Ali Hassan “Chemical Ali” al-Majid listens as his death sentence is read yesterday in an Iraqi courtroom (Getty Images). “Chemical Ali,” Two Others Sentenced to Death Ali Hassan “Chemical Ali” al-Majid and two other former Iraqi officials received death sentences yesterday for their roles in the Anfal campaign that killed tens of thousands of the country’s Kurds, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 11)...Full Story

North Korea Could Close Reactor in Weeks, U.S. Says U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Saturday that North Korea could close its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in a matter of weeks, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 22)...Full Story

Iran, IAEA, EU Hold Nuclear Talks A senior Iranian official held “constructive’ talks with EU and international nuclear officials Friday and Saturday, but Tehran has continued to refuse the U.N. Security Council’s key demand that the nation freeze its uranium enrichment program, wire services reported (see GSN, June 22)...Full Story

	Monday, June 25, 2007

Market Grows for Antiterrorism Products The market for products intended to provide protection against terrorist attacks has grown in the years since the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the Miami Daily Business Review reported (see GSN, April 4). Existing firms have developed side projects, some with support from the CIA or venture funds.  Products or marketing strategies have also been revamped in order to attract money from military and emergency agencies that could be forced to respond to a WMD event. Dozens of vendors displayed their merchandise earlier this month during the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism Law Enforcement Conference in Miami (see GSN, June 12). Maryland-based King Pharmaceuticals hopes to attract interest from first-responder agencies in its nerve agent antidote.  The Defense Department is already a customer, the Business Review reported. RADeCO of Massachusetts has developed a small badge in which a small circle turns black in the presence of dangerous levels or radiation.  If that occurs, “get the heck out of there,” said company president Paul Lovendale. Under an Environmental Protection Agency contract, RADeCO is also distributing emergency air sampling kits to cities, states and federal agencies (Julie Kay, Miami Daily Business Review/Chicago Sun-Times, June 24). Back to top

North Korea Could Close Reactor in Weeks, U.S. Says U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Saturday that North Korea could close its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in a matter of weeks, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 22). Pyongyang would halt operations at its plutonium-producing facility after reaching agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency on oversight for the process. “We do expect this to be soon, probably within three weeks … though I don’t want to be pinned down on precisely the date,” Hill said in Tokyo, following his visit last week to North Korea. IAEA officials are expected to arrive tomorrow in Pyongyang. North Korea agreed in February to shut down the reactor as the first step toward dismantling its nuclear weapons program, for which it would receive fuel and other aid and diplomatic benefits from other nations in the six-party talks.  The process appears to be moving forward, after being delayed for months while Pyongyang waited for roughly $25 million held at Banco Delta Asia in Macau. “Shutting down the reactor won’t solve all our problems, but in order to solve our problems we need to make this beginning,” Hill said (Hiroko Tabuchi, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 23). “We are going to negotiate how to verify and make sure the reactor will be shut down and sealed, so this is the next step of this long trip,” Olli Heinonen, IAEA deputy chief in charge of nuclear safeguards, said in Beijing while traveling to North Korea. A North Korean Foreign Ministry official today acknowledged receipt of the once frozen funds, which Washington had linked to activities such as counterfeiting and money laundering, the New York Times reported. “As the funds that had been frozen at Macau’s Banco Delta Asia have been transferred as we demanded, the troublesome issue of the frozen funds is finally resolved,” he said, according to the official KCNA news agency. The spokesman pledged “action for action” (Choe Sang-hun, New York Times, June 25). The Foreign Ministry described the meeting between Hill and North Korean officials as “comprehensive and productive,” Agence France-Presse reported. They agreed to try to resume six-nation negotiations in early July, and to have the foreign ministers from the six countries gather in early August in the Philippines, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, June 22). Japan said today it does not want the six-party talks to resume until the reactor is closed, AFP reported. “Our top priority is to nail down whether North Korea is completely implementing the initial step,” said top government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki.  “Without securing this, we will hold neither six-way talks nor a ministerial meeting of the six nations” (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, June 25). Back to top       Iran, IAEA, EU Hold Nuclear Talks A senior Iranian official held “constructive’ talks with EU and international nuclear officials Friday and Saturday, but Tehran has continued to refuse the U.N. Security Council’s key demand that the nation freeze its uranium enrichment program, wire services reported (see GSN, June 22). Meeting Friday with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, top Iranian nuclear envoy Ali Larijani agreed to craft a “plan of action” in the next 60 days to help resolve agency questions about Iran’s nuclear program, Reuters reported. ElBaradei said the talks were “quite satisfying,” adding that, “I hope we should be in a position in the next weeks to move forward and break the stalemate where we have been in for the last few months” (Karin Strohecker, Reuters I/Washington Post, June 22). The new cooperation would enable agency safeguards head Olli Heinonen to visit Iran soon after he wraps up his visit this week to North Korea (see related GSN story, today). He would discuss what the agency needs to learn in order to clear up international suspicion of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The talks would “let the IAEA get to the bottom of the issues,” said one diplomat (Mark Heinrich, Reuters II, June 25). The day after his meeting with ElBaradei, Larijani spoke to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Lisbon.  The European Union has offered a package of economic and political incentives to Tehran in exchange for curbing Iran’s nuclear activities.  Negotiations on a long-term deal, however, have stalled because EU officials, backed by the United States, have required Iran to freeze its uranium enrichment program before talks can begin. Solana has sought to find a way to have the discussions begin and suggested Saturday that preparatory talks would continue. “It has been a constructive meeting. ... I have to tell you that probably in three weeks we will try to see if we can meet again,” he told reporters (Hafezi/Almeida, Reuters III/Washington Post, June 23). Meanwhile, some Western nations have discussed easing their demand for a complete freeze to Iran’s enrichment program, the Associated Press reported Saturday. British, French and German officials have discussed the possibility of a partial freeze, a term that remains undefined. “Nothing is on paper,” said one European diplomat of the recent discussions (Associated Press/Los Angeles Times, June 23). Such a shift would probably face U.S. opposition. “I don't know where that's coming from because I will tell you that, in my conversations with my counterparts, everybody understands the importance of and believes strongly in the importance of carrying out the ... Security Council mandate for suspension,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday.  “My counterparts, when I talk with them, are not interested in lowering the bar,” she said. “I don't know what partial suspension means," she added.  "It doesn't seem to me to be a very wise course” (Reuters IV, The Star, June 24). Back to top       Pakistan Boosts Plutonium Production Plans Pakistan has begun to build a third plutonium production reactor at its Khushab nuclear facility, the Institute for Science and International Security reported Thursday (see GSN, July 24, 2006). Using information from satellite images taken earlier this month, the institute has concluded that the new reactor could generate up to several hundred megawatts. The reactor appears to be similar to another plant that Pakistan started between 2000 and 2002, according to an institute release. The new construction implies “that Pakistan’s government has made a decision to increase significantly its production of plutonium for nuclear weapons,” the release says. The activity, combined with intensified nuclear efforts in India, “should be viewed as a sign of an accelerated nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan,” the release says.  “Both Pakistan and India appear on the verge of greatly expanding their production of nuclear explosive materials and nuclear weapons, including more powerful weapons” (Institute for Science and International Security release, June 21). One Pakistani official acknowledged that the nation was “extending our infrastructure,” but urged other nations not to react with alarm, the Associated Press reported. “We are a declared nuclear state and we are pursuing our nuclear program for peaceful purposes,” the official said.  “We are doing it for our national interests” (Stephen Graham, Associated Press/San Diego Union-Tribune, June 21). Back to top       Venezuelan President Denies Seeking Nuclear Weapons Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has denied interest in developing nuclear weapons, Bloomberg reported Saturday (see GSN, March 8, 2006). “We don’t need an atomic bomb, because we already have one:  It’s called the Venezuelan people,” Chavez said in a televised speech.  “That has the force of 100 atomic bombs.” European press reports indicated that Chavez intended to sign a nuclear weapons development agreement with Iran during his upcoming fifth state visit there, Bloomberg reported. Chavez has sided with Iran in the standoff over its nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful in nature but which Western nations fear is intended to develop weapons (Theresa Bradley, Bloomberg, June 23). Back to top       U.K. to Lay Out Nuclear Weapons Reduction Strategy British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett in a speech today in Washington is expected to express the intention of the country’s next prime minister to focus on the global reduction of nuclear weapons, the Financial Times reported (see GSN, March 15). The British government under Gordon Brown hopes to make the country a “disarmament laboratory,” Beckett was expected to say.  She was expected to discuss specific moves toward shrinking the arsenals of the nuclear weapons powers. Brown has supported the intention of outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair to update the United Kingdom’s Trident nuclear weapons system.  Government leaders argue the weapons are still needed as a deterrent against nations such as Iran. “Acknowledging that the conditions for disarmament do not exist today does not mean resigning ourselves to the idea that they can never be abolished in the future,” Beckett is expected to say. “What we need is both a vision:  a scenario for a world free of nuclear weapons; and action:  progressive steps to reduce warhead numbers and to limit the role of nuclear weapons in security policy,” she would add (James Blitz, Financial Times, June 24). Back to top       Japanese Executives Receive Suspended Sentences for Illegal Nuclear Technology Exports Four former executives of a Japanese firm received suspended sentences today for violating rules on exports of materials that could assist nuclear weapons development, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 4, 2006).  Formerly employed by precision equipment manufacturer Mitutoyo Corp., the businessmen had confessed to the charges levied against them. The arrests came last August after Japanese authorities found foreign exchange and customs law infringements in a Mitutoyo deal.  The transaction sent five devices through Singapore to a Malaysian subsidiary between October 2001 and July 2005. The devices were designed to measure three-dimensional objects and could have been used to manufacture uranium enrichment centrifuges. The company failed to obey Japanese law requiring government permission for sending overseas sensitive exports valued at more than $8,500, regardless of the destination. Mitutoyo admitted wrongdoing in November and agreed to pay a fine of $363,000 as part of today’s ruling.  Former Mitutoyo Chairman Norio Takatsuji received two years and eight months in prison, while former firm President Kazusaku Tezuka received three years.  Their terms were suspended for five years. Two lesser Mitutoyo officials received sentences suspended for four years (Chisaki Watanabe, Associated Press/China Post, June 25). Back to top

Postal Service Conducts Medicine Delivery Drill U.S. Postal Service mail carriers in Philadelphia yesterday tested their ability to quickly deliver drugs that would be needed following an act of bioterrorism, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported (see GSN, Aug. 3, 2005). Postal workers during the exercise delivered empty boxes to 52,000 homes in three neighborhoods.  “It behooves us to test this now rather than later on,” said Deputy City Managing Director MaryAnn Marrocolo. Following an actual terrorist incident, boxes would contain antibiotics or other free medical supplies to protect city residents who might be exposed to a biological or chemical agent.  The boxes would each contain about 20 pills, which would provide protection for several days. Citizens could also collect medicine at sites organized around the city, though authorities would recommend that they wait for the home delivery. “There will be enough medicine for everyone,” said Bill Raub of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The drill was not based on any known imminent threat, Marrocolo said.  The city of Seattle has already tested using mail carriers to distribute medicine following a bioterror incident. Officials from Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and San Diego observed yesterday’s exercise, and are considering developing delivery plans of their own, the Inquirer reported. Drill organizers found a few problems yesterday during deliveries.  The boxes would not fit in all mail slots, and carriers found some screen doors locked.  They did not drop off boxes at those homes yesterday, but would leave them on the doorstep during an actual crisis (Melanie Burney, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 25). Back to top

“Chemical Ali,” Two Others Sentenced to Death Ali Hassan “Chemical Ali” al-Majid and two other former Iraqi officials received death sentences yesterday for their roles in the Anfal campaign that killed tens of thousands of the country’s Kurds, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 11). The Iraqi High Tribunal found al-Majid guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for ordering the use of chemical weapons during the operation that prosecutors say killed 180,000 Kurds during the late 1980s. Also sentenced to hang were former defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai and former Iraqi armed forces deputy operations director Hussein Rashid Mohammed. Al-Majid, cousin to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and one-time chief of the Baath Party’s Northern Bureau Command, said nothing during sentencing.  He said “Thanks be to God” when leaving the courtroom. While the verdict was being read, Mohammed repeated the claim that the defendants had been battling Kurdish rebels.  During the trial, the defense said the rebels were aiding Iran during its war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988. “God bless our martyrs.  Long live the brave Iraqi army.  Long live Iraq.  Long live the Baath Party and long live Arab nations,” Mohammed said. The court handed down life sentences to former military intelligence chief Sabir al-Douri and former military intelligence eastern regional office head Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, AP reported. It dropped the charges filed against former Mosul governor Taher Tawfiq al-Ani due to lack of evidence. Hussein had been a defendant in the trial.  He was executed late last year after being convicted of ordering the deaths of 148 residents of Dujail after he survived an assassination attempt. A small rally was held yesterday in the Kurdish town of Halabja, where about 5,000 people are believed to have died in a 1988 chemical strike. “We thank God we have lived to see our enemies being punished for all of the atrocities they have committed against our people,” said Lukman Abdul-Qader, head of the Halabja Chemical Attack Victims’ Society (Charles Hanley, Associated Press/ABC News, June 24). Back to top

U.S. Conducts Sea-Based Missile Defense Test The U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully conducted a “hit to kill” missile intercept flight test Friday near Hawaii (see GSN, May 23).  The test marked the 28th successful intercept in 36 tries dating back to 2001, according to a press release. The test employed a “separating” target, in which the warhead separated from its booster rocket.  Friday’s test was the third involving a separating target and the ninth successful intercept test in 11 flights of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program. The USS Decatur on Friday afternoon identified and tracked the Hawaii-launched target for four minutes before launching its Standard Missile 3 interceptor. After a two-minute flight, the interceptor slammed into the target warhead approximately 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and 250 miles northwest of the launch site.  The interceptor used “hit to kill” technology, meaning that the missile collided directly with the target and did not detonate an explosive. The Aegis test was the third involving a military ally — a Spanish frigate conducted long-range monitoring and tracking. Warships from the Netherlands and Japan have joined previous operations.  Japan, moreover, has pledged to fit its Aegis ships with the SM-3 missiles and is developing more advanced sea-based interception platforms with the United States (U.S. Missile Defense Agency release, June 22). Back to top

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