstated the threat of terrorists acquiring or using smallpox as a weapon. “The claims about illicit stocks have … not been supported by evidence.  The loudest allegations were against Iraq (see GSN, Dec. 3, 2002), but the U.S. belatedly admitted that it was wrong,” he said (see GSN, Sept. 19, 2003).  “There is no credible evidence that any terrorist organization has smallpox virus.  To acquire the virus terrorists would have to breach security at one of WHO's repositories.  Producing quantities of weaponized smallpox is beyond the means of any known terrorist group.” Furthermore, Hammond argued that a committee of WHO experts determined last year that the live virus was no longer needed for any additional research and that detection and diagnostic technologies were well developed. Hammond added that “one unfortunate consequence of the U.S. insistence that its smallpox virus is critical to its national security is that other countries may become convinced that they too must possess the virus and research into it.” “The smallpox strains in the WHO repositories in the U.S. and Russia were deposited by various countries and were isolated all over the world. It is extremely unclear who legally owns the collections,” he said (Edward Hammond, British Medical Journal, April 14). Back to top       Kazakh Parliament Backs Biological Weapons Pact The Kazakh Parliament has approved the international treaty banning the development, stockpiling and use of biological weapons, ITAR-Tass reported today (see GSN, Aug. 21, 2006). Joining the Biological Weapons Convention “will become another proof of Kazakhstan’s constructive policy in nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” lawmakers said. President Nursultan Nazarbayev must now endorse the parliamentary action to ratify the treaty (ITAR-Tass, April 17). Back to top       U.S. to Order New Smallpox Vaccine The United States plans to buy 20 million doses of an advanced smallpox vaccine, the Danish-based Bavarian Nordic pharmaceutical firm announced yesterday (see GSN, April 11). Details of the contract remain incomplete, according to a company release. The purchase would be the first procurement of a vaccine since the U.S. Bioshield program was revived late last year, the company said (see GSN, Dec. 12, 2006). The new-technology vaccine is intended reduce complications that the current vaccine can cause in some recipients (Bavarian Nordic release, April 16). Back to top       Lasers Could Instantly Detect Biological Agents Scientists at Princeton University and Texas A&M have developed a laser technique that could produce instantaneous detection of biological agents such as anthrax, according to a release issued Friday (see GSN, March 20). It took less than one-tenth of one second to detect anthrax using the system, researchers said in the latest issue of the journal Science. “We do our experiments ‘on the fly,’ so we can get a (reading) within a tiny fraction of a second,” lead author Marlan Scully, a physics professor who holds joint appointments at both universities, said in the press release. The technique could allow for testing that was previously unwieldy or impossible to perform, the release states. “Our procedure can work for monitoring anthrax in the mail, but it can also scan the whole atmosphere,” Scully said (Princeton University release, April 13). Back to top

Nitric Acid Found After Failed Iraqi Car Bombing An attempt to explode a truck carrying nitric acid at a military checkpoint in Iraq failed yesterday when the vehicle overturned before reaching its target, Reuters reported (see GSN, April 16). The possible use of nitric acid as a chemical supplement to conventional bombings emerged last week with the discovery of more than 30 containers of the material at two Baghdad houses. The tactic mirrors recent bombings in which tanks of chlorines have been loaded on to car bombs (see GSN, April 11; Reuters/Los Angeles Times, April 17). Back to top

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