IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei (right) listens to U.S. Ambassador Gregory Schulte at an agency board meeting today in Vienna, where diplomats were expected to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions (Dieter Nagl/Getty Images). U.K. Stops Iranian Nuclear Smuggling Effort British officials have stopped an Iranian effort to purchase weapon-grade uranium from international smugglers, the London Observer reported yesterday (see GSN, May 23, 2005). Over 20 months, British intelligence services monitored a group of British citizens who successfully acquired the uranium from the Russian black market, according to the Observer.  The smugglers planned to sell the material to Iran through a middleman in Sudan, investigators said. Authorities disrupted the plot in early 2006 before the uranium was delivered.  ..Full Story

Report Questions Use of Drugs as Nonlethal Weapons By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Drugs intended to be used as nonlethal weapons are almost certain to kill people if used during a crisis, the British Medical Association said in a recent report (see GSN, Dec. 7, 2006)...Full Story

Putin Expands Missile Defense Proposal After suggesting that the United States place its planned European missile defense radar in Azerbaijan, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday proposed that U.S. missile interceptors could be deployed to nations such as Turkey or Iraq, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 8)...Full Story

	Monday, June 11, 2007

U.S. Calls on Fiction Writers for Futuristic Ideas The U.S. Homeland Security Department has allocated $10 million to develop futuristic antiterrorism techniques imagined by science fiction writers, the London Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday.  One proposed technology would enable authorities to essentially read the minds of airport security dogs (see GSN, Aug. 5, 2004). “Fifty years ago, science fiction writers told us about flying cars and a wireless handheld communicator.  Flying cars haven't evolved, but cell phones are now a way of life,” a department spokesman said.  “We need to look everywhere for ideas, and science fiction writers clearly inform the debate” (see GSN, March 7, 2005). At a Washington conference last month, six authors met with officials to discuss some of their ideas. “Imagine how great it would be if you had cell phones with sensors that could pick up anthrax spores in the air, and automatically relay that information and location to the authorities. You could do the same for TB bacilli spores to fight outbreaks of disease,” said author Jerry Pournelle (see GSN, May 4). “We're also getting good at encephalography, which involves sticking wires on your head and matching the brainwaves to actual thoughts,” he added.  “If we could do that with sniffer dogs, the dog might be able to tell us precisely what kind of drug or explosive it has detected.” Pournelle said he advised former President Ronald Reagan on his Strategic Defense Initiative, a massive national missile defense concept that was never deployed. “I helped devise Star Wars, which helped win the Cold War,” he said.  “I'm glad we don't have 20,000 nuclear weapons pointing at each other now." Another author, Arlan Andrews, said science fiction writers could provide valuable thinking to the nation. “We spend our entire careers living in the future.  Those responsible for keeping the nation safe need people to think of crazy ideas,” he said. “We do it in fiction.  Why wouldn't we want to do it in fact?” added writer Larry Niven (Tim Shipman, Sunday Telegraph, June 10). Back to top

U.K. Stops Iranian Nuclear Smuggling Effort British officials have stopped an Iranian effort to purchase weapon-grade uranium from international smugglers, the London Observer reported yesterday (see GSN, May 23, 2005). Over 20 months, British intelligence services monitored a group of British citizens who successfully acquired the uranium from the Russian black market, according to the Observer.  The smugglers planned to sell the material to Iran through a middleman in Sudan, investigators said. Authorities disrupted the plot in early 2006 before the uranium was delivered.  They have arrested one person who has been charged with trying to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.  In addition, officials have closed down a British business, the Observer reported. The Observer did not report the quantity of seized uranium, the identity of the arrested individual or the name of the shuttered company. “Real credit must go to the enforcement authorities that they have disrupted this,” said Roger Berry, chairman of Parliament’s arms-monitoring Quadripartite Committee.  “The really worrying aspect is that if one company is involved, are there others out there?” British officials said their investigations were continuing, in part by monitoring a number of British residents.  Investigators said they have discovered the first solid confirmation that al-Qaeda personnel have been actively seeking nuclear weapon materials and technology (Mark Townsend, The Observer, June 10). Meanwhile, officials in Vienna canceled a meeting planned for today that they had originally described as an opportunity for Iran to offer more information about its nuclear activities, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 1). Iranian negotiator Javad Vaidi was set to meet with Olli Heinonen, the top inspections officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, according to AP.  The session was aborted, however, after it became clear that Vaidi would offer “nothing substantial,” said one diplomat. Iran might have hoped that the meeting would delay the onset of another round of U.N. Security Council sanctions, AP reported.  The council has twice imposed economic penalties against Iran after Tehran defied council demands to freeze the nation’s uranium enrichment program.  Another deadline passed last month and the United States has begun to press for a third round of sanctions. U.S. officials would probably expand that push this week at the agency’s Board of Governors meeting, beginning today, AP reported (George Jahn, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, June 10). Opening that session, agency head Mohamed ElBaradei continued to express his exasperation with Iran’s nuclear transparency (see GSN, May 23). “Against the background of many years of undeclared activities, and taking into account the sensitivity of nuclear enrichment technology, it is incumbent on Iran to work urgently with the agency, under a policy of full transparency and active cooperation, in order for the agency to be able to provide assurance regarding the exclusively peaceful nature of all of Iran’s nuclear activities,” he told the 35-nation board. “I am increasingly disturbed by the current stalemate and the brewing confrontation — a stalemate that urgently needs to be broken, and a confrontation that must be defused.  I continue to believe that dialogue and diplomacy are ultimately the only way to achieve the negotiated solution foreseen in the relevant Security Council resolutions,” he said.  “The earlier that conditions are created to move in this direction, the better” (International Atomic Energy Agency release, June 11). In Washington, the Bush administration Friday announced that it had frozen the accounts of four Iranian companies, claiming they were involved with WMD proliferation, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, May 24). The Treasury Department identified the four as Pars Tarash, Farayand Technique, Fajr Industries Group and Mizan Machine Manufacturing Group. “So long as Iran continues to pursue a nuclear program in defiance of the international community's calls to halt enrichment, we will continue to hold those responsible to account for their conduct,” said Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 8). Back to top       U.S.-Russian Plan Could End North Korea Bank Matter Russia and the United States have agreed on a plan to resolve the money problem that has delayed efforts to begin North Korean denuclearization, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, June 7). Pyongyang has refused to begin meeting its commitments under a February deal reached at the six-party talks until it receives $25 million held at Banco Delta Asia in Macau.  Financial institutions have proven reluctant to touch money that Washington has linked to counterfeiting and other illicit North Korean financial activities. Moscow has now agreed to ship the funds through a U.S. institution and a Russian bank and on to North Korea, sources told the Yonhap News Agency. “The U.S. requested — on condition that one of its banks play a role of relaying the money — that Russia take the North Korean funds.  Russia accepted it,” one source said. “With the new idea backed by the U.S., China and Russia being pushed in a positive atmosphere, the chances of the transfer of North Korean funds in the near future are getting higher,” the source told Yonhap (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 10). Yonhap reported separately that the money issue could be resolved by this week, the Associated Press reported.  A bilateral session between U.S. and North Korean officials could quickly follow, aimed at promoting progress on the nuclear agreement. Chief South Korean nuclear negotiator Chun Young-woo today was headed to Washington for talks with his U.S. counterpart on resolving the financial standoff, AP reported.  He declined to discuss the Yonhap report (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, June 10). Back to top       Pakistan to Join Antinuclear Terror Effort Pakistan on Saturday announced its intention to join the U.S.-Russian program intended to prevent nuclear terrorism, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 23). However, participation in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism would not cover the country’s military nuclear program and installations, according to the Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry. Several dozen nations have joined the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, pledging to secure nuclear material and facilities. Pakistan is one of a handful of known or suspected nuclear powers that remain outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.  It was home to the black market network operated by top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, which supplied nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea (see GSN, May 9). “Pakistan’s participation in the global initiative is a manifestation of the fact that nuclear security and export control measures in Pakistan are at par with latest international standards,” the ministry said in a statement. Pakistani officials could participate in the next initiative meeting, scheduled for June 11 to 12 in Kazakhstan, according to the statement (Sadaqat Jan, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 10). Back to top       U.S. Certifies New Nuclear Weapon Core The Los Alamos National Laboratory has certified its first nuclear weapon “pit” since 1989, the Albuquerque Journal reported Friday (see GSN, Oct. 23, 2006). The pit, the plutonium trigger of a nuclear weapon, received its formal certification Thursday, a move that enables its transfer from the New Mexico laboratory to the Pantex warhead assembly site near Amarillo, Texas (see GSN, May 25).  It is expected to be placed into a submarine-launched W-88 warhead. The United States lost its ability to produce new pits following the closure of Colorado’s Rocky Flats facility, which officials shut down to remediate decades of extensive environmental contamination (see GSN, Dec. 9, 2005). The Energy Department in 1996 announced a plan to develop an interim pit production facility at Los Alamos and workers there produced the first “certifiable” pit in 2003.  The certification process, however, was not completed until this year, allowing authorities to declare the pit ready to deploy, the Journal reported. “This is a major success for the lab,” said spokesman Kevin Roark. Los Alamos plans to produce as many as 10 certified pits annually (Raam Wong, Albuquerque Journal, June 8). Back to top

CDC Leader Calls for State Quarantine Powers U.S. states need greater power to quarantine individuals with contagious diseases, a top U.S. health official said last week (see GSN, June 7). “If we believe the patient has a strong intent to put others at risk, we need to have confidence we can take action absent documentation of intent to cause harm,” said Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She appeared before a U.S. Senate committee to discuss the U.S. inability last month to prevent an Atlanta lawyer infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis from boarding several commercial airliners in the United States and Europe. “First of all, up front, before the patient left the United States, we believe that we could strengthen our states' ability to restrict the movement of patients before they demonstrate noncompliance with the medical order," Gerberding said. One health law expert, however, expressed concern over the scope of the powers Gerberding was seeking. “That's not the federal government's role and it's far, far too broad a statement,” said Peter Jacobson, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Center for Law and Ethics and Health.  “There has to be a credible threat, a direct threat of harm before you restrict someone's freedom to move, before you intrude on their individual liberties.” “For her to say, in such a broad manner, that a state should restrict people before they're noncompliant is extremely intrusive,” he added (Kevin Freking, Associated Press/Ledger-Inquirer, June 9). Back to top       U.S. Spends More Than $40 Billion on Biodefense U.S. biological defense spending and allocations since September 2001 have topped $40 billion, the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation said in an analysis released last week (see GSN, March 12). The Bush administration is seeking $6.77 billion in funding for fiscal 2008, a $550 million boost from appropriations for this fiscal year.  If approved by Congress, that amount would bring the U.S. total to more than $48 billion since fiscal 2001, the center said. More than $31 billion through the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 has been directed toward “research, development, acquisition and stockpiling of medical countermeasures and protective equipment,” according to a center press release.  More than $3 billion has been directed toward medical surveillance and environmental detection of biological agents, while state, local and hospital preparedness efforts will have received more than $9 billion through fiscal 2008. Less than 2 percent of funding, $875 million through fiscal 2008, has been allocated for preventing other nations or nonstate actors from developing, acquiring or using biological weapons, the center said. “Prevention is inherently less expensive than preparedness and response, but the administration’s particularly low level of funding for prevention reflects the low priority it accords bioweapons prevention efforts in general,” said Alan Pearson, director of the center’s Biological and Chemical Weapons Control Program, in the release (Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation analysis, June 7). Back to top

Report Questions Use of Drugs as Nonlethal Weapons By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Drugs intended to be used as nonlethal weapons are almost certain to kill people if used during a crisis, the British Medical Association said in a recent report (see GSN, Dec. 7, 2006). The United Kingdom, the United States and other nations have shown “widespread interest” in using drugs as a tool for ending flash-point situations without casualties, the report says.  The organization argues that applying such weapons to warfare would result in deaths, damage international law and ultimately provide nonstate actors with new armaments. “The BMA is fundamentally opposed to the use of any pharmaceutical agent as a weapon.  The BMA is concerned equally by the promotion of the use of drugs as weapons under the banner of ‘nonlethal’ weapons and by the ways in which this promotion could lead to weakening” of treaties banning biological and chemical weapons, Charles George, chairman of the organization’s Board of Science, wrote in his foreword to the May report.  “The BMA believes that healthcare professions have a duty … to promote international law especially in relation to weapons and violence.” Nations working in this field tend to classify their programs, making it difficult to determine what exactly sort of agents they are seeking or the status of their efforts, said Alan Pearson, director of the Biological and Chemical Weapons Control Program at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation in Washington. Much of the known research has been focused on “calmatives,” drugs that would sedate targets or cause them to lose consciousness, Pearson said.  The United States has also shown interest in “gastrointestinal convulsants” that could cause nausea, and “malodorants” that with sufficient strength could produce physical reactions in targets, Pearson said. The BMA report lists behavioral mood changes, memory loss and fertility impairment as other possible “desirable effects” in the development of nonlethal weapons. This type of weapon has only been used once in recent years, with disastrous results.  Russian authorities trying to end the 2002 siege at a Moscow theater pumped a derivative of the drug fentanyl — which is similar to but far stronger than morphine — into the building in order to incapacitate the Chechen hostage-takers.  Exposure to the gas killed roughly 130 of the victims over several days, the British report states. The incident illustrates a major danger in the use of incapacitating drugs — delivering a dose that does the job without killing anyone.  There is presently no agent that could be used completely safely in a tactical situation, the report states.  Ensuring that only selected targets are exposed to an effective but safe dose “will continue to be almost impossible,” it adds.  Reactions to a drug would be based on a number of variables, including age, weight and size, hydration and levels of physical activity.  “The primary conclusion of this report is that the use of drugs as weapons is simply not feasible without generating a significant mortality among the target population,” the report states. “There’s a wide acceptance that nonlethal doesn’t mean nonlethal, it means less lethal than the other ones,” Pearson said. There has been little said in the United States in recent years about developing pharmaceutical-based weapons, indicating that the Moscow incident might have caused officials here to rethink their work in this area, Pearson said.  However, there is no indication that they have completely given up on the idea, should a workable agent develop, he said:  “I don’t think the door’s shut.” The U.S. Defense Department’s Joint Nonlethal Weapons Program said last week that it was not conducting work on nonlethal weapons drugs of any sort.  It was not known if research is occurring within other U.S. government agencies.  There was no response by deadline to requests for information from the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom, two other nations frequently noted as having interest in this sector. Representatives from the three nations joined French, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and Swiss officials at one NATO panel on nonlethal weapons. The German official at the meeting said “there is an urgent need for rethinking and rewriting the existing laws with respect to the implementation of NLTs (nonlethal technologies) using chemicals,” the BMA report states.  In light of March 2004 riots that killed 28 and injured hundreds in Kosovo, “we should consider relaxing restrictions on the use of ‘chemicals’ in certain situations.  Such exceptions could be limited to Operations Other Than War … or for discrimination between rioters, combatants and civilians in a hostage or human-shield situation,” the official said, according to a 2006 report from the panel. Proponents see numerous uses for these weapons, according to Pearson and Vivienne Nathanson, director of professional activities at the association.  These include ending hostage situations, quelling riots, clearing battlefields, and dealing with urban warfare scenarios in which combatants are mixed in with civilians. Once drug-based weapons are introduced into use, there is an increased likelihood that their application would be expanded into additional scenarios, such as urban warfare in which there are no noncombatants, Pearson said. The BMA report argues that weaponized drugs intended for nonlethal usage must be considered to be covered by either or both the Chemical Weapons Convention or the Biological Weapons Convention.  By definition pharmaceuticals are chemicals, Nathanson said.  Some might also have biologically active elements. In addressing nonlethal weapons, the Chemical Weapons Convention allows only for law-enforcement uses of tear gas and other riot control agents which “produce rapidly in humans sensory irritation or disabling physical effects which disappear within a short time following termination of exposure.”  Use in warfare is expressly forbidden.  The Biological Weapons Convention makes no exception for any use of weapons covered by the treaty, and releasing drug weapons in warfare would also violate the 1925 Geneva Protocol, the report states. Nations with an interest in weaponized pharmaceuticals “want the [BWC] and CWC rewritten to allow their use or to allow ‘nonlethal agent’ use — both of course currently prohibited,” Nathanson said by e-mail.  Breaching or amending the treaties leaves them vulnerable to additional violations or weakening, she argued. Research and deployment of nonlethal agents “would inevitably result in their reaching the hands of state or nonstate actors for whom lethality among those targeted is not of concern.  This would simply be chemical warfare with a medical label,” the BMA report states.  Details of research are likely to end up on the Internet, where they could be easily accessed, Nathanson said. Development of these weapons also poses potential ethical dilemmas for the medical profession, the association said.   Preparation of pharmaceuticals intended as nonlethal weapons would require the assistance of medical professionals, but that could create conflict with their responsibility to “do no harm.”  It could also cost healthcare personnel their position of neutrality, potentially leaving them open to retaliation, the report states. The organization plans to lobby the new British government in opposition to pharmaceutical weapons, Nathanson said.  Among a list of recommendations, it urged medical professional organizations to do the same. Back to top       Verdict Set for June 24 in Iraq Operation Anfal Trial A verdict is expected on June 24 in the trial of six former Iraqi officials charged with carrying out the Anfal campaign against the country’s Kurds, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 11). Ali Hassan “Chemical Ali” al-Majid, former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s cousin, and the five other defendants could all face execution if convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity. As many as 180,000 Kurds died in the late 1980s campaign, which the defense says was aimed at rooting out support for Iran during its war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988.  Prosecutors say most of the victims were civilians.  Thousands are alleged to have died in chemical weapons attacks. Hussein was being tried in the case, but was convicted last year of ordering the deaths of 148 Iraqis and was subsequently executed. Al-Majid and four remaining defendants deserve the death penalty, prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said in April.  However, he said there was not enough evidence to convict a sixth defendant, Taher Tawfiq al-Ani, former Mosul governor and Northern Affairs Committee chief, AP reported (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 10). Back to top

Putin Expands Missile Defense Proposal After suggesting that the United States place its planned European missile defense radar in Azerbaijan, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday proposed that U.S. missile interceptors could be deployed to nations such as Turkey or Iraq, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 8). The Bush administration has sought to install interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic.  Russia has objected strenuously to that plan, and Putin last week offered alternatives that could help alleviate its concerns. “We are proposing to create a pool of European nations to assess missile threats through 2020 and agree on a joint action to fend off these threats,” Putin said in Germany, where he participated in the annual Group of Eight summit. “In this case, there will be no need to build a radar in the Czech Republic and deploy missile interceptors in Poland,” he added.  “They could be deployed in the south — I’m speaking hypothetically since it’s necessary to conduct talk with relevant nations — possibly in U.S. NATO allies, such as Turkey.” “Or it could be Iraq — what have they waged the war for?  There would be at least some benefit coming out of it,” Putin said.  He also suggested that sea-based platforms become the home for the interceptors. An Iraqi official fired back at Putin, AP reported. “We have nothing to do with the missile shield project.  Nobody asked us about this thing,” said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh (Associated Press I/PR-inside.com, June 8). The United States should delay development of its European missile defense components while it considers the Russian plan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday. “It’s necessary for Washington, at a minimum, to freeze the deployment of missile defense elements in Europe for a period of study and negotiations on the Russian proposal,” Lavrov said, according to ITAR-Tass. Lavrov also said the U.S. initiative could also undermine efforts to address Iran’s nuclear program, AP reported (Steve Gutterman, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, June 9). Russia’s willingness to discuss strategies for European missile defense “is a very important step forward,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said yesterday. “Frankly, we are encouraged by the fact that the Russians now are talking about figuring out a way to provide a missile shield that will discourage rogue regime from loading nukes onto missiles and aiming them,” he said, AP reported. “It’s important to sit down and listen to what everybody has to say,” he said on “Fox News Sunday,” noting that “deployment is something that’s not going to take place for a while.” It remains to be seen “whether Azerbaijan makes any sense in the context of missile defense,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told AP on Friday.  “One does not choose sites for missile defense out of the blue,” she said (Associated Press III/International Herald Tribune, June 10). U.S. President George W. Bush and Polish President Lech Kaczynski met Friday to discuss the missile defense plan, AP reported.  They agreed that it would pose no threat to Russia. “The Russian federation can feel totally safe,” Kaczynski said, expressing strong support for the U.S. proposal (Jennifer Loven, Associated Press IV/The Buffalo News, June 9). Back to top       X-Band Radar Heads Back to Hawaii The floating missile defense radar based in Alaska is heading back to Hawaii this month for repairs and improvements, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 16). The X-band radar arrived earlier this year at its permanent home near Adak, Alaska, after an extended stop last year in Hawaii. The 28-story, $815 million device now could spend several months at the BAE Shipyards on Oahu. During that time, it might temporarily leave the facility to allow for participation in testing of the ground-based missile defense system, AP reported. The X-band radar is designed to detect objects as small as a baseball at a distance of thousands of miles, and to identify missile warheads and missile decoys (Associated Press/The Charlotte Observer, June 9). Back to top       Pentagon OKs Missile Defense Sale to Japan A number of U.S. firms have received approval from the Defense Department to make a $475 million missile defense sale to Japan, Dow Jones reported Friday (see GSN, April 13). If the full deal goes through, Lockheed Martin and two other primary contractors would provide Tokyo with nine Standard Missile 3 Block 1A, upgrades to one Aegis weapons system, and other material and support, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement. Japan to date has been the major foreign partner in U.S. missile shield efforts, and is developing its own defenses. “It is vital to the U.S. national interest to assist Japan to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability, which will contribute to the acceptable military balance in the area,” the agency said. Congress rarely uses its authority to block weapons deals such as the sale to Japan, Dow Jones reported (Rebecca Christie, Dow Jones Newswires/CNNMoney.com, June 8).   Back to top

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