Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and U.S. President George W. Bush share words at last year’s G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, where the two leaders announced a new initiative to prevent nuclear terrorism (Ivan Sekretarev/Getty Images). More Nations Join Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Effort Eight additional nations have agreed to join an effort led by Russia and the United States to prevent nuclear terrorism, the U.S. State Department announced yesterday (see GSN, May 4). The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism was created at last year’s Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, where U.S. and Russian officials said the plan would seek to improve security over nuclear materials and to deter nuclear smuggling...Full Story

G-8 Officials to Discuss Iranian Nuclear Crisis Members of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations plan to discuss the Iranian nuclear crisis at a meeting today in Berlin, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 7)...Full Story

DOE Selects Management Team for Livermore The University of California will continue to have a role in the operation of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California under a management contract announced yesterday by the U.S. Energy Department (see GSN, Oct. 30, 2006)...Full Story

	Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Al-Qaeda Still Fixated on WMD, Tenet Says Former CIA Director George Tenet said the terrorist organization al-Qaeda has been hurt in the years since carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks, but remains intent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, the Press Trust of India reported yesterday (see GSN, April 23). “We’ve done very well against them.  We’ve hurt their leadership quite badly,” he told MSNBC.  “It took eight years between the World Trade Center and 9/11.  They have an enormous sense of patience.  They are a sophisticated intelligence organization.” Tenet (see GSN, May 7) said the leaders of al-Qaeda have “probably” taken refuge in Pakistan’s northwest frontier. “My big worry is their fixation with the development, acquisition of a nuclear capability, chemical and biological weapons,” Tenet said.  It is more likely that al-Qaeda would try to purchase an atomic weapon than produce one, he said. “We had a Pakistani nongovernmental organization, and people who used to work in the Pakistani nuclear program meet with [al-Qaeda chief Osama] bin Laden, share crude weapons designs. “The head of the organization looked at bin Laden and said, ‘You know, the hard part about this is getting the fissile material.’  And bin Laden looked at him and said, ‘What if I already have it?’” Tenet said. “They’re trying to buy it. … We’ve got to go talk to countries and say, ‘Where [are] your fissile materials,” he added.  It is crucial that nations be able to account for their stocks of fissile material, Tenet said (Press Trust of India, May 8). Back to top

More Nations Join Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Effort Eight additional nations have agreed to join an effort led by Russia and the United States to prevent nuclear terrorism, the U.S. State Department announced yesterday (see GSN, May 4). The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism was created at last year’s Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, where U.S. and Russian officials said the plan would seek to improve security over nuclear materials and to deter nuclear smuggling. Cape Verde, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Georgia, Montenegro, the Netherlands and Spain have all announced their intention to participate, according to a U.S. release. The group’s next meeting is scheduled to convene in June in Kazakhstan (U.S. State Department release, May 8). Back to top       G-8 Officials to Discuss Iranian Nuclear Crisis Members of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations plan to discuss the Iranian nuclear crisis at a meeting today in Berlin, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 7). Officials from the G-8 nations, which include five of the six U.N. powers that have engineered U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran in recent months, are gathering to prepare for the annual G-8 summit in June, to be held in Heiligendamm, Germany. A draft summit statement on nonproliferation announces the group’s intention to “support adopting further measures should Iran refuse to comply with its obligations,” according to a senior official from a G-8 nation. The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran freeze its uranium enrichment program and other sensitive nuclear activities, but Tehran has so far refused to accede despite facing two rounds of economic sanctions. Those sanctions have affected Iran and were working well to support the council’s goals, said the G-8 official. “Even the Americans expressed pleasant surprise in this regard, especially since they were initially very skeptical about what they thought was an overly watered-down resolution,” the official said.  “Letting those resolutions continue to bite is not necessarily a bad thing.” Today’s planned meeting is to include political directors from the five permanent council members.  China will join by phone, Reuters reported. U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns is expected to lead the U.S. delegation (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters/Yahoo!News, May 8). Iranian Official Freed Meanwhile, Iranian authorities today released former nuclear diplomat Hossein Mousavian after arresting him more than a week ago on security-related charges.  Mousavian was released after posting $215,000 in bail, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, May 8). The semiofficial Fars news agency reported that the investigation would continue. “He has expressed sorrow and remorse over his deeds,” said a source.  “The initial investigation is now completed and the subsequent investigation will be done by summoning him to the prosecutors' office in person.” Fars reported earlier that Mousavian was under investigation for nuclear espionage, but no officials have confirmed this. “The issue is not specifically related to the nuclear people. The nuclear issue is not the only focus,” said government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham.  “Mousavian's case is specifically linked to him as an individual.” Furthermore, the charges “are not related to today or yesterday but have to do with (actions) many years ago,” said the Fars source (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, May 9). Back to top       DOE Selects Management Team for Livermore The University of California will continue to have a role in the operation of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California under a management contract announced yesterday by the U.S. Energy Department (see GSN, Oct. 30, 2006). The university for decades was the sole manager of Livermore and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.  However, it was required to submit new bids for both nuclear weapons laboratories following a series of safety and security breaches at Los Alamos.  In both cases, the university joined teams that successfully pursued management contracts at the laboratories (see GSN, Dec. 22, 2005). The Energy Department said yesterday it would pay $297.5 million over seven years to the team consisting of the university, Bechtel National, BWX Technologies and other public and private entities, the Los Angeles Times reported.  The group, operating under the name Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC, is largely identical to the consortium that won the Los Alamos contract. The winning group put together an offer than was better and cheaper than the bid from a team led by defense contractor Northrop Grumman, according to Energy Department officials.  The department said a third offer from two watchdog groups, which sought to convert Lawrence Livermore into a “center for civilian science,” was not a reasonable response to the bid request, the Times reported (Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times, May 9). “Livermore National Laboratory is a critical part of our nuclear weapons complex and has been for the last 55 years,” Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a press release.  “For the first time since the beginning of the laboratory a new contractor is coming to Livermore.  We look forward to working with LLNS as Livermore continues its vital national security work.” Management transfer activities began yesterday, and the new contract goes into effect on Oct. 1.  It includes a provision for an extension of up to 13 years following the initial seven-year term, the department said. Priorities under the new contract are expected to include: — “demonstrating design and development capabilities to support the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) strategy.”  The department selected Livermore to develop the first new nuclear warhead in decades (see GSN, May 3); — supporting the Complex 2030 program to update the U.S. nuclear complex, including through “improved integration among the [National Nuclear Security Administration] sites and increased enterprise-wide activities”; and — promoting deterrence, detection and response to proliferation of unconventional weapons (U.S. Energy Department release, May 8). Watchdog groups immediately blasted the announcement. “Obviously, past performance means nothing to the officials at the Department of Energy,” Peter Stockton, senior investigator for the Project on Government Oversight, said in a press release.  “It is ridiculous that after years of security breaches and safety debacles DOE would decide that the best way to fix these problems is by hiring the same incompetent contractors.  This decision truly fits the definition of ‘insanity’” (Project on Government Oversight release, May 8). “It’s DOE conducting business as usual,” said Marylia Kelley, head of Tri-Valley CAREs, in a press release.  “The networks of nuclear weapons ‘good-old boys’ who have done so much damage to the nation’s budget, security and environment are in charge of both research labs.” Tri-Valley CAREs had joined with several entities to form the Livermore Lab GREEN team that unsuccessfully sought the management contract (Tri-Valley CAREs release, May 8). Back to top       Korean Leaders Could Meet This Year The leaders of North and South Korea could meet this year if Pyongyang begins meeting its commitments under a February denuclearization agreement, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, May 8). An unidentified government official in Seoul said the meeting between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il could occur in July or August, according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.  The meeting would be intended to promote reconciliation between the two nations. The Roh administration denied the report.  This would be the second leadership summit, following a 2000 meeting between Kim and then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow said last week that reconciliation efforts must occur in coordination with North Korean denuclearization, AP reported (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, May 8). South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon today said he was frustrated by the continued delay on moving forward with the agreement, Agence France-Presse reported.  Pyongyang missed the April 14 deadline to take the initial steps, and has refused to take action until it collects $25 million that had been frozen at Banco Delta Asia in Macau. “I lament the fact that the North Korean nuclear issue has not been able to move forward to due these temporary and technical problems,” he said. There are “active discussions on various schemes among involved parties” on resolving the matter, Song said. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack would neither confirm nor deny reports that Pyongyang had asked to have the money transferred through a U.S. bank (Agence France-Presse/TODAYonline, May 9). Back to top       Kazakhstan to Join Russian Fuel Bank Plan Kazakhstan plans to join a Russian effort to establish an international nuclear “fuel bank” at a uranium enrichment facility in Siberia, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2006). Russia has been working to convert its site at Angarsk to a multilaterally operated production facility that would supply emerging nations with nuclear fuel, thereby reducing the need for those countries to build their own fuel production sites. Russian President Vladimir Putin would sign the deal on a visit to Kazakhstan beginning today, Kazakh Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin told Times journalists yesterday. “Today it is just a bilateral arrangement, but it could be open to any country that wants to use the mechanism,” he said. Whether the plan would gain additional momentum remains unclear. “It is difficult right now to say who might want to join,” Tazhin said. One nonproliferation expert suggested that the nations of most concern would probably not participate. “We have to understand the limitations of these ideas,” said Arms Control Association head Daryl Kimball.  “No amount of fuel supply assurances are likely to satisfy countries like Iran, because fundamentally they want to preserve at least the option of enrichment for their own purposes.” Both the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency have proposed similar mechanisms intended to persuade more nations not to build nuclear fuel production sites (see GSN, Feb. 8).  Those sites could also be used to manufacture nuclear weapon materials, the Times reported. Russia has argued that its site is ready to go and therefore its plan could be implemented faster than the others. The Bush administration is “largely neutral” on the Russian plan, said a U.S. official (David Sands, Washington Times, May 9). Back to top       CIA Slow to Pursue Smuggling Network, Expert Says CIA attention to state-to-state relations prevented the spy agency from learning more about the nuclear smuggling network once headed by top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, a nonproliferation expert said yesterday (see GSN, May 3). “There's no doubt that the CIA knew about some of Khan's activities at various stages of his proliferation,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, lead author of a sweeping report on the Khan network.  Fitzpatrick, a former U.S. State Department official, is now a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “There’s also no doubt that the CIA didn't give enough attention to this area of private sector proliferation in looking at Iran's nuclear development program over the years,” he added. A CIA spokesman disputed Fitzpatrick’s assertion. “The disruption of A.Q. Khan's proliferation network was a major success, one in which the CIA played a crucial role. To suggest otherwise is to ignore the facts,” said spokesman Paul Gimigliano.  “As with so many other intelligence triumphs, this was the result of hard, careful, essential work over time” (Reuters/Washington Post, May 9). Fitzpatrick said Khan’s network acted largely as a private enterprise without the approval of Pakistani political leaders. “The network’s sales to Libya … were almost exclusively private business transactions, beyond state control,” he told the Pakistani Dawn newspaper. Still, the question of official Pakistani involvement in the network requires more information. “Past Pakistani governments’ knowledge of and even involvement in A.Q. Khan’s secondary proliferation activities remains open to debate,” Fitzpatrick said, noting that former army chief Gen. Aslam Beg had encouraged the Khan network’s dealings with other nations. Khan was motivated by “ego, money, nationalism and a sense of Islamic fraternity,” Fitzpatrick said (Dawn, May 9). Back to top       Russia to Add Warheads to Newest ICBMs Russia plans to deploy multiple warheads on all of its recently fielded ICBMS within two to three years, RIA Novosti reported Monday (see GSN, Feb. 7). Topol-M strategic missiles, now armed with single warheads, would receive additional warheads partly to counter U.S. plans to field missile interceptors in Eastern Europe, according to RIA Novosti (see GSN, Feb. 22). The warhead increase would enable Russian weapons to penetrate any defense more effectively, said Russian strategic forces commander Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov. “If the U.S. proceeds with the air shield expansion plans, despite serious opposition from people in Europe, the Strategic Missile Forces will manage to take adequate measures to counter threats that may face Russia,” he said. Solovtsov said Russia had deployed 44 silo-based Topol-Ms and three road-mobile missiles by the end of last year.  Plans call for adding four more silo-based missiles this year while conducting 12 flight tests of a variety of strategic missiles (RIA Novosti, May 7). Back to top       Former LANL Worker Said to Face One Charge One misdemeanor charge is likely to be filed against the former Los Alamos National Laboratory contract worker who removed classified nuclear weapons documents from the New Mexico facility, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, May 2). Defense attorney Stephen Aarons said he expects 23-year-old Jessica Quintana to face a lone count of negligent handling of classified documents when she is arraigned May 15 in federal court in Albuquerque. “She hasn’t been charged, but we’ve reached an agreement as to what she will be charged with,” he told AP. Quintana is expected to plead guilty and could be sentenced to as much as one year in prison.  “We’re hoping that she gets no jail time, but that’s going to be up to the federal judge,” Aarons said. Local police raided Quintana’s trailer in October.  While searching for drugs, they found three portable data storage devices and more than 200 sheets of paper, some of which contained classified information.  The incident was the latest in a series of security breaches at Los Alamos (see GSN, March 8). Quintana said she removed the devices and documents from the laboratory to work from home on a project to scan paper documents.  The material found at her home did not include top secret documents; much of it was two to three decades old and kept under low-level classification, according to Los Alamos officials (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, May 8). Back to top       Rebels Called No Threat to Indian Nuclear Sites Sri Lankan officials yesterday stepped back from a warning that a rebel group in the island nation could threaten nuclear facilities in neighboring India, the Press Trust of India reported (see GSN, May 8). Foreign Secretary Paltha Kohona told reporters Monday that recent air attacks conducted by the Tamil Tigers rebel group against Sri Lankan sites could expand to India. Other officials discounted that assertion yesterday. “We certainly have had no discussions on anything like that,” said military spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe. “We are already in the process of acquiring weapons to deal with the problem,” added Defense Ministry spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella. “They are not a serious threat” (Press Trust of India, May 8). Back to top

Mustard Leak Found at Deseret Chemical Depot Roughly one-eighth of a cup of mustard agent spilled from a weapon stored at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah before workers discovered the leak yesterday, the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency said (see GSN, May 2). Personnel in protective gear cleaned up the spill and decontaminated the 155 mm munition.  They then placed the projectile inside an airtight container. No mustard vapor escaped the filtered storage unit, according to a press release (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, May 8). Back to top       University Develops Chemical Agent Sensor A biosensor developed at the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia could someday be used to detect chemical agents such as sarin, the Xinhua News Agency reported today (see GSN, March 20). The research involves cloning of rat olfactory receptors into yeast cells, which are then genetically linked to a green fluorescent protein.  The olfactory receptor could “smell” potentially dangerous materials; the biosensor would turn green to signal detection. “We suspected that harnessing the potential of the olfactory system, which can detect innumerable chemical agents with unparalleled sensitivity and selectivity, would be of immense value in the detection of environmental toxins and chemical warfare agents even at sublethal levels,” said Danny Dhanasekaran, associate biochemistry professor. The system could also be used to detect explosives and land mines. Researchers are continuing to develop the biosensor, including by improving its response time (Xinhua News Agency, May 9). Back to top

India Tests Nuclear-Capable Prithvi Missile India today conducted a test launch of its nuclear-capable Prithvi missile, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 12). The Indian army fired the ballistic missile from a test range in the eastern state of Orissa. The Prithvi missile has a range of 95 miles and has already been entered into service by the army. India and nuclear rival and neighbor Pakistan regularly test their missiles.  New Delhi last month launched an Agni 3 missile, which has a projected range of 1,900 miles (Ashok Sharma, Associated Press, May 9). The Prithvi is one of five ballistic missiles under development in India, Agence France-Presse reported.  The others are the Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag missiles (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 9). Back to top

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