The nuclear smuggling ring once run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan (shown last year) could still be operating, U.S. lawmakers said (Aamir Qureshi/Getty Images). U.S. Lawmakers Call for Answers on Khan Nuclear Network By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Years after the black market nuclear network associated with Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was exposed, details remain unknown and the network is likely still in operation, a senior Democrat in the House of Representatives said yesterday (see GSN, June 12)...Full Story

IAEA Team Travels to North Korean Reactor North Korean officials today allowed a visiting International Atomic Energy Agency team to see North Korea’s plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 27)...Full Story

Rice Wants Indian Nuclear Deal This Year A pending U.S.-Indian nuclear trade agreement should be finished this year, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday while acknowledging that negotiations have been difficult (see GSN, June 26)...Full Story

	Thursday, June 28, 2007

U.S. Lawmakers Call for Answers on Khan Nuclear Network By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Years after the black market nuclear network associated with Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was exposed, details remain unknown and the network is likely still in operation, a senior Democrat in the House of Representatives said yesterday (see GSN, June 12). Khan, a metallurgist who stole European uranium centrifuge designs, is considered the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program.  In 2004, Khan admitted to having supplied centrifuge technology to Iran, North Korean as well as Libya.  He was placed under house arrest in Pakistan, but the nation’s leadership has refused to allow U.S. officials to question Khan about the extent of the proliferation network he headed. Calling the Khan Research Laboratory a “nuclear Home Depot,” New York Representative Gary Ackerman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee, said he believes “the Khan network is more likely to be under new management rather than truly out of business.” Ackerman offered no concrete evidence for his statement during a meeting but noted that “all the incentives and missing safeguards that led to the government of Pakistan to encourage A.Q. Khan in the first place still exist.” California Representative Ed Royce, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Affairs terrorism and nonproliferation subcommittee, said “the case is not closed because there is more to learn.” “It’s not clear that the Khan network has been rolled up,” he said. Representative Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), who leads that subcommittee and joined Ackerman as co-chairman for yesterday’s hearing, criticized the Bush administration for maintaining a close relationship with Pakistan while some details about the extent of the Khan network remain foggy. “The president has decided not only to send them F-16s but to trample on the prerogatives of this committee and Congress in general in order to make sure that they got them,” he said (see GSN, July 28, 2006). While handing over Khan, who is regarded as a national hero in Pakistan, for U.S. questioning might be politically untenable for politicians there, “Pakistan has got to tell us the whole story and names, places and dates of the European and American suppliers,” Sherman said. Mark Fitzpatrick, a former State Department official and now a nonproliferation expert with the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, told the committee that he was unaware of any evidence indicating that the Khan network was still in operation (see GSN, May 3). That is not to say that elements of the network could not reawaken after lying low for a period of time, he said.  “I think the greatest danger today may be that other similar quasi-state-related networks could emerge from countries like North Korea or Iran.” David Albright, a nonproliferation expert with the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said he suspects that some elements of the Khan network might be operating in places like Dubai where nonproliferation laws are lax to nonexistent. Back to top       IAEA Team Travels to North Korean Reactor North Korean officials today allowed a visiting International Atomic Energy Agency team to see North Korea’s plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 27). “We go to see the facilities and continue our discussions in more detail,” agency safeguards chief Olli Heinonen said in footage aired by APTN. North Korea could produce enough material for one nuclear weapon each year from the 5-megawatt reactor.  Closing the Yongbyon nuclear complex is supposed to be Pyongyang’s first step toward denuclearization under a February agreement. Heinonen provided no details of his meetings with North Korean officials since Tuesday, but said his team would not be conducting a formal inspection of Yongbyon.  The trip was expected to end tomorrow, AP reported. “We are here to talk about the verification and monitoring arrangements” for the shutdown, he said. When asked if the process could begin during the visit, Heinonen said his team would see “what we have on the table” by tomorrow evening. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed hope that Pyongyang would quickly begin meeting its agreed commitments, which were stalled for months while the Stalinist government waited to collect about $25 million from a Macau bank. “We hope for now rapid progress given the beginning, we believe, of the North Korean efforts to meet their initial action obligations,” she said before meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon in Washington (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 28). An agency spokeswoman told Voice of America that an agency board meeting is planned for July 9 to prepare verification procedures for the reactor shutdown, United Press International reported (United Press International, June 28). Back to top       Rice Wants Indian Nuclear Deal This Year A pending U.S.-Indian nuclear trade agreement should be finished this year, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday while acknowledging that negotiations have been difficult (see GSN, June 26). “Had this been easy, it would have been done a long time ago,” Rice said.  “With will and determination and more hard work to do, I am certain that we will reach final agreement and be in a position to complete this deal by the end of the year.” Negotiators from the two nations have so far been unable to resolve differences over a detailed text describing the scope and terms of future U.S. sales of nuclear technology and materials. Undersecretary of State Nicholas last month predicted the deal would be completed by the end of May (see GSN, May 2), but disagreements over U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policies have persisted (see GSN, June 4).  Indian officials have criticized a U.S. law enacted last year that exempted India from most, but not all, of U.S. limits on trade with nations that have not joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (Associated Press I/USA Today, June 27). One proliferation expert said pressure was building for the nations to resolve their disagreements. “In the next couple of months, we'll see if this India-U.S. civil nuclear deal will fly or not. The window is closing in terms of the opportunity to do this,'' said Robert Einhorn of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (Associated Press II/New York Times, June 28). Failing to reach an agreement would be a “tragedy and a true shame,” Rice said (Associated Press I). Back to top       New Warhead Poised to Receive $66 Million in Senate By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Senate Appropriations Committee is set to vote today on a spending bill that would provide $66 million for the Bush administration’s plan to create a next-generation nuclear warhead (see GSN, June 26). The funding level set in the bill drafted by the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee represents a nearly $23 million cut to the president’s $88.8 million request. Still, the proposed funding is a huge leap from the House version of the legislation, which completely eliminates any money for the controversial program in the next fiscal year (see GSN, May 24). If lawmakers approve the preliminary funding levels set by each chamber, the stage would be set for a debate over the program when the competing bills go to conference committee to be reconciled. The Senate bill provides $6.49 billion for nuclear weapons activities.  That is a $231 million increase over current spending levels but $22 million less than what President George W. Bush requested for fiscal 2008.  The House version provides roughly $5.9 billion for weapons activities. The Senate bill sets funding for nonproliferation programs at $1.87 billion, an increase of $200 million from the president’s request. The House version increased funding over the president’s request by $878 million, a 74 percent increase. The Senate bill also left the budget for Los Alamos National Laboratory largely intact.  “I believe this bill takes us in the right direction, pulling back where needed and moving forward in a manner that does not put our nuclear deterrent or the future of any single laboratory in jeopardy,” Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said in a statement. While the Senate bill reduces some funding for nuclear weapons activities, it leaves the laboratory’s core responsibilities untouched and remains close to the president’s budget request.  Detailed breakdowns of the figures have not yet been released. The House version would cut roughly $300 million from the $2.2 billion fiscal 2008 budget for the nuclear weapons research facility. The Reliable Replacement Warhead, as the administration has dubbed its proposed weapon, is intended to be easier to produce and maintain and less likely to fail than Cold-War era bombs that were engineered to have the greatest explosive power relative to their weight, administration officials say. The $66 million funding level would provide for engineering research and design work on the warhead but no actual production of new weapons in the coming fiscal year. Generally, during conference committees, differences in funding levels are simply split down the middle.  “That’s how it’s usually done,” said David Culp, legislative representative for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, an anti-nuclear lobby.  “There aren’t big language disputes.  It’s all money” This year, however, both the House bill and the Senate version of the energy and water funding bills are more than $1 billion over the president’s budget request.  The House exceeds the mark by $1.1 billion and the Senate by $1.8 billion. The president has made clear his intention to veto the House bill if Congress is unable to bring the spending plan within the parameters set by his budget request. House Republicans have enough support to sustain a veto, so the president’s threat could spur further reductions in the RRW budget or other segments of the budget bills, Culp said. “I also don’t think it’s the end of the story,” he said.  “Unless the president backs off this threat, they’re going to have to go in there and do some major surgery.” Back to top

China Plans Biodefense System China over the next two decades plans to develop a biological security system to counter the threat of bioterrorism or natural outbreaks of disease, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday (see GSN, July 31, 2006). The Chinese Science and Technology Ministry announced its plans this week during the International Conference and Exhibition on Bioeconomy in Tianjin. The agency also intends to lead development of vaccines and drugs this year against potential bioterrorism diseases and of protective gear and technology.  Plans also call for creation of a bioterrorism monitoring network and a research center for the prevention of epidemics (Xinhua News Agency/China Economic Net, June 27). Back to top       New Jersey Opens Health Command Center New Jersey has opened a sophisticated facility to help state authorities collect medical information in the event of a terrorist strike or other widespread emergency, the Newark Star-Ledger reported yesterday (see GSN, April 26, 2006). Thanks to a software program created by the state, the Trenton facility is able to gather real-time information through the Internet from hospitals, local health agencies, ambulances and meteorologists. “In a matter of minutes, (the hospital commander center) can produce a complete picture of the New Jersey health system, including hospital divert status, the availability of medical equipment and needed medications, allowing staff to effectively manage our resources when time is of the essence,” said Health and Senior Services Commissioner Fred Jacobs. New Jersey postal facilities processed some of the letters used in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people.  The center, had it existed at that time, would have allowed for electronic cataloging of the thousands of laboratory test requests, according to Assistant Senior Commissioner David Gruber. Instead, “the requests were written down.  There was no format, no centralized file.  We had a drawer of paper that described each incident,” he said. The state then also could have used the “Hippocrates” computer program to spot a concentration of possible anthrax threats or rapid increases in the number of patients at hospital emergency rooms, Gruber said. State and federal funds paid for the $2 million software program and to equip the $1.8 million command center, which is located on the sixth floor of the state health and agriculture building (Susan Livio, Star-Ledger, June 27). Back to top       Firm Speeds Delivery of Anthrax Vaccine U.S. troops are expected to receive fresh doses of anthrax vaccine ahead of schedule, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, April 19). The Defense Department expects to receive delivery of 900,000 doses of BioThrax anthrax vaccine by or shortly after June 30 from Emergent BioSolutions of Rockville, Md. The biopharmaceutical firm was also considering a Pentagon request for 14 million additional doses of the vaccine (Associated Press/Houston Chronicle, June 27). Back to top

Kurdistan to Host Hanging of Hussein Henchmen Saddam Hussein’s cousin and two other former officials of his regime are likely to be hanged in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the Associated Press reported Tuesday (see GSN, June 25). An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced the three men to death for their role in the systematic murder of up to 180,000 Kurds during the closing chapters of the Iran-Iraq war.  Among them was Ali Hassan al-Majid, the Hussein cousin known as “Chemical Ali.” The 1987-88 campaign, dubbed “Operation Anfal,” targeted Iraqi Kurds — men, women and children of all ages — with chemical weapons, forced deportations, and artillery blasts, according to the Associated Press. The death sentences, which are automatically reviewed, await an Iraqi appellate court decision.   If the appellate court upholds the executions, the men must go to the gallows within 30 days, AP reported. An Iraqi official, who spoke anonymously, said the executions would probably occur in the Kurdish cities of Irbil or Halabja. Two lesser officials involved in Operation Anfal were given life in prison and one was acquitted for lack of evidence. Hussein was a defendant in the trial until he was hanged late last year for ordering the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims in Dujail (see GSN, Jan. 3; Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 26). Back to top

U.S. Officials Disagree Over Korean Missile Tests U.S. officials offered different reactions yesterday to the latest North Korean missile tests, which occurred amidst efforts to persuade the isolated state to begin meeting its February pledge to end its nuclear weapons program, according to Reuters (see GSN, June 27). “The United States is deeply troubled that North Korea has decided to launch these missiles during a delicate time in the six-party talks,” said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. A Defense Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, played down the tests as unremarkable. “North Korea has conducted similar tests in the past,” the official said.  “We believe that this was a routine exercise, not intended to be provocative” (Reuters, June 28). The North Korean military fired three short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan yesterday morning, its third such experiment this month.  “The missiles that North Korea recently test-fired into the East Sea and West Sea [Sea of Japan] are ground-to-ground and ground-to-ship missiles with a range of around 100 kilometers,” said the North Korean Defense Ministry in a statement.  “They have not been deployed, as they are still in the development stage” (United Press International, June 28). The launches come at a sensitive time.  The two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the United States have been negotiating for the cessation of Pyongyang’s nuclear program, which experts believe has produced a handful of weapons.  As part of the six-nation agreement reached in February, international inspectors were scheduled to visit a North Korean plutonium-producing reactor today (see related GSN story, today). The launches angered Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, whose country has stood in the path of numerous North Korean missile tests (see GSN, June 19).  Abe called for international resolve. “I do not think this will directly affect our security, but in any case it is a violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution,” Abe said.  “We need to seek a harsh response from the international community” (RTTNews, June 28). Back to top

Russia Seeks Open U.S. Ears on Missile Shield A senior Russian official said today that the United States should heed his country’s concerns over the Bush administration’s plans to deploy missile defense components in Europe, Reuters reported (see GSN, June 27). Moscow has rejected the U.S. argument that the installations would help safeguard Europe and the United States from missiles fired by Iran.  It has questioned that threat, instead characterizing missile-shield deployment as a threat to Russian strategic security. “These rockets in Eastern Europe are not necessary to counter the threat that the initiators of this project refer to,” said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.  “We hope that our conclusions will be taken seriously.  It is not easy to brush them aside” (Reuters/New York Times, June 28). U.S. President George W. Bush is scheduled to meet Sunday and Monday in Maine with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has suggested that the United States use a Soviet-era radar in Azerbaijan rather than placing a new radar in the Czech Republic. While the two leaders are likely to discuss their missile defense differences, a White House spokesman said yesterday there were unlikely to be breakthroughs on any issues, USA Today reported. “I would caution against expecting grand, new announcements,” said spokesman Tony Snow.  “This is, in fact, an opportunity for two leaders to talk honestly and candidly with one another” (David Jackson, USA Today, June 28). Back to top       U.S. Missile Interceptor Passes Low-Altitude Test The U.S. Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful test of a missile interceptor Tuesday in the sky over New Mexico (see GSN, June 25).  It was the lowest-altitude flight yet for the weapon, according to an agency release. The Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system is intended to fill a gap in U.S. missile defense efforts.  It would be used to destroy short- and medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their final minute before impact. The new interceptor and its fire control system were designed to be easily shipped overseas to protect U.S. allies and deployed forces, according to the release. The test included only a launch and “fly-out” of the interceptor.  It would normally employ “hit to kill” technology, destroying missiles by direct impact and without explosives.  This flight, however, did not involve a target (U.S. Missile Defense Agency release, June 27).   Back to top

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