Urged by U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the Senate last night approved an Indian nuclear trade agreement (Jamie Rose/Getty Images). Indian-U.S. Nuclear Trade Deal Clears Final Hurdle in Congress U.S. senators approved a U.S.-Indian nuclear trade deal yesterday, capping more than three years of controversy over whether New Delhi should be allowed access to commercial nuclear technology despite refusing to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, Oct. 1). The historic 86-13 vote followed Saturday’s approval by the U.S. House of Representatives, clearing the way for President George W. Bush’s signature.  The nuclear deal enables India to purchase U.S. nuclear technology and materials in exchange for placing the nation’s civilian nuclear sector under international supervision (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Oct. 2)...Full Story

Obama Adviser Backs Missile Defenses in Europe By Elaine M. Grossman Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A senior adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (Ill.) today expressed support for Bush administration plans to build a missile defense system in Europe, despite Moscow’s protests that the deployments would threaten Russia (see GSN, Sept. 12)...Full Story

U.S. Negotiator Extends North Korean Visit U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will stay longer than anticipated in North Korea in order to continue negotiations on the faltering denuclearization process, Agence-France Presse reported today (see GSN, Oct. 1)...Full Story

	Thursday, October 2, 2008

Localities Need More Money for Fighting Crime, Less for Terrorism Defense, Organizations Say Organizations representing U.S. mayors and police chiefs are arguing that the federal government needs to supply municipalities with more money to fight crime and less for antiterrorism material that might never be used, USA Today reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 13, 2007). “The simple truth is that average Americans are much more likely to find themselves victims of crime than of terrorist attack," states a report by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. There have been 99,000 murders in the United States since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the organization said, adding that 1.4 million people each year suffer a violent crime. "In terms of day-to-day crime fighting, we're far worse off than we were before 9/11," IACP President Ronald Ruecker said. Cities and states have received $22.7 billion to prepare for terrorist attacks since the Homeland Security Department was established five years ago, the report states, noting that WMD protection suits and other expensive counterterrorism equipment has been provided to small towns with relatively low risks of attack. In Knox County, Ohio, the fire department is seeking to sell a $30,000 truck for handling hazardous materials incidents, USA Today reported.  The department purchased the vehicle with a Homeland Security grant, but "it has never been used” and local taxpayers must pay for its storage and insurance, said county fire chiefs head Rick Lanuzza. The U.S. Conference of Mayors said that federal funds for local police have been cut by 81 percent since 2001 and that 34 people on average are killed by gunfire each day. "If al-Qaeda were responsible for 34 deaths a day in the United States, the nation would do whatever was necessary to stop the deaths," the group said in an open letter to the next occupant of the White House. A Homeland Security Department spokeswoman acknowledged that U.S. police might need additional funds, but dismissed “the view that enough has been done on homeland security” (Mimi Hall, USA Today, Oct. 1). Back to top

Indian-U.S. Nuclear Trade Deal Clears Final Hurdle in Congress U.S. senators approved a U.S.-Indian nuclear trade deal yesterday, capping more than three years of controversy over whether New Delhi should be allowed access to commercial nuclear technology despite refusing to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, Oct. 1). The historic 86-13 vote followed Saturday’s approval by the U.S. House of Representatives, clearing the way for President George W. Bush’s signature.  The nuclear deal enables India to purchase U.S. nuclear technology and materials in exchange for placing the nation’s civilian nuclear sector under international supervision (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Oct. 2). The deal’s approval spelled victory for Bush and defeat for traditional proponents of the nuclear nonproliferation regime. “This legislation will strengthen our global nuclear nonproliferation efforts, protect the environment, create jobs, and assist India in meeting its growing energy needs in a responsible manner,” Bush said in a White House statement.  “I look forward to signing this bill into law” (White House release, Oct. 1). Bush announced the trade initiative in 2005 and oversaw the clearing of several significant hurdles to its final implementation, including exempting India from most U.S. and international nuclear trade rules that bar nuclear sales to nations that are not NPT members and do not permit international monitoring of all their nuclear activities. Those rule changes have created “a nonproliferation disaster,” Arms Control Association chief Daryl Kimball said yesterday.  “Contrary to the counterfactual claims of proponents and apologists, it does not bring India into the ‘nonproliferation mainstream’ and India’s so-called separation plan is not credible from a nonproliferation perspective” (Arms Control Association release, Oct. 1). In voting yesterday and Saturday, lawmakers waived a rule requiring that the measure sit before them for at least 30 working days.  Statements of support for the deal from both leading presidential candidates, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), appeared to undermine any incentive for legislators to delay the measure, the Post reported. Furthermore, the Bush administration promised to ease some critics’ concerns by vowing to set some limits on nuclear trade to India at the next meeting of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promise House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) that she would press the group to ban sales of sensitive nuclear technology — meaning uranium enrichment and plutonium separation equipment — to non-NPT countries. Senators rejected an amendment that would have required the United States to cut off nuclear trade should India resume nuclear weapons test blasts.  U.S. laws already carry such a requirement, said Senator Richard Lugar (Ind.), the leading Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee (Kessler, Washington Post). Ultimately, senators yesterday accepted Lugar’s arguments in support of the agreement. “The national security and economic future of the United States would be enhanced by a strong and enduring partnership with India.  With a well-educated middle class that is larger than the entire U.S. population, India can be an anchor of stability in Asia and an engine of global economic growth,” Lugar said in a floor speech before the vote (U.S. Senator Richard Lugar release, Oct. 1). Back to top       U.S. Negotiator Extends North Korean Visit U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will stay longer than anticipated in North Korea in order to continue negotiations on the faltering denuclearization process, Agence-France Presse reported today (see GSN, Oct. 1). Hill, the Bush administration’s lead envoy to the multination talks with Pyongyang, arrived in North Korea yesterday and had been expected to leave today.  “We do not know exactly when they will return,” a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said of Hill’s diplomatic team. There was no word on whether the extended stay suggested that headway was being made in persuading North Korea to resume nuclear dismantlement. Pyongyang agreed to denuclearization last year in exchange for economic aid and other concessions from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.  After making a number of moves in that direction, North Korea began to reverse course last month.  The regime removed some technology from storage at its Yongbyon nuclear complex and ordered that all U.N. monitoring equipment and personnel be removed from its plutonium processing plant, which it said would resume operations in short order. Increased activity has also been seen recently at the site used for North Korea’s first and to date only nuclear test blast. The reversal occurred after the Bush administration pressed its demand for a verification protocol for North Korean nuclear activities and material as a prerequisite for removing the Asian nation from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Pyongyang argues that it should not be required to accept verification at this point in the denuclearization process, AFP reported.  It has particularly objected to “house searches” for nuclear material (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Oct. 2). Reports have indicated that Hill would offer North Korean officials some sort of compromise plan on verification.  The State Department said yesterday that any change would not involve the content of the U.S.-drafted plan itself, the Korea Herald reported. “He wasn't bringing with him any new substance in terms of proposals,” department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.  “He was talking about the choreography, but not breaking with precedent.” Choreography involves “who hands what to what person when,” he said.  Under such a plan, according to prior reports, Pyongyang would quietly inform China that it had accepted the verification protocol.  The announcement would be made public only after the Bush administration took North Korea off the terror list, allowing the regime to claim that it had not crumbled in the face of U.S. pressure. “We have in this process used the Chinese, who are the chair of the six-party talks, as a way of, in the past, serving as a repository for documents and information.  There are procedures we have used in the past that seemed to have worked pretty well,” McCormack said. “The ball is in the North Koreans' court,” he added.  “They have to reverse their reversal and they have to approve a verification regime.” (Jin Dae-woong, Korea Herald, Oct. 3). Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev yesterday blamed both North Korea and the United States for the latest deadlock in the years-old diplomatic effort, the Yonhap News Agency reported. “It’s a problem that North Korea recently backtracked on its pledge,” he said during a visit to Seoul.  “But we also have to look in detail into the fact that the United States violated its agreement with North Korea” (Yonhap News Agency, Oct. 2). Back to top       U.S. Increases Rate of Nuclear Weapons Dismantlement The rate of U.S. nuclear dismantlement in the fiscal year that ended Tuesday was 20 percent higher than the previous budget year, the agency that oversees the work announced yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2007). The National Nuclear Security Administration attributed the change to a more efficient dismantlement process and greater worker productivity.  It did not release the actual number of dismantled weapons, which is classified information. “NNSA continues to dismantle nuclear weapons in a safe and efficient manner, ensuring that they can no longer be used again,” said agency chief Thomas D’Agostino said in a press release.  “These efforts reflect President [George W.] Bush’s goal of achieving the lowest number of nuclear weapons consistent with national security needs.” The Bush administration in 2004 mandated that the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal be cut by nearly half by 2012.  The United States met that goal last year and Bush then ordered another 15-percent reduction by the original deadline.  The project is expected to produce a stockpile roughly one-fourth the size of the nuclear arsenal at the end of the Cold War, the press release states. Warheads undergoing dismantlement include the B-61 modifications 3, 4, and 7, the W-62 and the W-80 (see GSN, Sept. 26; U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release, Oct. 1). Back to top       Pakistan Demands U.S. Nuclear Trade Deal Pakistan has demanded a nuclear trade agreement with the United States, just one day after the U.S. Senate approved such a deal with India, Agence France-Presse reported today (see related GSN story, today). “You do not need to be worried, this is a step forward.  Pakistan now will have the right to a similar civilian nuclear deal that India has gotten from the United States," Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters today.  “We do not want discrimination.  Pakistan will make efforts for civilian nuclear technology and they (United States) will have to accommodate us.” His confident statement followed U.S. congressional approval of the Indian nuclear agreement, a deal that Bush administration officials argued was partly possible because of India’s strong nonproliferation record.  Pakistan, however, has a weaker record in this area, particularly in light of disclosures over the past five years that the nation’s former top nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had led a major international nuclear smuggling network for decades (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Oct. 2). Islamabad has repeatedly rebuffed outside efforts to question Khan directly, and U.S. officials on Monday requested access to the scientist again during the third round of the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue in Washington, the Press Trust of India reported (Press Trust of India, Oct. 1). Back to top       Russia Worries About Nukes in Neighboring States A senior Russian official said Ukraine and Georgia might host Western tactical nuclear weapons if the two former Soviet republics join NATO, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, June 16). The United States and NATO hope to win strategic and military dominance over Russia by recruiting new member nations for the Western alliance, Russian security council chief Nikolai Patrushev told Izvestia in an interview to be published today. “Georgia and especially Ukraine in case of their accession to the alliance can become a convenient springboard for deployment of large ground, air and naval strike forces armed with high-precision and tactical nuclear weapons," said Patrushev, a longtime confidant of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "Such actions by the Americans can aggravate mutual mistrust and spiral (into) an arms race to which we do not aspire, I want to stress,” he added. NATO states in April rejected requests to begin moving Georgia and Ukraine toward membership but did not close the door on reconsidering the matter at another time, Reuters reported. Patrushev added that the United States would pose “additional threats to Russia’s national security” if Washington launched a strike on Iran from Georgian territory (Dmitry Solovyov, Reuters, Oct. 1). Back to top

U.S. Might Tap Mail Carriers for Anthrax Response The Bush administration yesterday proposed recruiting U.S. postal workers to deliver protective antibiotics to tens of thousands of people if anthrax were released as a biological weapon (see GSN, Sept. 25, 2007). The Health and Human Services Department said in a statement that postal employees could be offered advance supplies of antibiotics for themselves and their families in exchange for volunteering to distribute the drugs in an attack, the Washington Post reported today.  The carriers would be given police escorts as they drop off the drugs. "We have found letter carriers to be the federal government's quickest and surest way of getting pills to whole communities," Health and Human Services Department Michael Leavitt said. The Postal Service and its employee unions have endorsed the approach, department representatives added. During 2006 and 2007, the Postal Service conducted drug distribution drills in Boston, Seattle and Philadelphia, said William Raub, science adviser to Leavitt.  Over an eight-hour period last year, 50 postal workers with police escorts dropped off empty boxes at 55,000 Philadelphia residences, the Post said (see GSN, June 25, 2007). The Postal Service plans to recruit roughly 700 postal employees next year for a trial run of the distribution program covering roughly a quarter of all residences in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., Raub said.  The workers would be medically vetted and then issued N95 face masks and packs of the antibiotic doxycycline to store for a potential attack. If the program is deemed a success, it might be expanded to cover both Minnesota cities, Postal Service official Jude Plessas said. However, Leavitt only yesterday asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve the doxycycline for use in the scheme.  The approval process could take months to complete, the Post reported. The United States maintains sufficient antibiotics across 12 Strategic National Stockpile storage sites to protect 40 million people for 60 days.  A person exposed to inhaled anthrax would need treatment for no more than 60 days after the initial exposure, the Post said (David Brown, Washington Post, Oct. 2). Meanwhile, Maryland-based Emergent BioSolutions has received a federal contract valued as high as $404 million to supply 14.5 million additional doses of its BioThrax anthrax vaccine for the U.S. stockpile, the Washington Business Journal reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 29). The company plans to start work under the contract late next year, once it completes an existing order of 18.75 million vaccine doses, and complete the new order in late 2011 (Tucker Echols, Washington Business Journal, Oct. 1). Back to top       Outdated Report Issued on Bioterror Risk Formula The United States has completed a $450,000, two-year evaluation of a formula used to assign probabilities of specific biological terrorism incidents taking place, but changes to the formula have left the report largely out of date, the Associated Press reported last week (see GSN, Sept. 11). The Homeland Security Department requested in 2006 that the U.S. National Academies prepare a report on the Bioterrorism Risk Assessment tool, a method used to evaluate risks posed by millions of biological terror scenarios.  The department is legally mandated every two years to produce such a review and revise the formula as needed. Preparing the report involved five meetings over one year, a six-month evaluation of the formula with 10 auditors, and then a six-month period for the Homeland Security Department to evaluate the findings, said Greg Parnell, who led the National Academies panel that conducted the review. Parnell stressed the department had expected the report to take more than one year to prepare.  Among the panel’s recommendations were creating a simpler threat formula, anticipating that possible attackers would be “intelligent adversaries” familiar with U.S. defense systems, and employing the system as a decision-making tool, according to Parnell. By the time the review was released last week, Homeland Security officials had already revised the formula to include several changes requested in the final report, agency spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said.  In addition, some of the conclusions were likely to face opposition from the department and academic experts. The department uses the assessment tool to help determine emphases for research and how best to direct money for biological agent sensors, Kudwa said.  Other agencies use the formula in determining what medicines to purchase for the Strategic National Stockpile of biological agent countermeasures (Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press/Google News, Sept. 26). Back to top

Obama Adviser Backs Missile Defenses in Europe By Elaine M. Grossman Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A senior adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (Ill.) today expressed support for Bush administration plans to build a missile defense system in Europe, despite Moscow’s protests that the deployments would threaten Russia (see GSN, Sept. 12). “Serious conversation needs to be had with the Russians about what we’re trying to do, because it is not anti-Russian,” Richard Danzig, a member of Obama’s core defense and foreign policy team, told reporters during a breakfast question-and-answer session. “I do not think Russia has a legitimate security concern here,” the former Clinton administration Navy secretary added.  “Either in the number of missile interceptors that would be placed in Poland or in the radar systems in [the Czech Republic], or in the angle of approach and the basic geometries, this is not an anti-Russian move.” Under the initiative, the United States has signed agreements to place 10 interceptors in Poland and an early warning radar in the Czech Republic (see related GSN story, today).  U.S. officials have insisted the deployments are necessary to protect the United States and its European allies from a potential ballistic missile threat from Iran (see GSN, Dec. 14, 2007). Obama has generally endorsed the notion of installing missile defenses in Europe but has indicated concern about technical and political issues. “If we can responsibly deploy missile defenses that would protect us and our allies, we should — but only when the system works,” the senator said in a written statement issued in July 2007, during Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s visit to the United States. “The Bush administration has in the past exaggerated missile defense capabilities and rushed deployments for political purposes,” Obama said.  “[It] has also done a poor job of consulting its NATO allies about the deployment of a missile defense system that has major implications for all of them.” Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (Ariz.) has strongly supported missile defenses to protect the United States and its allies, in addition to discussing a possibly rising threat from Moscow. “Effective missile defenses are critical to protect America … from outlaw states like Iran that threaten American forces and American allies with ballistic missiles, and to hedge against potential threats from possible strategic competitors like Russia and China,” McCain’s campaign Web site states. Some U.S. missile defense advocates have begun citing fears about Russian belligerence to help justify the European deployments, potentially complicating Washington’s negotiating position (see GSN, Sept. 4). Today Danzig praised Defense Secretary Robert Gates for joining Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in engaging Russian leaders directly in an attempt to assuage their concerns.  In a Moscow meeting last October, the two U.S. Cabinet secretaries offered then-Russian President Vladimir Putin proposals for cooperating on joint defenses.  They followed up with a second visit in March (see GSN, Oct. 22, 2007, and March 20).  However, ongoing talks have yet to result in a breakthrough (see GSN, July 24). Danzig noted that the Russian incursion into Georgia in August “knocked off track” the dialogue with Washington about missile defenses.  “But I think the presence of those agreements” with Warsaw and Prague “is in the United States interest and can be reconciled with Russian interests,” he said. Back to top       Czech Lawmakers to Consider Missile Defense Deal Lawmakers in the Czech Republic could decide next month whether to allow the United States to build a radar station on Czech territory, RIA Novosti reported (see GSN, Sept. 22). The agreement, signed in July by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, must be approved by the Czech parliament in order to move forward. "We expect the Czech government to submit to us all the documents necessary for the ratification of the missile defense agreements in November of this year," said Czech lawmaker Miloslav Vlcek. Ratifying the deal would likely be "hard going," Vlcek said, adding that it would be "passed by parliament by a margin of one or two votes, if at all" (RIA Novosti, Oct. 1). Prague has completed an agreement with the Washington detailing terms for involvement by Czech research and business firms to take part in U.S. missile defense development activities, the Xinhua News Agency reported. "It is definitely one of the successes of the … negotiators.  It should be signed in the weeks ahead," said Czech First Deputy Defense Minister Martin Bartak (Xinhua News Agency, Oct. 2). Back to top

U.S. Lab Helps Develop Radiation Detector The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California developed technology for a radiation sensor that can be installed at potential trouble spots or placed within a vehicle, the Contra Costa Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 30). Roughly 50 of the adaptable radiation area monitors are already in use by the New Jersey State Police and other local and state agencies around the United States, according to Brian Adlawan, detection program manager for system vendor Textron Defense Systems. The system incorporates some existing technology, which was made smaller and more sensitive at Livermore.  The detector can be placed within a sport utility vehicle and can distinguish potential nuclear or radiological weapons material from other sources of radiation. Operators in a vehicle could detect minute amounts of radiation at a distance of 12 feet even while driving 40 mph.  “Say there’s a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue.  You can drive the route before and take data, and go back the morning of the parade and see what’s changed,” Adlawan said. In a demonstration yesterday, a detector mounted in the back of a Chevrolet Suburban detected and identified cesium 137 during a drive-by test. Along with vehicles, the detector could also be placed in a variety of fixed locations, such as border sites or stadium entrances (Mike Taugher, Contra Costa Times, Oct. 1).   Back to top

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