The Standard Missile 3 that yesterday destroyed a failed U.S. satellite leaves the USS Lake Erie (U.S. Defense Department photo). U.S. Strikes Failing Satellite Using a sea-based missile defense system, the United States last night destroyed a failing satellite that the Bush administration said could threaten people on the ground if the satellite’s fuel tank were allowed to fall to Earth intact, the Defense Department announced (see GSN, Feb. 20)...Full Story

IAEA Nuclear Report on Iran Said to Be “Positive” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei is expected to give “a positive report” on Iranian nuclear transparency, dismissing international suspicions that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, sources close to a U.N. organization’s probe said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 20)...Full Story

Significant Progress Seen in U.S. Health Preparedness U.S. cities and states have made significant progress in preparing for an act of bioterrorism or other health crisis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday in a major report (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2007)...Full Story

	Thursday, February 21, 2008

N.M. Guard Prepared for WMD Attack, Officials Say Representatives for New Mexico’s National Guard have defended the state’s ability to respond to attacks involving chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons despite the conclusions of an independent report, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 1). The Jan. 31 report from the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves said the United States “does not have sufficient trained, ready forces available” for WMD response and the number of combat-ready Army National Guard units has declined in the last year. “We think we have sufficient trained ready forces available and we’ve proved it since 9/11,” said New Mexico Guard spokesman Tom Koch. All 4,000 New Mexico Army and Air National Guard members receive at least the mandatory eight hours of annual WMD-response training, Koch said.  “All the units have invariably more than that,” he said. The 64th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team in New Mexico is among the National Guard units being established throughout the country to help local responders deal with a WMD incident (see GSN, Dec. 21, 2007).  Its 22 full-time members specialize in tracking WMD agents, conducting decontamination and coordinating military and civilian emergency response. “We’re on call 24-7,” said Lt. Col. Bill Shuert, the unit’s commander, adding that the team’s WMD-response equipment includes a machine capable of identifying roughly 200,000 agents. “In reality, we may not know what the incident is.  Chemical, biological, nuclear, high-yield explosives — that doesn't capture the reality of what we could be responding to,” Shuert said (Sue Major Holmes, Associated Press/Albuquerque Journal, Feb. 20). Back to top

IAEA Nuclear Report on Iran Said to Be “Positive” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei is expected to give “a positive report” on Iranian nuclear transparency, dismissing international suspicions that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, sources close to a U.N. organization’s probe said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 20). A delay in the report’s publication has resulted from U.S. pressure on agency staffers to persuade ElBaradei to tone down its upbeat assessment, sources told Iran’s Press TV (see GSN, Feb. 12). The United States and other Western powers plan to direct harsh criticism at the report at a March meeting of the agency’s 35-nation governing board if ElBaradei does not revise its conclusions (Press TV, Feb. 20). Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said today that he expects ElBaradei’s report to be a disappointment, Agence France-Presse reported. “Our expectations, and those of many of my colleagues at the United Nations, are not high,” public radio quoted Dan Gillerman as saying.  “I fear that once again we will be disappointed by this report.” “In recent years, Mohamed ElBaradei has demonstrated incomprehensible and exaggerated forbearance regarding Iran’s race toward arms,” Gillerman added (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Feb. 20). Meanwhile, an organization of Iranian exiles yesterday urged the U.N. nuclear watchdog to conduct immediate inspections of Iranian sites it said are hosting a clandestine nuclear weapons program, Reuters reported. Iran relocated the command center for a program codenamed Lavizan-2 to a site on the edge of Tehran in April 2007, after its previous headquarters was destroyed following its exposure, said the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Tehran is also working on nuclear warhead production at a facility codenamed B1-Nori-8500 at Khojir, a site about 12 miles southeast of the complex hosting Lavizan-2, the organization said. The group’s conclusions were drawn from “hundreds” of inside sources including nuclear facility personnel and Iranian government and leadership officials, said Mohammad Mohaddessin, the organization’s foreign affairs chief. “The Iranian regime is undoubtedly developing the nuclear bomb.  None of the essential work has been halted. … All three parts have been speeded up,” he said in reference to Iran’s uranium enrichment, missile development and alleged weaponization programs. “We would like to urgently ask the IAEA … to immediately send inspectors to the sites,” he said.  “Time is running out to stop the regime acquiring a nuclear bomb.  If we do not act today, tomorrow might be too late.” “We are aware of this but have no comment at this point,” said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.   “As with all new information coming our way, (our) analysts take a serious look and decide whether it would warrant a follow-up.” Mohaddessin suggested that U.S. electoral politics might have played a role in a recent intelligence assessment’s conclusion that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Iran’s nuclear weapons program is “probably at its most advanced stage” since 1983, said Alireza Jafarzadeh, a former representative for the Iranian opposition group who received credit in 2002 for disclosing accurate information about Iran’s nuclear activities (David Brunnstrom, Reuters, Feb. 20). In Tehran, a member of Iran’s parliament said yesterday that Tehran might permit short-notice international audits of its nuclear sites if the U.N. nuclear watchdog recognizes its right to develop civilian nuclear power capabilities. Iran in 2003 signed but did not ratify the Additional Protocol to the nation’s IAEA inspection agreement, which would allow IAEA officials to carry out the inspections, RIA Novosti reported. “The ratification of the Additional Protocol is possible only if Iran’s official right to civilian atomic energy in the framework of the [Nuclear] Nonproliferation Treaty is recognized,” said Kazem Jalali, spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s foreign policy and security commission (RIA Novosti, Feb. 20). Back to top       Senators Push India to Advance Nuclear Deal Three visiting U.S. senators warned Indian leaders yesterday that they have little time to resolve domestic opposition to a pending U.S.-Indian nuclear trade deal if the pact is to be approved this year in Washington, news agencies reported (see GSN, Feb. 20). One senator offered an early June deadline and another said July.  Both suggested that the U.S. Congress would need several months to approve the final agreement and that the next U.S. president, to be elected in November, would probably want to change the current deal. The trade deal would enable New Delhi to purchase U.S. nuclear materials and technology, access that has been denied for decades because of India’s refusal to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or to allow international supervision of its nuclear activities.  The pact hinges in part upon India receiving an exemption from existing nuclear trade rules and a final green light from U.S. lawmakers. More important, however, is domestic political opposition facing India’s leadership.  Key political backers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have threatened to withdraw their support if he moves to implement the trade deal, which the opponents have criticized as allowing excessive U.S. influence over Indian policy. “It is critical, if India want that deal, they move on relatively soon, within a matter of weeks,” said U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del.) during a visit to New Delhi with fellow Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).  “Quite frankly, if they don't, as they say in our system, the clock is running.” “If the deal is not before the Senate by early June, there will be little chance” of seeing congressional approval this year, he added (Bibhudatta Pradhan, Bloomberg, Feb. 20). The time pressure did not reflect a dispute over “the merits (of the deal), but on the mechanics on which our system functions,” Biden said. If the deal slips, it could be lost forever after a new U.S. president takes office in January 2009. “It is highly unlikely the next president will be able to present the same deal.  It will be renegotiated,” Biden said. Kerry concurred. “July is the end — it's only an even chance even then,” he said (Agence France-Presse, Google News, Feb. 21). Back to top       North Korea Plays Down Denuclearization Delay North Korea has attributed the faltering progress of its denuclearization agreement to “technical issues” rather than more serious concerns, South Korea’s top nuclear negotiator said today after meeting with his counterpart from Pyongyang (see GSN, Feb. 21). “North Korea said it will do what it has to do, and this is not because they don’t have the willingness, nor do they call it a deadlocked situation,” Chun Young-woo said in Beijing.  “It is being delayed due to technical issues, not because it has some political purpose in it.” Chun did not elaborate on those issues, the Associated Press reported. North Korea last year agreed to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for energy, diplomatic and security concessions from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.  It halted operations at the Yongbyon nuclear complex and began disabling three key facilities. However, Washington said Pyongyang missed the Dec. 31 deadline to provide a full accounting of its nuclear efforts.  The Stalinist state, frustrated by the pace at which it is receiving promised rewards, has also slowed the disablement process. Chun reported that North Korean negotiator Kim Kye Gwan said the regime is sticking with the 2007 nuclear agreement.  “We discussed about what to do next in the meeting.  North Korea said they are ready to participate in (a new round of) the six-party talks if the date is set,” he said (Associated Press/New York Times, Feb. 21). Top U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill acknowledged today that significant work remains in pushing the deal to fruition but argued that much has already been done, Agence France-Presse reported. “We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I think it is important to remember all the work we have been able to accomplish,” he said in Tokyo. “We’ll look at the work we were able to accomplish in the past and I think we can take from that some strength and some sense of optimism,” Hill added. Hill was traveling in Asia ahead of a planned trip next week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.  He met with Kim in Beijing, discussing the contents of the required declaration. “Obviously we are having some difficulty right now in getting what we need, which is a complete and correct declaration,” Hill said (Kyoko Hasegawa, Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Feb. 21). Analysts said they did not believe that Rice’s trip to Asia would produce a breakthrough on the negotiations, AFP reported. There has apparently been no sign that North Korea is willing to provide information on its suspected uranium enrichment efforts or other details that Washington has demanded be included in the declaration, said Robert Einhorn, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  That means the Bush administration is not likely to push forward with its promises of rewards, including removing Pyongyang from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. “If the U.S. and if Chris Hill hasn’t heard more than that privately, then it is hard to see at this stage how they’re going to reach any breakthroughs during the secretary’s visit,” Einhorn said (Lachlan Carmichael, Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Feb. 20). Back to top       Russia Sentences Former Nuclear Energy Chief Former Russian atomic energy chief Yevgeny Adamov received a 5 1/2-year prison sentence yesterday for embezzling more than $30 million from a U.S.-Russian uranium venture, ITAR-Tass reported (see GSN, Feb. 21). Co-defendants Revmir Fraishtut and Vyacheslav Pismenny each received suspended four-year prison sentences. Adamov denied the charges and said he would appeal the convictions handed down Tuesday.  “I will keep on fighting till the end, until you establish the truth and see that none of these people are guilty,” said Adamov, who led Russian nuclear energy programs from 1998 to 2001 (ITAR-Tass, Feb. 20). “The prosecution provided no evidence that Adamov ever pocketed a single cent or a single ruble,” said defense attorney Genri Reznik (Lynn Berry, Associated Press/Google News, Feb. 20). Back to top

Significant Progress Seen in U.S. Health Preparedness U.S. cities and states have made significant progress in preparing for an act of bioterrorism or other health crisis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday in a major report (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2007). A senior CDC official gave the jurisdictions an A for “effort and progress” but said the job is not finished, the Associated Press reported.  “In terms of amount of work to be done, I would say that’s absolutely enormous,” said Richard Besser, who leads the agency’s Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response Coordinating Office. This was the first time the federal government had assessed improvements made through more than $5 billion it has spent on public health preparedness since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.  Annual follow-ups are planned.  Resources covered in the report included personnel levels and laboratory capability at local, state and territorial health agencies. The report found that 110 health departments had biological agent detection capabilities last year, an increase from 83 in 2002.  The number of laboratories with chemical agent detection capabilities rose from zero to 47 in that period. Laboratories and public health professionals are sharing information far more frequently and the corps of epidemiologists conducting emergency response work rose from 115 in 2001 to 232 in 2006, AP reported. “Clearly we are better able to handle most public health events in this country today than we were in 2001, and that’s very good news,” said Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota. However, there remains a need for more state-level epidemiologists and laboratory scientists.  At least 16 states are not conducting adequate exchanges of disease surveillance data and some laws must be revised, the report found (Mike Stobbe, Associated Press/San Luis Obispo Tribune, Feb. 20). Other challenges include upgrading community capabilities for rapid distribution of medicines and vaccines during a health crisis and ensuring that public health systems are regularly conducting exercises to improve and ensure readiness, according to a CDC press release. The agency noted that all states have developed “all-hazards” emergency responses plans for crises ranging from a WMD event to a natural disaster.  Each state also possesses a plan for distributing countermeasures from the Strategic National Stockpile and staff at all public health agencies receive emergency response training, the report says (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention release, Feb. 20). However, the drop in federal funding for public health emergency preparedness is troublesome, public health experts told AP.  The Centers for Disease Control provided $897 million to state and local agencies in fiscal 2007, down from $991 million the year before.  Funding could drop to $609 million for the financial year that begins Oct. 1. “You can’t expect states to be doing better if the federal government keeps cutting funding,” said Jeff Levi, executive director of the advocacy organization Trust for America’s Health (Stobbe, AP). Back to top       Texas A&M to Pay $1M Fine for Biodefense Blunders Texas A&M University said yesterday it plans to pay a $1 million settlement to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department for safety violations and poor training and record-keeping practices in its biological defense program, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 25). “These were serious violations that should call for this sort of settlement,” said department spokesman Donald White, noting the penalty is greater than the combined amounts of the agency’s last 11 settled fines. The university’s Board of Regents must approve the fine and is scheduled to meet Tuesday, said Texas A&M President Elsa Murano. “We proactively offered the figure of $1 million,” Murano said.  “We're setting a standard here, not only a standard for lab safety and performance of safety measures but also a standard that others will realize that this is the type of financial agreement that they should expect to make when standards are not maintained.” Inspectors from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are expected to visit the university next month to determine whether its biodefense program will be allowed to resume operations.  It is uncertain how long it would take them to reach a decision on the 2007 suspension, said university spokesman Jason Cook. Federal scrutiny of the university program began after a laboratory worker suffered a Brucella infection in 2006 and another three were exposed to Q fever, AP reported. Federal investigators found that the biodefense program had misplaced vials of Brucella, failed to adequately restrict access to biological agents and did not properly store disease samples and infected animals, among other security violations.  They also noted signs of insect infestation and failures by workers to remove laboratory coats or wash their hands right after working with disease agents. Murano said that university administrators have addressed the safety problems and researchers hope to resume their work shortly. “Our vaccine and therapeutic research, although relatively small in terms of actual dollars, is, nonetheless, a significant and critical part of our efforts to protect the citizens of our community, state and nation from those who may choose to do us harm,” Murano said.  “We're just eagerly awaiting the return of the CDC in March” (Associated Press/Houston Chronicle, Feb. 21). Back to top

U.S. Strikes Failing Satellite Using a sea-based missile defense system, the United States last night destroyed a failing satellite that the Bush administration said could threaten people on the ground if the satellite’s fuel tank were allowed to fall to Earth intact, the Defense Department announced (see GSN, Feb. 20). The USS Lake Erie, sailing in the Pacific Ocean, launched a modified Standard Missile 3 at 10:26 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, striking the satellite orbiting about 153 miles above the planet’s surface (U.S. Defense Department release, Feb. 20). One senior official said the U.S. military had probably achieved its goal of destroying the spy satellite’s fuel tank, containing 1,000 pounds of toxic hydrazine, but that it would not be confirmed for up to 48 hours. “We are very confident we hit the satellite and we also have a high degree of confidence we hit the tank,” said Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a press briefing this morning (Capaccio/Fireman, Bloomberg, Feb. 21). Another defense official told the Associated Press that Pentagon observers viewed an explosion when the interceptor struck the satellite, suggesting that the hydrazine tank had been hit (Robert Burns, Associated Press/Google News, Feb. 21). The debris field created by the colliding satellite and the nonexplosive interceptor was smaller than expected, Cartwright said, and no pieces larger than a football remained.  Pentagon officials earlier said that most of the debris would fall into Earth’s atmosphere within a few days (Bloomberg, Feb. 21). Plans to destroy the satellite drew the wrath of a number of critics who questioned the U.S. justification for its attempt.  Both China and Russia expressed concern, and a number of arms control advocacy groups suggested the test could be intended to demonstrate U.S. antisatellite capabilities, to bolster U.S. missile defense programs, or to prevent the nation’s most modern radar spy satellite equipment from landing in an adversary’s hands. “Whatever the motivation for it, demonstrating an antisatellite weapon is counterproductive to U.S. long-term interests, given that the United States has the most to gain from an international space weapons ban.  Instead, it should be taking the lead in negotiating a treaty,” said Laura Grego of the Union of Concerned Scientists in a prepared statement (see GSN, Feb. 13). “If the Pentagon demonstrates that its missile defense systems can destroy satellites, it will be very difficult to convince other countries that they shouldn't develop a similar antisatellite capability,” she added.  “Moreover, concern that the United States has this offensive capability deployed around the world will likely complicate relations with Russian and China” (Union of Concerned Scientists release, Feb. 20). In Moscow, Russian officials released a statement expressing concern that the U.S. action was an “attempt to move the arms race into space” the London Times reported. Washington recently rebuffed a Chinese-Russian proposal to craft a treaty barring the weaponization of space (David Byers, London Times, Feb. 21). One private U.S. expert yesterday defended the U.S. action and the rationale that public safety was the primary motivation. “People are looking for ulterior motives for the shootdown because the official explanation — preventing 1,000 pounds of hydrazine falling from the sky — seems a bit thin,” wrote James Lewis, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Technology and Public Policy Program, in a Google commentary. “The hydrazine explanation seems far-fetched, but the alternative explanations make even less sense,” he said. The idea that the United States was demonstrating antisatellite capabilities doesn’t hold water because “this is a ballistic missile defense test,” he said, the difference being that antisatellite weapons would typically attack targets in higher orbits. Similarly implausible is the idea that U.S. spy technology would fall into the wrong the hands, Lewis said. “The probability of gaining useful information from the crash is low, as the best technology would have to survive re-entry and the debris would have to fall in an opponent-controlled area,” he wrote.   “The probability of surviving re-entry and landing in a hostile controlled area are too low to explain the decision to shoot down.” Therefore, the hydrazine rationale would make the most sense, given the fact that a tank containing the material did survive the 2003 disastrous re-entry of the U.S. space shuttle Columbia, he said. Lewis said there would be an added bonus to successfully destroying the satellite:  “planetary defense.”  While the risk of an asteroid devastating the Earth may be “so rare as to be improbable,” he said, “it would be nice to have the ability to stop it.” “It's not worth spending much time worrying about being hit by asteroids, however, or even by satellites, but having spent all that money on missile defense, it’s nice that it finally has some practical use,” he added (James Lewis, Google commentary, Feb. 20). Back to top       Belarus Seeks Modern Missile Defenses Belarus is seeking to purchase advanced missile interceptors from Russia as a move to counter U.S. plans to deploy missile defenses in Eastern Europe, RIA Novosti reported today (see GSN, Oct. 23, 2006). Washington’s efforts to place 10 missile interceptors in Poland would upset the regional military balance, said Belarusian Defense Minister Leonid Maltsev. As a result, “the purchase of S-400 systems is being negotiated” with Russia, he said. S-400 systems have been deployed around Moscow (see GSN, Aug. 6, 2007), and are capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles with ranges up to 3,500 kilometers (RIA Novosti, Feb. 21). Back to top

Report Urges Cutback of “Dirty Bomb” Ingredient U.S. research and medical facilities should reduce their use of devices containing cesium chloride, a radioactive form of cesium 137 that could be used in a radiological “dirty bomb,” the National Research Council said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 10, 2007). The private advisory organization said that roughly 1,000 devices containing the material are used at U.S. universities and hospitals for purposes such as irradiating blood prior to transfusion.  Cesium chlorine use appears to be increasing, Reuters reported. “Because of the nature of the applications that employ these irradiators, they are most commonly located in hospitals, blood banks and universities, many of which are located in cities, large and small,” according to the NRC report.  “The presence of these sizable sources in areas that are potentially attractive targets (for attack) is a major factor making radioactive cesium chloride such a concern to the committee.” In addition, no U.S. facilities exist for disposing of the devices, said Leonard Connell, a staffer at Sandia National Laboratories who worked on the panel that prepared the report. The report from the National Academy of Sciences body identified the irradiators as the top concern when it comes to material that could be used in a radiological weapon.  Panel members urged U.S. officials to stop licensing the cesium chlorine irradiators, halt their import and export and promote decommissioning of existing machines. Meanwhile, the government should push pricier but less dangerous cesium chloride substitutes that are equally effective for irradiation, the report says (Will Dunham, Reuters, Feb. 20). Back to top

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