U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Treasury Daniel Glaser speaks to reporters in Beijing, where he is trying to resolve a financial dispute with North Korea (Ted Aljibe/Getty Images). North Korean, U.S. Officials to Discuss Uranium Program U.S. officials will seek information from their North Korean counterparts this coming weekend about any North Korean efforts to enrich uranium, Yonhap reported today (see GSN, April 2). The group would meet in Beijing, assuming a financial dispute over frozen North Korean accounts can be resolved by then...Full Story

U.S. Needs Access to Russian Nuclear Sites, GAO Says U.S. funding has bolstered security at Russian nuclear sites, but there must be greater access granted to U.S. officials or other means to ensure the cash is indeed being used to maintain security, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday...Full Story

U.S. Issues Final Chemical Plant Security Rules By Chris Strohm Congress Daily WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Homeland Security Department yesterday issued long-anticipated final rules for regulating security at chemical facilities, including one barring state and local governments from enacting chemical security laws that conflict with the federal regulations (see GSN, March 23)...Full Story

	Tuesday, April 3, 2007

North Korean, U.S. Officials to Discuss Uranium Program U.S. officials will seek information from their North Korean counterparts this coming weekend about any North Korean efforts to enrich uranium, Yonhap reported today (see GSN, April 2). The group would meet in Beijing, assuming a financial dispute over frozen North Korean accounts can be resolved by then. U.S. suspicions that North Korea was pursuing a program to produce highly enriched uranium led to the collapse of a 1994 deal that had frozen Pyongyang’s plutonium production sites.  U.S. officials recently said they had lower confidence in their suspicions (see GSN, Feb. 28). A solid understanding of North Korea’s uranium activities would be necessary for a February denuclearization agreement to proceed, said a senior U.S. diplomat. “I did raise again that we need to run the program to ground, that is, we need to understand all aspects of that, and that understanding all aspects of the HEU program is important before the D.P.R.K. makes its complete declaration of nuclear programs,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said last month (Yonhap, April 3). Whether the financial dispute can be eased in time remains uncertain, however. North Korean funds once frozen by the Banco Delta Asia in Macau have not been transferred even though the United States has encouraged releasing the funds to Pyongyang. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Treasury Daniel Glaser has been working in Beijing for more than a week to facilitate the funds’ transfer, and South Korea’s foreign minister met with his Chinese counterpart today to discuss the issue, the Associated Press reported (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, April 3). Back to top       U.S. Needs Access to Russian Nuclear Sites, GAO Says U.S. funding has bolstered security at Russian nuclear sites, but there must be greater access granted to U.S. officials or other means to ensure the cash is indeed being used to maintain security, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday. From 1993 through fiscal 2006, the Energy Department spent roughly $1.3 billion to improve security and provide other related help at Russian sites housing weapon-usable nuclear material, the report says. The ability of Washington to “ensure the sustainability of the U.S.-funded security upgrades may be hampered by access difficulties, funding concerns and other issues,” according to the report. In addition, while the department reports to have “secured” 175 buildings with 300 metric tons of nuclear material that could fuel a bomb, government auditors say that is not an accurate representation of the work completed. The Energy Department considers a building to be “secure” after it has received only “limited” upgrades, even when additional “comprehensive upgrades” still must be completed, the accountability office writes. Fifty-one of the 175 buildings reported secured by the end of the last fiscal year do not have completed security upgrades.  The GAO report calls for a revised system to measure the level of security enhancements at Russian sites and the development of a management system to better measure Energy Department progress (Jon Fox, Global Security Newswire, April 3). Back to top       Tough Iranian, U.S. Attitudes Slow Nuclear Deal Hard-line policies in both Washington and Tehran may be backfiring and hampering prospects for resolving the Iranian nuclear crisis, according to some international security analysts (see GSN, April 2). U.S. diplomatic pressure combined with Washington’s refusal to rule out military action against Iran may have strengthened the current Iranian regime, the Los Angeles Times reported. “Iran is full of conspiracy theories, and some of them may be right,” said Christopher Rundle, a former British diplomat to Iran and honorary president of the Institute of Iranian Studies at Durham University in Britain.  “The Americans might be supporting Baluchi and Arab separatists. There is a concerted effort to destabilize Iran.” For its part, Tehran’s bellicose public diplomacy and recent seizure of 15 British troops have undermined support among Western moderates, according to the Times. Iran’s decision to reduce its cooperation with U.N. nuclear inspectors was partly based on concerns that information provided to International Atomic Energy Agency would be used by U.S. military planners, the Times. Iranian fears of a U.S. attack are growing, according to an Iranian analyst. “Because the U.S. military configurations in the Persian Gulf are very similar to those before the Iraq invasion, and because the neoconservatives in the American administration are prone to this sort of stupidity and craziness, we have been fully prepared in terms of hardware and military arsenals but also software and information for electronic warfare,” said Hamidreza Taraghi, head of the international affairs office of the Islamic Coalition Party, a conservative parliamentary group close to the Iranian leadership (Daragahi/Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times, April 3). Bushehr Dispute Meanwhile, a dispute over Russia’s willingness to complete construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran has reinforced Tehran’s desire to develop an indigenous uranium enrichment capability, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, March 26). Russia has halted work at the Bushehr reactor site, claiming Iran has missed contractual payments for the work.  Some Russian officials have also indicated they would not approve the first shipment of low-enriched uranium fuel for the reactor until the larger nuclear crisis is resolved (see GSN, March 20). “Not giving us the fuel proves our case that you cannot trust the West to deliver fuel and it also proves we have to seriously pursue uranium enrichment in order to have a level of security,” said Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. Aghazadeh said the financial dispute would be resolved this week when Russian officials plan to visit Iran. “In the next two or three days the Russians will come to Tehran to sign an agreement to solve the financial problems,” he said.  “The Russians have told us that since their company does not have money ‘you need to help us financially’. A framework has been found to solve their financial problems” (Farhad Pouladi, Agence France-Presse, April 3). Back to top       Closed Trial Sought for Alleged Nuclear Smugglers South African prosecutors are pushing for the trial of two South African residents accused of being part of a nuclear technology black market to be held largely behind closed doors, the Mail and Guardian reported (see GSN, March 2). In the trial of Daniel Geiges and Gerhard Wisser, allegedly part of the proliferation network of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, prosecutors argued that keeping the proceedings under close wraps would prevent the dissemination of sensitive nuclear information. Khan, who remains under house arrest in Islamabad, Pakistan, was involved in supplying nuclear technology to nations including Iran, Libya and North Korea (see GSN, Nov. 27, 2006). The prosecutors are pushing for the majority of the trial to be held outside the view of the public and the media, according to the newspaper which has legally opposed the maneuver. According to the government’s case against the two men, they played a key role in the landing the technology that led to South Africa’s apartheid-era nuclear weapon that the state then relinquished. Kirsch Engineering, their firm, was “a major supplier of systems, components and technology to (South Africa’s) nuclear program, including its enrichment activities,” according the government (Sam Sole, Mail and Guardian, March 31). Back to top       Uzbekistan Ratifies Pact for Non-Nuclear Zone Uzbekistan on Monday ratified a treaty creating a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti (see GSN, Sept. 8, 2006). The treaty, which took nine years to negotiate, creates a weapon-free region comprising the former Soviet states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.  The pact cleared Uzbekistan’s lower legislative body in January and its upper body last month.  Uzbekistan’s official media announced yesterday that Uzbek President Islam Karimov had ratified the accord on Monday, according to the Interfax news agency. Officials from each country involved initially signed the document during a September 2006 ceremony in Semipalatinsk, a Kazakh town near a former-Soviet nuclear test site (RIA Novosti, April, 3). Back to top       More Evidence Emerges That Bush Administration Disregarded Data Undermining Iraq Nuclear Claims Bush administration officials ignored considerable amounts of contradictory evidence when building a presidential claim in 2003 that Niger had inked a deal to supply uranium to Iraq, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Jan. 18, 2006). The claim was a major feature of U.S. assertions that Iraq had active WMD programs. “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,” U.S. President George W. Bush said in his State of the Union address in January 2003. The claim was based largely on a letter from Nigerian President Mamadou Tandja to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein saying that “500 tons of pure uranium per year will be delivered in two phases.” The letter, however, was a forgery, and a poor one, according to many who have seen it, the Post reported. Italian reporter Elisabetta Burba was given the letter by an informant in October 2002, about eight months after the CIA first acquired it.  Burba traveled to Niger to investigate the story, but determined that the concept of a covert sale of uranium to Iraq was impossible.  Simply shipping such a large amount of uranium would have drawn attention, she said.  “They would have needed hundreds of trucks,” she said, a number that would have been impossible to hide. It did not take her long to determine that the document itself was riddled with errors and clearly not an authentic document.  She elected not to do a story on it, the Post reported. Many U.S. intelligence officers made similar assessments when they first saw the document, according to the Post, but others viewed the letter as damning when they learned of it months later. Those analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency prevailed, and the White House kept the claim in the president’s speech, according to the Post. The source of the forged letter remains a mystery, but some intelligence officials believe it was circulated by disgruntled personnel within Italy’s intelligence service who wanted to make money on the side (Peter Eisner, Washington Post, April 3). Back to top

U.S. Issues Final Chemical Plant Security Rules By Chris Strohm Congress Daily WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Homeland Security Department yesterday issued long-anticipated final rules for regulating security at chemical facilities, including one barring state and local governments from enacting chemical security laws that conflict with the federal regulations (see GSN, March 23). Public interest groups, environmental organizations and some lawmakers objected to the department’s assertion that it could pre-empt state laws when draft rules were issued in December -- and there was no rush to applaud the rules today. The department admitted the draft rules were too broad on the issue of pre-emption, and in today’s final rules, it tried to specify when state laws will be overridden. “Some states have existing laws for regulating chemical facilities,” the department said in a statement yesterday. “Only state laws and requirements that conflict or interfere with these regulations, or the purpose for the regulations, will be pre-empted. Currently, the department has no reason to conclude that any existing state laws are applied in a way that would impede the federal rule.” The department also maintains the authority to pre-empt state health, safety or environmental protections, according to the rules. Lawmakers and their staffs were still reviewing the final rules yesterday, but some reaction to the pre-emption language was emerging. “The administration’s position is unacceptable,” said a spokesman for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.).  “The Bush administration’s rule prevents New Jersey from moving any further with its strong chemical plant security program.” Lautenberg was responsible for inserting language into the Senate’s fiscal 2007 war supplemental spending bill that says state and local governments can pass chemical security laws that are stronger than the federal regulations. The Lautenberg language would allow the federal government to pre-empt state and local laws, but only when a clearly defined conflict exists. A Lautenberg aide said the department’s final rules are still too broad. “Congress will still need to pass our legislation to prohibit the federal government from interfering with the right of states to protect their communities from a chemical attack,” Lautenberg’s spokesman added. House Homeland Security ranking member Peter King (R-N.Y.) had sent Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff two letters last month expressing concern about the department’s position on pre-emption. Chertoff replied with a letter Sunday, essentially explaining what language is in the final rules. “It seems to be a very reasonable compromise, or interpretation, of the rules,” King said today. “As I read the letter, this is much better off than we were a couple weeks ago.” The House also included language in its supplemental appropriations bill giving state and local governments the power to pass their own laws. The two chambers still have to agree on the final version during conference negotiations. The White House has threatened to veto any legislation, however, that places timetables for U.S. troops to leave Iraq. The chemical industry and several key Republicans hope to strip the chemical security language from the legislation after it is vetoed and comes back to Congress. Back to top       Prosecutor Demands Death for “Chemical Ali” Former Iraqi official Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” should be hanged for his role in the 1980s massacre of Iraqi kurds, an Iraqi prosecutor said yesterday (see GSN, March 6). The trial of al-Majid and five other former Iraqi officials neared completion yesterday when prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon delivered his closing remarks in the crimes against humanity trial. Al-Faroon demanded the death penalty for five of the six defendants, saying they “did not have mercy on elderly people or women or children not even animals or plants or the environment.” Al-Majid, he said, “was the ultimate master of the genocide operations against the Kurds.” Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa adjourned the trial until April 16, when defense attorneys are scheduled to give their closing arguments (Bushra Juhi, Associated Press/North County Times, April 2). Back to top

U.S. Fingers Indian Government in Weapons Scheme The U.S. Justice Department on Monday released an indictment charging that Indian agencies sought controlled missile technology through a private electronics firm, evading U.S. export regulations to clamp down on sensitive weapon-related items, the New York Times reported (see GSN, April 2). The effort to dodge export controls took place over several years, and the indictment charges that firm, Cirrus Inc., based in Singapore, Bangalore, India, and South Carolina, was engaged in purchasing the technologies for three Indian government agencies. Four company officials are listed in the Justice Department document in addition to a number of unnamed, uncharged co-conspirators, according to the Times.  One of those indicated but not charged or identified by name is described as an Indian government official employed in Washington. The defendants have been charged with violations of the U.S. Export Administration Act, a law prohibiting the export of technologies with both a civilian and an alternate military use without express approval from the Commerce Department verifying the items are destined for civilian purposes. The document released Monday states that officials at the firm had in some cases forged Commerce Department approvals to facilitate transactions with U.S. suppliers. The charges come as India is still trying to finalize a landmark civil nuclear trade agreement with the United States (see GSN, March 26). Under the proposed deal, which was passed by Congress last year but must come back for a final approval, India would be permitted to buy nuclear fuel for its civil nuclear reactors as well as nuclear energy technology.  In exchange, New Delhi plans to open its civil facilities up to international inspections. India still needs to hash out an inspection system with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, and the deal must also muster unanimous approval in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a 45-nation consortium that controls nuclear exports. The deal, which was pushed heavily by the Bush administration, represents a reversal of decades of export law that prohibits nuclear trade with nations outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.  India developed its nuclear arsenal outside the constraints of the international accord. Monday’s revelation could represent a blow to the administration, which has worked to improve relations with India and strengthen ties.  The indictment suggests that India shrugged off a pledge to Washington made more than years ago to not circumvent U.S. export controls by seeking weapon-related technologies in the United States, the Times reported. Critics of the deal, some of whom argued that the agreement would allow India to devote its domestic uranium to the production of nuclear weapons, reacted bitterly to the news. “This is not only an indictment of individuals for breaking export control law, it is also a blistering indictment of the Bush administration’s judgment,” Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement.  “Congress needs to reassess whether to proceed to allow the Indian government access to nuclear materials and sensitive technologies” (Mazzetti/Lewis, New York Times, April 2). Back to top

U.S. Begins Technical Study of Possible Missile Defense Site in Czech Republic U.S. technical experts have arrived in the Czech Republic to study a proposed U.S. missile defense site, the CTK news agency reported yesterday (see GSN, March 21). The specialists would remain throughout the week to measure the electromagnetic characteristics of the site that could house a missile tracking radar, according to CTK. Plans to base the U.S. radar on Czech soil and accompanying missile interceptors in Poland have not been approved yet, and Czech and U.S. officials began talks Wednesday to formally discuss the potential arrangement, CTK reported In addition to negotiating with the United States, Czech officials must overcome resistance to the idea at the grassroots level, where Czech residents have expressed security and environmental concerns about the project (CTK, April 2).   Back to top

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