Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, shown earlier this year, plans to hold nuclear talks with a senior EU official next week (Samuel Kubani/Getty Images). European Union, Iran to Hold Nuclear Talks Next Week Officials from the European Union and Iran plan to meet next week to discuss ways to resume negotiations for a long-term resolution of the Iranian nuclear crisis, Reuters reported today (see GSN, April 19). No location has yet been set for the Wednesday meeting of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and lead Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, according to Reuters...Full Story

Polish Missile Site Premature, U.S. Lawmaker Says By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. House Armed Services subcommittee that oversees missile defense cautioned yesterday that the concerns that led lawmakers to zero out funding for deploying system components to Europe last year have not been resolved (see GSN, March 28)...Full Story

State Dept. Threat Reduction Funding Request Drops The State Department for fiscal 2008 appears set to request nearly $29 million less than it sought this year for WMD threat reduction programs, the Partnership for Global Security said in an analysis issued yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 6)...Full Story

	Friday, April 20, 2007

State Dept. Threat Reduction Funding Request Drops The State Department for fiscal 2008 appears set to request nearly $29 million less than it sought this year for WMD threat reduction programs, the Partnership for Global Security said in an analysis issued yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 6). The drop in requested funding — from $181.7 million to $153.1 million — mirrors reductions seen at the Defense and Energy departments, the organization said.  WMD security and disposal efforts in Russia are becoming less central to all three agencies as they focus on other former Soviet states and other areas of the globe. There is “less demand” for the State Department’s three primary WMD threat reduction programs, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Funding for the Global Threat Reduction program would drop from $56.2 requested for this fiscal year to $53.5 million in the next, according to the analysis.  The Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund budget would go from $38 million to $30 million, while Export Control and Border Security would see a reduction from $45.1 million to $41.3 million. There is an increasing emphasis at the State Department on biological security.  The Biosecurity Engagement Program, intended to strengthen pathogen security, site biosecurity and scientific engagement in South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East, received $4 million at its inception in fiscal 2006.  It received $10 million in this fiscal year and is apparently set to receive an equivalent amount in fiscal 2008, according to the analysis. Federal fiscal 2008 begins Oct. 1. The organization cautioned that the budget projections are preliminary and based largely on its analysis.  The State Department had not completed fiscal 2007 foreign operations legislation allocations and allocations were not available for fiscal 2008 Global Threat Reduction sub-programs (Isabelle Williams, Partnership for Global Security, April 19). Back to top       U.S. Promotes Sanctions as Nonproliferation Tool The United States hopes to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation and terrorism through the increased use of targeted sanctions, a senior U.S. official told lawmakers Wednesday (see GSN, Jan. 10). The Bush administration wants other nations to join this effort against proliferators and criminals, but faces obstacles in bringing them on board, said Patricia McNerney, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation. Washington has initiated sanctions that have successfully deterred proliferation activities in Iran, North Korea and Syria, McNerny testified during a joint meeting of two House panels.  Entities or people designated as proliferators have also found themselves facing reduced or suspended dealings with banks and other financial institutions around the world, she said, according to a State Department release. This has led proliferators to seek new banks they need to conduct business, McNerny said. “It is for this reason that we must remain vigilant to ensure that entities engaged in proliferation and illicit activities are denied financial services worldwide,” she said (U.S. State Department release, April 19). Back to top

European Union, Iran to Hold Nuclear Talks Next Week Officials from the European Union and Iran plan to meet next week to discuss ways to resume negotiations for a long-term resolution of the Iranian nuclear crisis, Reuters reported today (see GSN, April 19). No location has yet been set for the Wednesday meeting of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and lead Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, according to Reuters. The two diplomats spoke yesterday by phone to plan the meeting, said an EU official. “They will be preliminary discussions with a view to seeing if it would be possible to restart negotiations,” the official said (Reuters/New York Times, April 20). Meanwhile, a U.S. official said Iran’s declaration last week that it has achieved “industrial-scale” abilities to enrich uranium was a clear sign that Iran has no plans to heed U.N. Security Council calls for Tehran to curb its nuclear activities. “The message that comes through most clearly is ... they're going to continue to poke their finger into the eye of the international system,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.  “They should expect that there will be a response to that — the response is that they will find themselves increasingly isolated” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 19). Back to top       North Korea Pledges to Meet Nuclear Commitments North Korea said it would beginning meeting its commitments under a February denuclearization deal as soon as it confirms the availability of the frozen funds that have delayed the process, Reuters reported today (see GSN, April 19). “The D.P.R.K. is ready to invite the … delegation of the [International Atomic Energy Agency] the moment the actual unfreezing of the frozen fund in the bank has been confirmed,” the head of the General Department of Atomic Energy stated in a letter to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei. Pyongyang missed its Saturday deadline to readmit IAEA inspectors and begin shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor.  It has said it must first reclaim $25 million from the Banco Delta Asia in Macau, fund the bank had frozen after the United States linked the money to illicit North Korean financial activity.  Washington said last week the money is available for collection. “Working negotiations are now brisk between the D.P.R.K. bank and the above-said bank (BDA) to settle the issue,” according to the official North Korean KCNA news agency (Reuters I/New York Times, April 20). The holdup might be due to Pyongyang’s effort to find a reputable bank for the money, Reuters reported.  That could be difficult as banks might fear they could face U.S. sanctions after accepting the money. North Korean officials “want access to their money, and would rather not withdraw it (as cash) in wheelbarrows in front of a gaggle of South Korean and Japanese press now staking out BDA,” said one high-level U.S. official.  “Because BDA has been designated a money launderer (by the U.S. Treasury Department), the North Koreans would like to move the money to another bank that could do the full range of banking transactions that clearly the sanctioned BDA cannot do” (Carol Giacomo, Reuters II/Washington Post, April 19). The United States had designated one bank that did business with Banco Delta Asia as a “weapons of mass destruction proliferator and supporters,” the Associated Press reported. Banco Delta Asia has denied any wrongdoing in relation to North Korean financial activities.  The account of the North Korean bank was closed in September 2005, according to an audit (Min Lee, Associated Press, April 19). Meanwhile, officials from Seoul and Pyongyang resumed talks today on provision of rice aid to North Korea, Agence France-Presse reported.  The talks lasted only 30 minutes yesterday after a delay of eight hours instigated by North Korean officials (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, April 20). Back to top       U.S. Seeks Progress Next Month on Indian Nuclear Deal U.S. officials increased pressure on India yesterday to accept conditions on a planned nuclear trade agreement, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, April 19). Officials from the two nations are scheduled to meet twice next month, starting with a Washington visit by Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shanker Menon followed by a trip to New Delhi by U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. “There is a strong sense of frustration in Washington, in the administration and in Congress, about the fact that the Indian side has progressed so slowly in this effort.  We urge it to accelerate its efforts,” Burns said yesterday.  “The bottom line is that we are committed to this deal.  We do not question the goodwill of the Indian government, and I believe we will overcome the problems we are encountering.” Delays over implementing the deal announced nearly two years ago have given fuel to nuclear nonproliferation advocates who oppose the plan to sell India nuclear technology and material even though it has not joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, according to the Post. Recent reports of Indian technology smuggling (see GSN, April 3) and military ties with Iran have also strengthened the deal’s critics, the Post reported. “India's stealing of U.S.-controlled technology, its formal military-to-military cooperation with Iran, and its rejection of U.S. nonproliferation conditions on nuclear cooperation are what you would expect of an adversary, not a partner,” said Henry Sokolski, head of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. “On the one hand, we have India stealing controlled U.S. missile technology, and on the other hand we have India signing a new defense agreement with Iran,” added Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.).  “We are a wink and a nod away from U.S. missile technology winding up in Iran's possession, and the Bush administration has either failed to connect these two problems or they just don't care” (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, April 20). Meanwhile, India has heeded recent U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for nations to ban the sale of nuclear and missile technologies to Iran and North Korea, the Press Trust of India reported yesterday (see GSN, March 26 and Oct. 16, 2006). Commerce Minister Kamal Nath announced the formal prohibition on such sales yesterday (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 19). Back to top       Report Details Security Problems at Energy Department A recent Energy Department task force report found that agency security clearances were given in a 12-month period to people who had apparently used drugs in the preceding year, Time magazine reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 6, 2006). Security concerns at the department stretch beyond the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which has been the source of several violations. Last year, authorities found thousands of pages of classified documents on nuclear weapons designs in the trailer of a laboratory archivist, Time reported.  The incident led to the dismissal of the official who led the DOE agency that oversees the laboratory (see GSN, Jan. 5). “After years of security breaches at Los Alamos — and this shocking episode in the trailer last fall — you have to wonder, when will it end?” said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight. Jessica Quintana had acknowledged using marijuana and drinking while underage even while undergoing security screening for the job.  She pledged to stop using drugs, but was not subsequently subjected to drug tests. On the job, she violated security rules by bringing her cellular telephone into a vault containing secret documents and using a high-speed printer to print hundreds of pages of classified documents she would bring home for work purposes. Quintana also used a computer “thumb drive” to save classified documents so she could continue work at home.  Then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson had banned using thumb drives in 1999, but their use reportedly continued at Los Alamos.  The thumb drives could have allowed for shifting of secret material in classified computers to nonclassified computers, according to Time. Glue was placed in Los Alamos computer ports following the Quintana incident to prevent use of thumb drives. Inadequate supervision was given to Quintana; the security administrator who covered her area was kept elsewhere roughly half the time. A task force set up following the latest security breach studied more than 450 security clearances issued in the 12-month period beginning June 2001, which is when Quintana went through her review.  It discovered two additional instances of security clearances being approved to people with “indications of prior drug use within the month prior to the clearance being granted.”  Another 35 people were connected to drug use in the year before receiving clearance. Now, according to the task force report, “any proven or admitted drug involvement within the past 12 months” would lead to “termination” of an application for security clearance.  Other measures are being taken (Adam Zagorin, Time, April 19). Back to top

Scientists Urge Detection Systems for Plague Potential terrorist interest in using plague as a biological weapon should lead nations to deploy detection systems in areas normally devoid of the deadly disease, two scientists wrote in a journal article this month (see GSN, April 19). Caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, plague causes death in 50 to 90 percent of untreated humans, but survival rates climb significantly if the disease can be quickly identified and treated with antibiotics, says the paper by Michael Prentice of the University College of Cork in Ireland and Lila Rahalison of the World Health Organization’s plague center in Madagascar. The high mortality rate would be attractive to terrorists, as would the availability of the bacteria around the world, the ease of growing the bacteria, and the possible assistance from former weapons scientists, the paper says. Early treatment would aid victims, but many doctors are unfamiliar with the disease and could be slow to diagnose it, the authors say. They also express some concern over rare cases of the disease developing a resistance to standard antibiotic treatments (see GSN, March 26; Prentice/Rahalison, The Lancet, April 7). Back to top       U.S. Air Force Prepares Biowarfare Defense Plan The U.S. Air Force announced yesterday that it had developed a strategy for protecting its bases against biological threats (see GSN, Feb. 15). The Counter-Biological Warfare Concept of Operations was developed through a review from May 2004 to April 2005 of the potential biological warfare threat to Kunsan Air Base in South Korea.  The plan offers methods for biological threat preparedness, identifying an attack involving pathogens such as anthrax, and reducing the impact of such a strike. “People talk about a biological, chemical or radiological threat, and it sounds so far off; it doesn’t have any immediacy to it,” Col. Tom Billick, Air Force deputy director for counterproliferation, said in a press release.  “Biological attacks don’t just happen overseas; any area where we operate could be a high-threat area.” “(Pacific Air Forces) allowed us to work with Kunsan to develop tactics, techniques and procedures for how to deal with a biological attack,” Billick added.  “(We were looking for) procedures that we could apply across the Air Force.  We asked the functional experts how they normally do business within the medical, maintenance, mission support and operations communities.” A biological attack or disease outbreak could overwhelm an entire base, Billick said.  Personnel from various sectors, beyond solely medical staff, would be involved in the response.  “For example, implementing quarantine at an Air Force base requires support not only from the medical group, but it will also require significant support from services, security forces, logistics, civil engineers, public affairs, judge advocate and many others,” Billick said in the release. The service has issued an Air Force Instruction to help bases develop disease containment plans within six months.  It is expected to take two years to fully implement the operations concept (U.S. Air Force release, April 19). Back to top

Texas Site Begins CW Waste Destruction A Texas facility has begun to incinerate wastewater produced from neutralized U.S. chemical weapons in Indiana, the Port Arthur News reported Tuesday (see GSN, April 18). Veolia Environmental Services has so far received 16,000 gallons of the waste, according to the News.  The Port Arthur plant is one of only three facilities in the United States with the necessary equipment. The site is capable of destroying all the anticipated wastewater to be received from the Newport Chemical Depot within two years, said Mitch Osborne, general manager of Veolia’s Gulf Coast branch.  The schedule of shipments, however, remains uncertain and the company’s contract runs through 2012, he said. A video of the arrival of some tanker trucks showed workers wearing hazardous material protective suits. “We’ve handled a lot more hazardous material than this but we wear protective equipment with any hazardous material,” Osborne said. International inspectors have installed monitoring and verification equipment at the facility and on the tanker trucks to ensure that material shipped from Newport is not diverted along the way and is destroyed when it arrives, the News reported. The measures include surveillance cameras at the incinerator and valve seals on the trucks (Amy Moore, Port Arthur News, April 17). Back to top       Russia Agrees to Verification Plan for CW Site Russia and international inspectors have codified measures to verify the destruction of chemical weapons at the Russian Maradykovsky site, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 13, 2006). The site opened last year and inspectors have so far verified weapons disposal through an informal “working understanding,” said agency spokesman Peter Kaiser. The agreement announced yesterday formalizes the monitoring plan for the site, but still must be approved by the agency Executive Council which is scheduled to meet in the last week of June, Kaiser said. “The agreement helps us ensure that there is clarity on how to conduct verification,” he said (Greg Webb, Global Security Newswire, April 20). Back to top

Polish Missile Site Premature, U.S. Lawmaker Says By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. House Armed Services subcommittee that oversees missile defense cautioned yesterday that the concerns that led lawmakers to zero out funding for deploying system components to Europe last year have not been resolved (see GSN, March 28). Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), speaking at the Atlantic Council here, said the increasingly contentious debate over U.S. missile defense sites in Eastern Europe does not belong in a partisan political context. In response to suggestions that Democrats are invested in cutting the program, she noted that it was a Republican majority that eliminated funds for the planned European installations in the fiscal 2007 spending bill. The Bush administration wants to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic (see related GSN story, today). The fiscal 2007 defense funding bill declared that until testing of the U.S. Ground-based Midcourse Defense system was complete, it would be “premature” to invest in the Polish site that would complement interceptor installations in Alaska and California. “End-to-end” testing has still not been completed, Tauscher said, making it clear that the requirement laid out by the last Congress has not been met.  In such testing, all the components that would go into the final iteration of the system would be tested together. Since 2002, the Missile Defense Agency has conducted only one successful flight intercept test using the ground-based system. “That was the requirement, that was the reason, and here we are,” she said.   Tauscher declined to indicate if funding for the European deployment was likely in the fiscal 2008 bill set to go to markup in about two weeks. “Wait and see.  We’re doing the best we can to work through the system and make sure we have a very good bill,” said Tauscher, chairwoman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee.  “I don’t think this is a political discussion although there are politics involved. … It should not be a question of Democrats and Republicans.” The U.S. missile defense plans for Europe have led to increasingly acrimonious noise from Russian officials who contend the system is designed to counter Moscow’s strategic missiles. The United States says its plan stems from a concern that nations such as Iran and Syria would develop longer-range missile systems that could strike Europe or reach across the Atlantic (see GSN, March 21). Tauscher reiterated her concern that the United States is working on a bilateral basis with European countries rather than engaging NATO as a whole. “I think the fixed site in Poland has created a sense of antagonism, and our attitude that we’re going to talk to people, but, by the way, we’re going to do it whether you like it or not sounds vaguely familiar to a lot of people and hasn’t gotten us very far in the past six or seven years,” she said. She called for examining more mobile missile defense systems such as the Terminal High-Attitude Area Defense and the Aegis system.  The proposed shield, she said, would not cover all of Europe, leaving Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania vulnerable to short- and medium-range missile attacks. “I am concerned that we are proposing to deploy a new system that as of today has not demonstrated the capability to defend Europe — let alone the United States — against an enemy attack under realistic operational conditions,” Tauscher said. Back to top       Russia Rejects Missile Defense Cooperation A top Russian official yesterday rejected the U.S. offer of cooperation on missile defense, which Washington hoped would reduce Moscow’s objections to its missile shield plans for Europe, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 19). “I honestly see no grounds to talk about potential cooperation on strategic missile defense,” said First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, according to Interfax. Russian Ambassador to NATO Gen. Konstantin Totsky had said his government would consider the proposal, which included sharing early warning data, combined research projects, exercises and production. U.S., Russian and NATO officials met yesterday in Brussels to discuss Washington’s plan to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic.  Officials in Moscow have characterized the effort as a threat to Russia’s strategic security and have pledged to take corresponding steps.  U.S. officials say the defense elements would offer no threat to Russia. “I cannot conclude we agree on everything,” NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after the talks.  “On the threat perception there is clearly a divide” (Paul Ames, Associated Press/Houston Chronicle, April 19).   Back to top

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