U.S. Senators Richard Lugar (R-Ind., at left) and Joseph Biden (D-Del.), shown in January, yesterday called on the U.S. and Russian presidents at a meeting set for next month to discuss maintaining the work of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Karen Bleier/Getty Images). Senators Call for Talks on START By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The top lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called yesterday for the presidents of the United States and Russia to solidify some sort of follow-on agreement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (see GSN, June 19). When the START agreement expires in 2009, the verification measures that would have been used to verify the bilateral reduction of U.S. and Russian arsenals under the 2002 Moscow Treaty to between 1,700 and 2,200 missiles could disappear...Full Story

Iran Not a Missile Threat, Russian Lawmaker Says By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A senior Russian lawmaker yesterday called the Iranian missile threat “not convincing,” dismissing the U.S. justification for controversial proposed missile defense installations in Eastern Europe (see GSN, June 21)...Full Story

U.S. Wants North Korea Nuclear Site Fully Shuttered The United States wants operations halted at all facilities at the Yongbyon complex, a demand that could raise obstacles in efforts to close out North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, June 21)...Full Story

	Friday, June 22, 2007

Kenya Installs WMD Detectors at Border Crossings The United States on Tuesday delivered equipment to Kenya for monitoring the East African nation’s border traffic for nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, SomaliNet reported (see GSN, June 29, 2005). At a ceremony this week, Kenyan officials formally received the detection equipment, valued at nearly $90,000. “Being at the entry and exit points of every nation, customs officers need to be appropriately equipped to enable them tackle the proliferation of illegal arms into their countries.  The concept of fortified borders is key to national security,” said Customs Commissioner Wambui Namu. Kenyan border guards have also received U.S. training. “Apart from safeguarding the authority against possible revenue leakage, the team is also involved in ensuring security of cargo to prevent entry of harmful substances and equipment into the country,” Namu said (Bonny Apunyu, SomaliNet.com, June 20). Back to top

Senators Call for Talks on START By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The top lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called yesterday for the presidents of the United States and Russia to solidify some sort of follow-on agreement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (see GSN, June 19). When the START agreement expires in 2009, the verification measures that would have been used to verify the bilateral reduction of U.S. and Russian arsenals under the 2002 Moscow Treaty to between 1,700 and 2,200 missiles could disappear. Under the 1991 pact, the United States and Russia agreed to reduce the number of deployed warheads to less than 6,000 each with no more than 1,600 delivery vehicles.  The treaty allows inspectors from both countries to verify deployment of strategic warheads by the other nation. Senators expressed their hope that the issue would be raised when U.S. President George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin meet on July 1-2 in Kennebunkport, Maine. “I urge the presidents to solidify new areas of cooperation on weapons of mass destruction,” said Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the committee. Lugar called for an extension of the START agreement’s “verification and transparency elements” and suggested the addition of legally binding verification elements to the 2002 Moscow agreement. “Unfortunately, some bureaucrats on both sides are balking at such efforts in favor of less formal language that is not legally binding.” Lugar said.  “The current U.S. policy is at odds with the Bush administration’s assurances to Congress during consideration of the Moscow Treaty.” Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del.) noted that “Russia is the only other state in the world with enough nuclear weapons and delivery capacity to wipe us out and any other nation.” Biden said it would be “the single greatest negative legacy this administration could leave” if it fails to work out a successor to the START agreement. “The current Russian-American relationship is complicated enough without introducing more elements of uncertainty into the nuclear relationship,” Lugar said. Lugar also called for the two nations to “come together to address the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear weapons program.”  While other matters should be on the agenda at the Kennebunkport meeting,  he said, “weapons of mass destruction remain the No. 1 national security threat to the United States and Russia.” Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, who was testifying before the committee, said he would take the senators’ “strong views” back to his State Department colleagues. “I can only add that we take seriously the need for post-START arrangements that will make both sides believe that they are better off,” he said.  “We’re working with the Russians now, working through the details.” Back to top       U.S. Wants North Korea Nuclear Site Fully Shuttered The United States wants operations halted at all facilities at the Yongbyon complex, a demand that could raise obstacles in efforts to close out North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, June 21). The February denuclearization agreement states that North Korea would “shut down and seal for the purpose of eventual abandonment the Yongbyon nuclear facility, including the reprocessing facility.” “I believe that we have taken an expansive view of what constitutes the Yongbyon facility. … I think our view is that it encompasses all the buildings … within the facility.” The site has more than 100 buildings, dozens of which conduct sensitive work, said Jon Wolfsthal, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  Rather than trying to close them all, the Bush administration is likely to focus its attention on the primary nuclear reactor, a research reactor, a reprocessing site, a nuclear fuel fabrication facility, a spent fuel storage site and facilities capable of remote manipulation of radiological materials. The lack of specificity regarding which facilities are to be closed illustrates the “inherent challenge of the February agreement where almost nothing is precisely (spelled out) and every step is going to have to be negotiated and hammered out with the North Koreans,” said Wolfsthal, a former Energy Department official stationed at Yongbyon. He said he expected that Pyongyang would be willing to halt operations at the primary reactor and fuel fabrication plant but might press for additional concessions before closing other facilities, Reuters reported. U.N. inspectors must also have access under the deal to the sites and to records on the North Korean nuclear program, a senior official said (Carol Giacomo, Reuters/Washington Post, June 21). U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill today wrapped up his trip to North Korea, the Associated Press reported.  He arrived in Pyongyang yesterday hoping to press leaders there to move ahead with the deal, which has been held up for months while North Korea waited for $25 million held at Banco Delta Asia in Macau. “I come away from this two-day set of meetings buoyed by a sense that we are going to be able to achieve our full objectives, that is complete denuclearization,” Hill said. “The D.P.R.K. indicated that they are prepared promptly to shut down the Yongbyon facility as called for in the February agreement,” he added.  The details still need to be worked out, Hill said. Hill said, though, that he is “burdened by the realization of the fact that we’re going to have to spend a great deal of time, a great deal of effort, a lot of work in achieving” denuclearization. Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency were scheduled to visit Pyongyang next weeks for talks on monitoring the reactor shutdown.  That schedule came into question yesterday when North Korea said it had still not received the money. After various institutions balked at handling the funds linked to illicit North Korean financial activities, Moscow and Washington agreed to move the money through a U.S. bank and into a North Korean account at a Russian bank, AP reported. Despite technical problems, “the money transfer is to be conducted today,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said today (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 22). South Korea’s lead nuclear negotiator said today that Pyongyang intends to participate in the next round of six-party talks, stated for next month, Agence France-Presse reported. “North Korea has shown a positive response regarding attending the six-party heads of delegation meeting in early July and then having six-party ministerial talks at an appropriate time after that,” said Chun Young-wood, who met today in Seoul will Hill to discuss the U.S. official’s trip (Agence France-Presse, June 22). Back to top       U.N. Nations Slow to Report Iran Sanctions Less than half of U.N. nations have filed required reports on their efforts to implement economic sanctions against Iran, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, June 20). The Security Council imposed sanctions in December and March to pressure Iran into curbing its nuclear program.  The resolutions required U.N. states to report on their implementation of penalties within 60 days. So far only 73 nations, less than 40 percent, have reported on the December sanctions and 50 nations have reported on the March resolution, AP reported. Most responding nations indicated that they already had domestic measures in place to implement the sanctions.  Twelve countries reported they had recently taken new steps or were planning new measures, according to AP. Belgian Ambassador Johan Verbeke, head of the committee overseeing the sanctions, said he had requested the noncompliant nations to file their reports. “It is an obligation for all the members of the United Nations to report on the implementation of their obligations pursuant to both these resolutions,” he said (Edith Lederer, Associated Press/San Diego Union-Tribune, June 21). Lisbon Meeting Tomorrow Meanwhile, Iranian and EU diplomats are scheduled to hold nuclear talks tomorrow in Lisbon, but little progress is expected toward resolving international concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Agence France-Presse reported. The meeting comes as lead Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani discouraged the Security Council from imposing a third round of sanctions following Iran’s refusal to heed the previous two resolutions. “What would be the benefit?  Have the past two resolutions impeded our activities?” he said.  “They can pass another resolution, and we would make another, longer stride.  Therefore they cannot solve the Iranian nuclear program” (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, June 21). 3,000 Centrifuges In Tehran, the nation’s interior minister announced new progress on the project to install uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz. “We have currently 3,000 operational centrifuges and [have] delivered more than 100 kilograms of enriched uranium to warehouses, said Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi. Iran has often stated the goal of installing 3,000 centrifuges, but an International Atomic Energy Agency report last month indicated that less than 2,000 were operational at the time (see GSN, May 23; Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, June 22). Back to top       Senate Panel Eliminates Trident Conversion Funding The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee cut all funding for converting Trident nuclear-armed missiles to carry conventional warheads from the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill, Inside the Pentagon reported yesterday (see GSN, March 9). The panel instead shifted the $175 million Defense Department request into a single account with other money for the “prompt global strike.” “The committee recommends that the funds identified … be transferred to technical studies, support and analysis, to be used to establish an integrated PGS research program,” lawmakers said in a report released last week.  “Requirements for the program should be provided by the U.S. Strategic Command as informed by the ongoing analysis of alternatives for PGS and the PGS technology roadmap.” The U.S. military has been trying to develop a conventional capability to quickly eliminate threats such as a weapon of mass destruction carried on a missile or being delivered by other means. Observers have worried that using a Trident for this purpose might lead another nuclear-powered nation, such as China or Russia, to believe that a nuclear strike was under way.  If the Pentagon pursued its plan, all 12 U.S. Navy Trident submarines would carry two Trident D-5 missiles with conventional warheads, but the remaining missiles would still be armed with nuclear weapons. The type of weapon fired would become apparent only when it exploded, Inside the Pentagon reported. “It is essential to maintain a bright light between legacy nuclear capabilities and any future PGS capability,” according to Senate defense authorizers.  The committee “therefore recommends no funds for the [conventional Trident modification] or other similar capability that could raise any nuclear ambiguity issues.  The committee believes that PGS should be clearly and unambiguously non-nuclear.” The Senate panel added $208.2 million for the prompt global strike program into the budget line item for defense-wide research and development.  That is in addition to the Pentagon’s request for $31.3 million (Elaine Grossman, Inside the Pentagon, June 21). Back to top       Nuclear Organizations Claim Funding Troubles The International Atomic Energy Agency and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization said this week they are not receiving sufficient funding to carry out their duties (see GSN, June 15). The job of the U.N. nuclear watchdog is to oversee the safety and security of nuclear programs among its 144 member nations, promote science and technology and ensure that civilian programs are not turned to military purposes.  The organization’s governing board last week failed to approve a 4.8 percent budget increase for 2008. “You could finance a less effective agency and we will tell you what that would mean — less than credible verification assurance, less than the best safety advice, a less than perfect security function,” IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in a subsequent letter to member nations. Leading nations do not appear to be making a link between their concerns over nuclear terrorism or accidents and adequately supporting the agency to address those fears, one expert told the Christian Science Monitor. “There’s an expression in English:  Put you money where your mouth is,” said Vitaly Fedchenko, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.  “If you’re saying the IAEA is important, OK, but do you really mean that by contributing to the agency?  Arranging your spending priorities in a certain way is a political statement in itself.” The agency has an annual budget of about $379 million.  Leading contributors are the United States at 25 percent and Japan at 19 percent.  Washington, though, is reluctant to boost the annual funding, according to some observers. A State Department official denied that claim, the Monitor reported.  “All I’m doing is laying out the facts:  we are the IAEA’s largest supporter,” the official said.  Even as new U.S. legislation “reduced the limit of what we pay to any international organization to 22 percent, the one exception is the IAEA.” One-third of the $47 million in funding that the agency was waiting on in September was to have come from the United States (Michael Jordan, Christian Science Monitor, June 22). Meanwhile, the Test Ban Treaty Organization has yet to receive $24 million of its $110 million budget for 2007, the Associated Press reported yesterday. “We have a nonpayment challenge,” said organization chief Tibor Toth.  “Around 24 million U.S. dollars are missing compared to where we should be … and where we will have to be by the end of this year.” The treaty would prohibit all nuclear explosions but has yet to enter into force. The funding trouble could undermine the organization’s work to establish a global verification regime for atomic blasts, Toth said.  Development is under way of a data center and an international monitoring system, and an inspections protocol would be added to the regime upon ratification, AP reported. “Such a system is generating important data … no single country can have a system like this,” Toth said. Among the nations in arrears, the United States owes $38 million dating back to 2002. “Each and every country should see the value of what we are doing,” Toth said.  He said they have a “moral obligation” to meet their funding responsibilities (Associated Press/Pravda, June 21). Back to top       U.S. Should Shift Nonproliferation Goals, Study Says The United States should modify its nonproliferation goals to focus less on preventing new nations from developing nuclear weapons and more on stopping terrorists from acquiring them, a new study recommended this week (see GSN, June 19). Nuclear-armed states can be effectively deterred by U.S. nuclear weapons, so “the focus of nonproliferation efforts needs to be on preventing unfriendly nuclear states from transferring their weapons or nuclear know-how to terrorist adversaries of the United States,” says the Independent Institute report written by Charles Pena. “While not giving up completely on the goal of preventing nuclear proliferation, the United States may have to accept the undesirable fact that countries such as North Korea and Iran may become nuclear-weapon powers,” says the report, Nuclear Nonproliferation in the Post-9/11 World (see GSN, May 15). To curb the threat of terrorists acquiring nuclear weapons, “the United States needs to have more normalized relations with countries that aspire to attain or eventually acquire nuclear weapons.” Better relations could enable the United States to support efforts to improve security over nuclear materials in those nations. “Even hostile countries likely share a common concern over nuclear safety and security,” the report says (Charles Pena, Independent Institute report, June 21). Back to top

Scientists See Ebola Vaccine Success in Monkeys Researchers have successfully tested an Ebola vaccine that is administered through the respiratory tract of monkeys, according to a paper in this month’s Journal of Virology (see GSN, Dec. 10, 2003). The Ebola virus triggers hemorrhagic fever and high mortality rates in humans.  “The virus is highly contagious and can be transmitted by contact and by the aerosol route,” the paper states. “These features make Ebola virus a potential weapon for bioterrorism and biological warfare,” says the paper, prepared by scientists at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The researchers administered human parainfluenza virus type 3 to rhesus monkeys in combinations with different proteins in one or two doses.  Then they delivered a normally lethal dose of Ebola virus. Eighty-eight percent of the monkeys receiving a single vaccine dose survived, as did all the monkeys receiving the double dose.  The double-dose monkeys also showed no symptoms and had no evidence of the deadly virus in the blood, the paper reports. “To our knowledge, this is the first study in which topical immunization through respiratory tract achieved prevention of a viral hemorrhagic fever infection in a primate model,” the paper says (Journal of Virology, June 2007). Back to top

Umatilla Depot Briefly Stops Weapons Disposal The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Oregon temporarily halted weapons incineration this week for a review of environmental and safety procedures, the U.S. Army said (see GSN, Nov. 7, 2005). Work stopped Monday night and was scheduled to resume yesterday, according to a press release from the Army Chemical Materials Agency. The suspension was spurred by three permit violation notices issued by the Oregon Environmental Quality Department. The violations occurred between July 2006 and February 2007 and posed no danger to the public, environment or workers, the release states.  Washington Group International, the facility’s contract operator, self-reported 12 of the 15 violations and quickly addressed the violations, according to the Army. “This is about maintaining safety and environmental compliance,” said Doug Hamrick, Washington Group project general manager, in the release.  “We stopped processing to be sure we fully understood DEQ’s concerns and are addressing those concerns” (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, June 21). A Washington Group spokesman said the violations often involved elimination of secondary waste and the pace at which munitions and chemical agent were incinerated, the Associated Press reported.  Lack of cutoff procedures can produce violations, he said. Prior to the beginning of weapons incineration, the Umatilla Chemical Depot held roughly 12 percent of the U.S. chemical stockpile. Disposal is now under way of 155 mm projectiles filled with the nerve agent sarin.  The last 6,000 could be destroyed this summer, McCune said.  That would be followed by a changeover period of several months to allow for destruction of other nerve agent weapons.  Weapons filled with mustard blister agent would be eliminated afterward (Associated Press/kgw.com, June 21). Back to top

Iran Not a Missile Threat, Russian Lawmaker Says By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A senior Russian lawmaker yesterday called the Iranian missile threat “not convincing,” dismissing the U.S. justification for controversial proposed missile defense installations in Eastern Europe (see GSN, June 21). As the United States has forged ahead with plans to install a radar facility in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in Poland, Russian opposition and rhetoric has become increasingly strident. Administration officials are set to begin a second round of negotiations with Polish representatives Monday in Washington. “This is an issue that concerns the Russian Federation to a high degree,” said Konstantin Kosachev, head the international affairs committee in the Duma, the lower house of parliament, during a joint meeting of U.S. and Russian lawmakers in the House of Representatives. Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested earlier this month that the United States use a radar facility leased by Russia in Azerbaijan, rather than installing a new missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the United States would continue to pursue the Czech site even if the Azeri facility is explored as an “additional capability.”  The Russian suggestion is likely to be on the agenda for a July 1-2 meeting between Putin and President George W. Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine, according to administration officials (see GSN, June 15). U.S. officials contend the Eastern European missile defense sites would help to protect both Europe and the United States from missiles launched by Iran.  The Russian government regards those preparations as unnecessary. Iran does not have a missile with the 5,000- to 6,000-kilometer range that would enable it to strike Europe, Kosachev said.  It is not likely to possess such a capability even over the next two decades, he said. Iranian missile technology is based on old Soviet designs, Kosachev said, adding that Tehran simply does not have the industrial infrastructure to improve its ballistic missile fleet.  Iran’s longest-range missile, the Shahab 3, has a flight distance of 2,000 kilometers and is tested regularly (see GSN, Nov. 2, 2006). “Creating new missiles and launchers is really impossible to do so that no one would notice,” Kosachev said. U.S. officials say their best intelligence is that Iran by 2015 could be armed with an ICBM capable of hitting the continental United States. During the joint meeting, both Democratic and Republican members of Congress contended that the limited missile interceptors planned by the United States would not damage the deterrence provided by the hundreds of ballistic missiles still maintained by Russia. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) called the planned U.S. installations a “very elementary missile shield,” but added, “I personally think our government mishandled this matter.” “I think we should have consulted with our Russian friends,” he said. “The threats coming from rogue regimes like Iran and North Korean are real and must be taken seriously,” said Representative Joe Wilson (R-S.C.). This morning, a senior administration official speaking on the topic of missile defense reiterated U.S. estimates on the Iranian missile threat. “I think to confidently say in 20 years time there won’t be a threat, well, we just have a difference of opinion there,” the official said on the subject of the gulf between the U.S. and Russian viewpoints.  He spoke on condition of being quoted only as a senior official. The official also said there is a “reasonable probability” that North Korea would transfer its missile technology to Iran.  Despite the failed test flight in July 2006, U.S. officials believe the most advanced iteration of the North Korean Taepodong missile has the capability to strike the United States.   Back to top

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