Jay Lefkowitz, U.S. special representative on North Korean human rights, yesterday questioned Bush administration policies on denuclearizing North Korea (Jung Yeon-je/Getty Images). U.S. Official Blasts North Korea The Bush administration’s envoy on human rights in North Korea yesterday questioned the Stalinist state’s willingness to give up its nuclear arsenal, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 17). Pyongyang is likely to “remain in its present nuclear status” when the next U.S. administration takes enters the White House, said Jay Lefkowitz...Full Story

Pakistani Nuclear Weapons Safe, U.S. Experts Say Pakistani security measures are adequate to protect the nation’s nuclear weapons from theft, two experts on South Asian affairs told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday (see GSN, Jan. 11)...Full Story

U.N. Powers to Unify on Iran, Germany Says Germany and the five permanent U.N. Security Council member nations intend in talks next week to demonstrate their determination not to let Iran acquire nuclear weapons, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 17)...Full Story

	Friday, January 18, 2008

Chertoff Defends Stricter Border Checks U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday that heightened identification checks of people entering the United States are necessary to defend the nation from terrorists, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2007). Under new rules that enter effect on Jan. 31, border security officials will require people crossing into the country from Canada or Mexico to show a passport or a combination of other documents to verify their country of origin. People have entered the United States using 8,000 different documents to prove citizenship, including easily obtained proofs of identity such as library cards.  Under the revised policy, border officials will accept fewer than 30 documents. “It's time to grow up and recognize that if we're serious about this threat, we've got to take reasonable, measured but nevertheless determined steps to getting better security,” Chertoff told AP yesterday. “I can guarantee if we don't make this change, eventually there will come a time when someone will come across the border exploiting the vulnerabilities in the system and some bad stuff will happen.  And then there'll be another 9/11 commission and we'll have people come saying, ‘Why didn't we do this?’” Each day, more than 800,000 people enter the United States through seaports and land-based entry points. As non-U.S. citizens entering the country from Mexico must already provide extensive documentation, the new policy would have the most impact on people entering the United States from Canada. Some U.S. lawmakers representing northern border states have criticized the new policy.  Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said stricter rules would hurt the region’s economy while doing little to improve security. “When it comes to the northern border, the muddled thinking and poor planning at DHS seems to have no bounds,” Leahy said. Chertoff said he anticipates longer lines at border checkpoints once the new policy is implemented, but wait times are likely to decrease as people become accustomed to the stricter rules (Sullivan/Barrett, Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 18). Back to top

U.S. Official Blasts North Korea The Bush administration’s envoy on human rights in North Korea yesterday questioned the Stalinist state’s willingness to give up its nuclear arsenal, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 17). Pyongyang is likely to “remain in its present nuclear status” when the next U.S. administration takes enters the White House, said Jay Lefkowitz. “North Korea is not serious about disarming in a timely manner,” he said at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, noting a recent escalation of “bellicose language” and the missed Dec. 31 deadline to declare and disable its nuclear progams. “We should consider a new approach to North Korea,” Lefkowitz added. When asked whether his views represented those within the White House, Lefkowitz said U.S. policies “are under review right now” (Foster Klug, Associated Press/Washington Post, Jan. 18). Lefkowitz also took aim at some of Washington’s partners in the six-nation negotiations intended to resolve the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported. “Because the Chinese and South Korean governments have been unwilling to apply significant pressure on Pyongyang, recent talks have, in actuality, become a bilateral negotiation between the U.S. and North Korea,” he said. The negotiations also involve Japan and Russia (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Jan. 17). Asked about his comments, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the administration continues to support the multilateral negotiations. “While it's unfortunate that North Korea has not yet provided a complete and correct declaration, we continue to work with Japan, South Korea, China and Russia in urging North Korea to fulfill its commitments in this regard.  We believe the six-party framework gives the region and the world the best opportunity to realize the goal of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” she said (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Jan. 18). Back to top       Pakistani Nuclear Weapons Safe, U.S. Experts Say Pakistani security measures are adequate to protect the nation’s nuclear weapons from theft, two experts on South Asian affairs told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday (see GSN, Jan. 11). “The Pakistani nuclear arsenal today is safe against all external or internal threats that can be imagined in peacetime,” said Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  He testified at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. “The security of Pakistani [nuclear] assets has improved dramatically as a result of the protective measures put in place since the late 1990s,” he added. One expert concurred. “There is no immediate threat to the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons during the current political transition,” said the Heritage Foundation’s Lisa Curtis.  “Recent media hype surrounding the issue of the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, including statements about the possibility of the U.S. having to seize Pakistani nuclear assets, is damaging to the bilateral relationship” (see GSN, Nov. 12, 2007; Associated Press of Pakistan/Business Recorder, Jan. 17). Back to top       U.N. Powers to Unify on Iran, Germany Says Germany and the five permanent U.N. Security Council member nations intend in talks next week to demonstrate their determination not to let Iran acquire nuclear weapons, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 17). “There are open questions which Iran urgently needs to resolve to re-establish lost trust.  It remains the case that the international community cannot and will not permit nuclear weapons technology to be developed in this region,” Steinmeier said. “We will be meeting in Berlin in a few days time with the respective Security Council members to debate how we can express demonstrable unity on these questions in the future,” he said.  Steinmeier planned to meet with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei to discuss potential solutions to the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program, which Western powers have suspected is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, Reuters reported. Germany supports new Security Council sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment and comply with other U.N. demands, but Steinmeier said the world powers must also consider U.S. intelligence indications that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. “Recently we have seen new estimates on the status of research and development work (in Iran),” he said. “In this connection it is of course important what the (U.S. National Intelligence Estimate) has expressed.” “The NIE told us nothing we did not know, but the Russians understood that it meant the United States was not going to attack Iran anytime soon,” Steinmeier said.  That reduced Moscow’s interest in pursuing a third round of sanctions against Iran. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said that new sanctions remain necessary despite the U.S. intelligence assessment. “It's important that there be an additional Security Council resolution, because Iran is out of compliance with previously passed resolutions,” he said. “It is no secret that we would have liked to have another sanctions resolution by this point in time,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.  “Our intention is to continue to push along with our allies for a Security Council resolution at the earliest possible date” (Mark Heinrich, Reuters/Yahoo!News, Jan. 18). China yesterday asked Iran to begin new negotiations with European nations and other world powers over its nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported. “The Iranian nuclear issue is now at a crucial moment,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said yesterday in a meeting with top Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, according to remarks released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. “China hopes all concerned parties, including Iran, make joint efforts to resume negotiations as soon as possible in a bid to promote the comprehensive and proper settlement of this issue” (Agence France-Presse I/Google News, Jan. 18). The White House said yesterday that U.S. President George W. Bush backs the U.S. intelligence estimate released last month on Iran when the assessment is considered in its entirety. The statement followed remarks by Bush earlier this week suggesting he did not endorse the report’s conclusions. “The president stands by the full scope of the findings in that they were put together by incredibly dedicated people that did their best work and put their best views out,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. “He does encourage people — and that’s the point that he made repeatedly on his trip — to look at the full conclusions and implications for what the NIE asserted in those conclusions, and they include the fact that Iran had a weapons program,” Fratto said (Agence France-Presse II/Google News, Jan. 17). Meanwhile, a third shipment of Russian nuclear fuel arrived today at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power reactor, RIA Novosti reported (see GSN, Jan. 2). Under a contract with the Iranian government, Russia is expected to send Iran eight nuclear fuel shipments totaling 82 metric tons before the end of February. The first fuel shipment to Bushehr arrived on Dec. 16, 2007, after repeated delays in the plant’s construction that the Russian contractor Atomstroiexport attributed to Iran’s failure to keep up with payments.  Iran said that Western powers were pressuring Moscow to delay the project (RIA Novosti, Jan. 18). Back to top       Australia Remains Undecided on Exempting India From International Nuclear Trade Guidelines New Australian leaders have not decided whether they would oppose a change to international nuclear trade rules sought by the United States and India, the Economic Times reported today (see GSN, Jan. 15). Washington and New Delhi are seeking a bilateral trade agreement but need to clear some key traditional nonproliferation hurdles before they can advance the deal.  India needs to reach an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency to allow oversight of the nation’s civilian nuclear activities, and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group must agree to exempt New Delhi from guidelines that ban key nuclear sales to countries that do not belong the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or do not allow inspectors of all their nuclear facilities. Australia’s previous government had announced that it would reverse Canberra’s ban on nuclear trade with non-NPT nations (see GSN, Aug. 14, 2007), but the newly elected Labor government renounced that decision this week. “It's a long-standing commitment of the Australian Labor Party that we don't authorize the export of uranium to countries who are not parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,” said Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.   Whether Australia would extend that view and oppose changes to NSG guidelines remains undecided, said Trade Minister Simon Crean. “That’s a consideration we will make at the appropriate time,” he told the Economic Times, adding that Australia would wait for India to complete its IAEA inspections deal.  “We understand the importance of this agreement” (Nirmala Ganapathy, Economic Times, Jan. 18). Back to top       Chief U.S. Advocate of Indian Nuclear Deal to Resign The Bush administration’s chief champion of a bilateral nuclear trade deal with India is resigning his post, the Washington Post reported today.  Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns will step down in March, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has asked him to work as a special envoy to advance the nuclear negotiations, U.S. officials said (see GSN, Jan. 8). Burns has worked in the Foreign Office since 1983.  He is stepping down for personal reasons, particularly to better support his children’s college educations, a senior State Department official said. “This is a very bittersweet time for us because Nick Burns had decided that it is time for him to retire," Rice said today.  “He has decided that it’s the right moment to go back to family concerns.” Burns would be replaced by U.S. Ambassador to Russia William Burns, Rice said (Robin Wright, Washington Post, Jan. 18). Back to top       Malaysia Ratifies Test Ban Treaty Malaysia yesterday ratified a global treaty banning nuclear test explosions, the treaty’s implementing organization announced (see GSN, Jan. 15). The nation’s membership brings the total number of treaty ratifications to 143 — it has been signed but not ratified by another 35 countries — but the pact’s prospects for taking effect remain distant.  Ten key nations have yet to ratify the document and allow it to enter into force (see GSN, Sept. 18, 2007). Still, Malaysia’s participation would be significant, said one top official. “This is very important internationally, but also regionally: Malaysia’s ratification tips the balance in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations where six out of 10 countries now have ratified the treaty,” said Tibor Toth, head of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, in a press release (Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization release, Jan. 18). Back to top       U.S. Urges Jordan to Pursue Nuclear Power Jordan should develop nuclear energy and alternative fuel capabilities to ensure a stable energy supply, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 20, 2007). The statement came as part of a U.S. campaign encouraging Middle Eastern nations to pursue civilian nuclear energy programs under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Associated Press reported.  Some analysts have expressed concerns about how such programs might develop in relation to Iran, which has refused to halt uranium enrichment activities that could produce nuclear weapons material.  Tehran insists its nuclear activities are strictly intended for civilian power production. “Jordan can increase its long-term energy security through robust investment in development of a diversity of energy sources including nuclear power,” Bodman said in the capital of Jordan, a country that possesses fewer oil and natural gas resources than many of its neighbors. Bodman visited Jordan on a Middle East tour also expected to include stops in Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.  His trip aims to improve U.S. ties with countries in the region while encouraging them to invest in new energy sources (Suhail Hussein, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Jan. 17). Back to top

Google Supports Disease Detection Efforts A philanthropic venture run by Internet giant Google announced $25 million in initial grants yesterday, including $2.5 million to the Nuclear Threat Initiative to support disease surveillance programs in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The Google Foundation was created in 2005 with 10 percent of the value of the 3 million shares Google sold at its initial public offering.  The $25 million in grants announced yesterday was the first wave of an effort to spend about 1 percent of Google’s equity and annual profit on philanthropic activities, the Washington Post reported (Kim Hart, Washington Post, Jan. 18). The two-year grant to the Nuclear Threat Initiative is intended to boost the organization’s Global Health and Security Initiative, which supports efforts to rapidly detect and identify disease outbreaks. “We view the fight against infectious disease as a security imperative as well as a health imperative,” said former Senator Sam Nunn, NTI co-chairman and chief executive officer, in a press release.  “Whether a disease is naturally occurring or intentionally caused, the essential elements of an effective response are to detect the outbreak, diagnose the disease and take the right measures to treat it and contain it — immediately” (Nuclear Threat Initiative release, Jan. 17). [Editor’s Note: The Nuclear Threat Initiative is the sole sponsor of Global Security Newswire, which is published independently by the National Journal Group.] Back to top

Iran Vows Retaliation to Attack After Israeli Test Iran would swiftly retaliate to a missile attack launched by Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in response to an Israeli ballistic missile test conducted yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 17). “The Zionist regime … would not dare attack Iran,” the Iranian leader told al-Jazeera.  “The Iranian response would make them regret it.  They know this.” Israel has never confirmed its possession of nuclear weapons, but it is believed to maintain missiles capable of carrying such warheads to Iran. A source in Israel’s Defense Ministry said the military was “not just flexing its muscles” with this missile test and that Jerusalem would review “all options” to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Israeli officials have offered little information about yesterday’s missile exercise, but photographs posted on news Web sites suggest it involved a ballistic missile rather than a small defense interceptor because of the large, white smoke plume left by the weapon, Reuters reported (Lewis/Williams, Reuters/Washington Post, Jan. 17). Back to top

U.S., Czech Officials Support NATO Involvement in European Missile Defense Efforts U.S. and Czech officials agreed yesterday that the Bush administration’s planned missile defense installations in Europe should be linked to NATO systems, the Xinhua News Agency reported (see GSN, Jan. 17). “I am deeply convinced that the Bucharest NATO summit will show that the (U.S. and NATO) defense against short- and medium-range missiles is clearly interlinked,” said Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who attended a meeting of the Czech National Security Council with Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (see GSN, March 19, 2007). A proposed radar base in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in Poland would be intended to provide a defense against missile threats from the Middle East, particularly Iran.  They would complement other U.S. sea- and ground-based systems. Former U.S. Defense Department testing chief Philip Coyle, visiting the Czech Republic, said it was not proven yet that the European system would be capable of fending off an Iranian missile strike (Xinhua News Agency, Jan. 18). Hoping to alleviate Polish concerns, a senior U.S. official said the Bush administration plans to increase cooperation with NATO and Russia on the European system, the Associated Press reported. “In the course of our discussions over the past many months, Poland has made some suggestions that we take seriously,” Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said in Warsaw.  “Poles have urged us to seek to work with Russia cooperatively on missile defense, and we have done so.” Russia has objected strenuously to the U.S. plan, characterizing it as a security threat.  It has played up the capabilities of its missiles to defeat defense systems and has threatened to aim nuclear-tipped missiles at European targets. Moscow and Washington have both offered plans aimed at overcoming their differences on the missile shield.  Neither nation’s plan has satisfied the other country. “Poland has never urged us to give Russia a veto over this program, but it is reasonable for Poland as well as other European countries to encourage us to seek to work with Russia,” Fried said. Poland has also pressed the United States “to increase NATO’s role in the mission,” Fried said.  “We have done so.” Poland has sought air defense support, potentially involving Patriot or Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense systems, in exchange for housing the missile interceptors.  “We did not interpret Polish suggestions as suggestions that Poland be paid off for missile defense but rather as serious suggestions from a serious ally to deepen military cooperation,” Fried said. Further talks on the matter are expected in the next few weeks, Fried said (Vanessa Gera, Associated Press/Miami Herald, Jan. 17). Back to top

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

© Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.