North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan, shown in March, met with his U.S. counterpart today in Beijing (Don Emmert/Getty Images). U.S., North Korean Nuclear Negotiators Meet Top U.S. and North Korean negotiators met today ahead of the next full round of six-party negotiations aimed at eliminating Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 17). The lunch session in Beijing followed North Korea’s confirmed closing of its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the first step of denuclearization called for under a February agreement...Full Story

Al-Qaeda Main Threat to U.S., Intel Report Says By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — An unclassified version of the most recent U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism threats released today indicates that al-Qaeda will remain the most serious threat to the United States and that the group will continue attempts to acquire and deploy unconventional weapons (see GSN, July 13)...Full Story

Prisoners Throw Boiling Oil on “Dirty Bomb” Convict Inmates at a British jail used boiling oil and water to attack “dirty bomb” convict Dhiren Barot, Asian News International reported yesterday (see GSN, May 17)...Full Story

	Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Al-Qaeda Main Threat to U.S., Intel Report Says By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — An unclassified version of the most recent U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism threats released today indicates that al-Qaeda will remain the most serious threat to the United States and that the group will continue attempts to acquire and deploy unconventional weapons (see GSN, July 13). Key judgments in the document released by the national intelligence director’s office include the assessment that “the U.S. homeland will face a persistent and evolving threat over the next three years.” The estimate, the most authoritative and up-to-date findings of the intelligence community, echo testimony from key intelligence officials in a recent open hearing before the House Armed Services Committee. Deputy National Intelligence Director Thomas Fingar told lawmakers that while the United States continues to receive intelligence on al-Qaeda attempts to acquire chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons, the use of conventional explosives constitutes the most likely scenario for an attack (see GSN, July 12). In the document released today, the U.S. intelligence community reported that terrorists perceive the United States as a harder target to strike but that al-Qaeda is expected to intensify efforts to place operatives inside the country. “As a result, we judge that the Unites States is currently in a heightened threat environment,” the summary of the estimate reads. The report states that al-Qaeda “would not hesitate to use [weapons of mass destruction] if it develops what it deems is sufficient capability.”  The group is likely to continue to focus attacks on “prominent political, economic and infrastructure targets” that would produce mass casualties and “visually dramatic destruction.” A White House fact sheet on the intelligence estimate says that since Sept. 11, 2001, the United States is “safer, but we are not yet safe.” Back to top

Canada Readies Military Unit to Respond to WMD Canada’s military has readied and steadily expanded a special operations unit in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks for responding to attacks involving chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, The Ottawa Citizen reported today (see GSN, April 13). Called the Joint Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defense Company, the unit has grown from 46 members to more than 100.  It employs an arsenal of equipment ranging from advanced protective gear to robots that could be deployed at contaminated attack sites.  The work of the unit could include locating and disabling an unconventional weapon or gathering evidence for the trials of terrorists who developed or used such a device. The group collaborates with Canada’s Public Health Agency, which investigates biological threats, and the forensic and explosive disposal units of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  It trains in finding and identifying WMD agents, and its leaders advise senior policy-makers on antiterrorism efforts. “It's not a large unit, but it's very surgical in nature," said Maj. Stephane Boucher, the unit’s former commander.  "You don't need an 800-man infantry battalion to do what we do.  You just need exceptional soldiers with exceptional capabilities." Boucher warned that his unit could decontaminate its own personnel following a chemical or biological attack, but it would lack the capacity to handle the victims.  That responsibility, he said, would be left to civilian agencies such as police and fire departments.  "There are very little threats out there that you can't decontaminate with bleach and water," Boucher told the Citizen. "The reality is that every pumper truck in every fire hall can do that." Boucher called Canada’s large coastline one of the country’s greatest vulnerabilities.  He said most of Canada’s large ports are equipped with radiation sensors, but a radiological “dirty bomb” or nuclear warhead could be smuggled from a large vessel on to a smaller ship and then ferried to a remote area where it could be taken ashore. A smuggler, he said, "might come through one of the many inlets on the coast of [British Columbia] and load off the device on to a fishing trawler and then take it into a small fishing village" (David Pugilese, The Ottawa Citizen, July 17). Back to top

U.S., North Korean Nuclear Negotiators Meet Top U.S. and North Korean negotiators met today ahead of the next full round of six-party negotiations aimed at eliminating Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 17). The lunch session in Beijing followed North Korea’s confirmed closing of its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the first step of denuclearization called for under a February agreement. “We just had a nice lunch, not a lot of specific discussions,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Hill said following his meeting with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan.  “The atmosphere was very businesslike.” The two men were scheduled to meet again today.  Full talks are due to begin tomorrow between China, Japan, Russia, the United States and North and South Korea (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press/Washington Post, July 17). Before leaving Pyongyang, Kim said that the focus of this week’s meetings would be on carrying out actions following the reactor shutdown, Agence France-Presse reported. “The first phase (of the accord) has been accomplished, so the talks will focus on the sequence of the obligations and actions to be taken by the concerned parties in the second phase,” he said. The United States and other participating nations are now looking for a full disclosure of North Korea’s nuclear programs and to have Yongbyon completely disabled.  North Korea would receive 1 million tons of fuel oil or equivalent aid, along with diplomatic and security benefits, for fully shuttering its nuclear weapons sector (Agence France-Presse I, July 17). International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei today declined to give a full accounting of what facilities beyond the reactor have been closed, AFP reported. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow morning,” he told reporters during a trip to Malaysia. Agency personnel are now monitoring the shutdown.  They have confirmed that the plutonium-producing reactor is not operating and were “working to verify the shutdown of the other four facilities,” ElBaradei said yesterday (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, July 17). Along with the five-megawatt reactor, Yongbyon houses a spent fuel reprocessing plant, a fuel fabrication facility, and an unfinished 50-megawatt reactor.  There is also a 200-megawatt reactor being built roughly 20 miles from Yongbyon, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse III/ChannelNewsAsia.com, July 17). Under restrictions set by Pyongyang, the visiting IAEA team would not be able to determine the amount of plutonium or the number of nuclear weapons produced at Yongbyon, the New York Times reported.  The status of uranium enrichment equipment believed to have been bought from the black market operation of former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan also remains outside the inspectors’ bounds. “There will be a lot of difficulty over the highly enriched uranium issue,” said senior analyst Yook Duk-min of the Institute for Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul.  “It is difficult to confirm whether North Korea has a uranium program unless it decides to be transparent. “No one knows how many centrifuges they have built so far.  They can hide them in an underground tunnel” (Choe Sang-hun, New York Times, July 17). This week’s talks could precede a meeting of the foreign ministers of the six-party talks nations, according to AFP. “The trigger mechanism for the ministerial-level meeting has been completion of that first phase of the Feb. 13 agreement and so we are well on our way to doing that now,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. Hill had indicated that the gathering could occur in September during an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Australia.  One anonymous U.S. official said yesterday though, that the meeting could occur next month. “There are a number of different possibilities,” McCormack said.  “Nobody’s settled on anything yet” (AFP III, July 17). Back to top       Russian Nuke Industry Grows Despite Security Fears Russia has begun a rapid expansion of its nuclear power sector in the face of concerns about the industry’s safeguards against nuclear proliferation, the Christian Science Monitor reported today (see GSN, July 3). Russian President Vladimir Putin has merged more than 30 nuclear-related firms into one entity, managing everything from uranium mining to reactor construction, to spur the expansion.  Moreover, Putin has authorized the construction of 26 new power stations within Russia and the export of 60 more, including a prototype floating nuclear power plant to be activated by 2010 in the White Sea. Observers have expressed concern about the proliferation danger posed by the Russian plan, notably the floating reactors that would carry uranium enriched to 20 percent (see GSN, June 5).  Most civilian reactors use nuclear fuel with a 4 percent enrichment, the Monitor reported. “These platforms will need to be protected by warships to prevent anyone getting near them.  They are much less secure than land-based stations,” said Russian environmental expert Vladimir Slivyak. “They pose a clear risk of proliferation,” he added. Indonesia, Algeria, Malaysia, Argentina and Persian Gulf states have all been offered floating nuclear plants, experts said.  Of more immediate concern, however, was Russia’s construction of the Iranian Bushehr nuclear power plant.  The United States and other Western nations suspect Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. The Bushehr deal stands to bring Russia nearly $1 billion in revenue but has stalled in recent months (see GSN, March 12).  Some Russian officials have insisted that the holdup is not linked to suspected Iranian nuclear weapons aspirations, the Monitor reported. “Since January, the Iranians have not been making the agreed payments” for the plant, said Sergei Novikov, spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom.  “You can’t build a reactor on good relations alone.  Why they’re not paying is a question to ask the Iranian side.” The power plant push comes as U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin settled the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership during their meeting earlier this month in Maine.  The plan, should it pass the U.S. Congress, would ease international access to nuclear energy by heightening controls on all facets of the nuclear fuel process, the Monitor reported. The partnership faces questions from critics who charge that corruption and poor safety enforcement are rampant in Russia’s own nuclear power industry. “The Russian atomic establishment is not ready to carry out this massive planned buildup,” said the environmental expert Slivyak.  “There are lots of reasons to worry that all this haste could lead to bad consequences” (Fred Weir, Christian Science Monitor, July 17). Back to top

VX Waste Shipments Questioned in Court Hearing Waste produced by chemical neutralization of VX nerve agent might still contain trace amounts of the deadly chemical, U.S. Army officials said yesterday at a court hearing on whether to halt shipments of the material, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 11). “I don’t know of an analytical instrument today that can give you an absolute.  I can’t say it’s zero,” said Col. Jesse Barber, a project manager for the Army Chemical Materials Agency. Environmental and community organizations are seeking an injunction to stop shipments of hydrolysate wastewater from the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana to Texas for incineration.  A federal judge in Indianapolis began hearing their case yesterday. Opponents of shipping the waste say high readings of toxic chemicals in sampling put into question the Army’s assertion that the waste can be safely shipped by truck 900 miles through four metropolitan areas. “They have found VX and [the toxic byproduct] EA2192 in higher concentrations than it showed when they first got the material out of the reactor,” said Craig Williams, director of the watchdog Chemical Weapons Working Group, which favors destroying the waste at Newport. Additional testing of spillage samples showed toxic contaminants in the water to fall within the Army’s allowable ranges for transportation, according to Barber and Army Newport on-site manager Jeff Brubaker. “To date, we've sent 103 truckloads before we voluntarily stopped shipping without a single incident, accident, whatever,” said Army spokesman Greg Mahall. The Army agreed in June to halt shipments ahead of this week’s hearing, though VX stockpile disposal has continued at Newport.  Roughly 177,000 gallons of Newport’s original 250,000-gallon stockpile had been eliminated as of July 10 (Ken Kusmer, Associated Press/Dallas Morning News, July 16). Back to top

U.S., Poland Push Forward on Missile Defense U.S. and Polish leaders vowed yesterday to press on with a planned missile defense system in Eastern Europe while emphasizing that the system would not be developed to counter Russian weaponry, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, July 16). “There’s no better symbol of our desire to work for peace and security than working on a missile defense system … that would provide security for Europe from … parts of the world where leaders don’t particularly care for our way of life and are in the process of trying to develop serious weapons of mass destruction,” President George W. Bush said at a White House meeting with Polish President Lech Kaczynski. Kaczynski insisted that the potential missile interceptor batteries in his country, hitched to a planned radar system in the Czech Republic, would not be deployed against Russian ballistic missiles. “It is aimed at defense of our democracies against the countries who might have, or already do have, nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction,” he said. Bush notably omitted any reference to Russia’s recent suspension of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty or Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to cooperate on a missile defense strategy, the Post reported.  Russia has threatened to aim more of its own missiles at Europe if the system goes forward (see GSN, June 4).  Such missiles, launched so close to Poland, could probably not be downed by the planned defense system.  However, Kaczynski demurred when asked whether Poland would seek short-range missile defense help from the United States. “I wouldn’t like to get into details about that,” he said (Peter Baker, Washington Post, July 17). A U.S. spokesman yesterday claimed there was no link between the potential missile defense system and Russia’s recent treaty moratorium, citing earlier Russian threats to suspend participation in the convention, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday. “I am not sure I get the linkage between the CFE and missile defense,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.  “I would put to you that the Russian issue, shall we say, with the CFE Treaty extends well back before anybody ever thought about missile defense in Europe,” he added, referring to multiple Russian threats to suspend the treaty (Agence France-Presse, July 16). Meanwhile, U.S. senators on Friday overwhelmingly expressed their commitment to a ballistic missile defense system in an amendment to the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill, United Press International reported (see GSN, July 5). U.S. policy is “to develop and deploy an effective defense system against the threat of an Iranian nuclear missile attack against the U.S. and European allies,” said the amendment, which passed the Senate in a 90-5 vote. “It is important that we acknowledge the growing threat to peace and security that arises from Iran’s nuclear missile programs,” said Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who sponsored the measure. The amendment came on the heels of a broadly bipartisan vote in the Senate Strategic Forces Subcommittee to retain most of the budget for ballistic missile defense programs in 2008, UPI reported (United Press International, July 16). Back to top       New Missile Defense Array to Shield Moscow Russia is set to deploy a new medium-range missile interceptor system around Moscow, Agence France-Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 11, 2006). Deployment of the S-400 Triumph missile interceptors has been delayed since 2001 but successful tests Thursday and Friday removed remaining obstacles to their activation. “One division and a command point will be put into combat duty at the end of the month,” said Russian air force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky. The S-400 Triumph has a range of 250 miles and is designed to destroy aircraft and medium-range ballistic missiles, AFP reported. The move comes on the heels of Russian suspension of a key European conventional weapons treaty and amidst Moscow’s strong opposition to a planned U.S. missile defense array in Eastern Europe (see GSN, July 16; Agence France-Press/Turkish Daily News, July 16). Back to top       Missile Defense Laser Passes Flight Test The U.S. Missile Defense Agency on Friday successfully tested the in-flight tracking and fire control abilities of a missile defense laser, the agency reported (see GSN, May 18). The aircraft-mounted laser is designed to destroy ballistic missiles with a concentrated beam of energy.  Friday’s test marked the first airborne use of the weapon, demonstrating the system’s ability to “paint” a missile with a controlled beam for tracking, targeting and destruction of the weapon, said the release. Flight testing of the Airborne Laser is scheduled to continue, leading up to the planned system installation at Edwards Air Force Base later this year (U.S. Missile Defense Agency release, July 13). Back to top

Prisoners Throw Boiling Oil on “Dirty Bomb” Convict Inmates at a British jail used boiling oil and water to attack “dirty bomb” convict Dhiren Barot, Asian News International reported yesterday (see GSN, May 17). Barot suffered third-degree burns and was hospitalized.  He had already received multiple death threats at Frankland Jail in Durham. Barot, 35, is serving a minimum of 30 years in prison for planning a series of bomb attacks in the United States and the United Kingdom.  Prosecutors said he had considered using a radiological weapon against at least one of his targets, which included the New York Stock Exchange and the headquarters buildings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Barot last week demanded to receive prisoner-of-war status along with other convicted al-Qaeda members.  The London Mirror quoted him accusing prison guards of subjecting him to unfair searches and violations of his rights because he wanted to interact with other Muslim inmates. (Asian News International/New Kerala, July 16). Back to top

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