North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan is set to meet his U.S. counterpart tomorrow in Geneva (Claro Cortes/Getty Images). New Solution Sought on North Korean Nuclear Issue North Korea and the United States might have found a way to end the standoff that is holding up an agreement to eliminate the Stalinist state’s nuclear program, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, March 11). Diplomats discussed the plan ahead of the meeting set to begin tomorrow in Geneva between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan...Full Story

U.S. Mideast Commander Resigns Over Iran Statements Navy Adm. William Fallon stepped down as head of U.S. forces in the Middle East yesterday over statements he made that he said have been incorrectly perceived as critiques of White House policy on Iran, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 11)...Full Story

Indian Nuclear Officials to Get Safeguards Briefing Indian diplomats were scheduled today to begin briefing their own nuclear agency officials on the terms of an inspections agreement recently reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency, India’s NDTV reported (see GSN, March 11)...Full Story

	Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Study Reports No Link Between Hussein, Al-Qaeda A study set to be released this week reports that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein maintained no operational connections with the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, the McClatchy News Service reported (see GSN, April 6, 2007). Researchers conducting the study sponsored by the Defense Department examined more than 600,000 documents seized following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.  While finding no evidence of a “direct operational link” between Hussein and al-Qaeda, they did report that Baghdad had backed other terrorist organizations. The Bush administration made the reputed connection between Hussein and the organization that perpetrated the Sept. 11 attacks a leading justification for war against Iraq.  Then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed in September 2002 that there was “bulletproof” evidence of such a link, while former Secretary of State Colin Powell — using what turned out to be bad intelligence — referred to it while making his case for the invasion before the U.N. Security Council in February 2003. The study, from the federally funded Institute for Defense Analyses, follows others that have rejected the Hussein-al-Qaeda connection. The Senate Intelligence Committee said in September 2006 that the leader of the secular Iraqi government was “distrustful of al-Qaeda and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al-Qaeda to provide material or operational support.” Hussein was executed at the end of 2006.  Searches in Iraq have turned up no evidence of operational WMD programs, another core component of the argument for the invasion (see GSN, March 10; Warren Strobel, McClatchy News Service/Kansas City Star, March 11). Back to top       Researchers Rate Terrorist Risk to U.S. Cities Eastern U.S. cities are the most vulnerable in the nation to terrorist threats, according to a recent academic review sponsored by the U.S. Homeland Security Department, the University of Arizona announced last week (see GSN, July 23, 2007). Arizona researcher Walter Piegorsch led a statistical study using less traditional risk factors — such as social factors, environmental hazards and infrastructure durability — to assess the threats faced by 132 major U.S. urban areas. The study found that port cities were at greatest risk, particularly those on the northeastern and southeastern coasts.  Boise, Idaho, was the only urban area west of Texas that fell into the researchers’ “high-risk” category (click map to see summary). Piegorsch and his fellow researchers said the study results, published in the December issue of Risk Analysis, could aid federal efforts to allocate antiterrorism spending. “Our capacity to adequately prepare for and respond to these vulnerabilities varies widely across the country, especially in urban areas,” the study says.  “Any one-size-fits-all strategy” would “limit urban areas’ abilities to prepare for and respond to terrorist events” (University of Arizona release, March 3). Back to top

New Solution Sought on North Korean Nuclear Issue North Korea and the United States might have found a way to end the standoff that is holding up an agreement to eliminate the Stalinist state’s nuclear program, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, March 11). Diplomats discussed the plan ahead of the meeting set to begin tomorrow in Geneva between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan. North Korea agreed last year to a denuclearization deal that required it to provide a full accounting of its atomic activities by the end of 2007.  The regime acknowledged possession of up to 40 kilograms of plutonium but has avoided detailing its suspected uranium enrichment efforts and alleged assistance for Syrian nuclear activities.  Washington has said it would not provide some rewards set under the agreement until Pyongyang comes clean. The new strategy could involve separating the declaration from those issues, which might instead be discussed between Hill and Kim and then at the six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, March 12). Under the plan developed by China, North Korea and the United States would use a joint statement to address their respective stands on the uranium and nuclear export issues, the Associated Press reported.  Washington has reportedly declared its support for the proposal, while Pyongyang had not yet responded, the Yonhap News Agency reported (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, March 12). “I really have less concern about what form it takes or how many different pieces of paper there may have to be,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last month. Rice and Hill believe that the primary threat comes from North Korea’s plutonium, officials told the Post.  The uranium and Syria matters are seen in the administration as less pressing than the potential for plutonium proliferation, but Washington also believes that they must be addressed in order to move Pyongyang toward full denuclearization (Kessler, Washington Post). “We hope that progress should be made at the Geneva talks so that the six-party process may move forward to the next stage and related countries start discussing the dismantling of nuclear facilities,” South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said today (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, March 12). The North Korean nuclear negotiations are expected to be on the agenda next month when new South Korean President Lee Myung-bak travels to Washington for his first meeting with President George W. Bush, AP reported (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, March 12). Meanwhile, the top U.S. military official in South Korea said yesterday that another key component of the denuclearization process should be completed this summer, Kyodo News reported. Roughly 2,000 nuclear fuel rods have been removed from a reactor at the Yongbyon complex, said Army Gen. Burwell Bell said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.  The remaining 6,000 are expected to be removed by “about August,” he said. The reactor and two other plants at Yongbyon are being disabled under the second phase of the nuclear agreement.  Removing the rods from the plutonium-producing reactor would make it difficult for the facility to resume operations should the deal fall apart. When the nuclear declaration issue is finalized and the plants fully disabled, the focus would turn toward full dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear sector (Kyodo News I, March 12). Bell said the United States maintains its belief that North Korea has operated a uranium-based nuclear weapon program, Kyodo reported. “North Korea is also believed to have pursued a highly enriched uranium development program that if fully developed could provide an alternative method of nuclear weapons development,” he said (Kyodo News II, March 11). Back to top       U.S. Mideast Commander Resigns Over Iran Statements Navy Adm. William Fallon stepped down as head of U.S. forces in the Middle East yesterday over statements he made that he said have been incorrectly perceived as critiques of White House policy on Iran, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 11). “Recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my views and the president's policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time and hamper efforts in the [U.S. Central Command] region,” Fallon said yesterday in a statement announcing his resignation. In an article published last week, Esquire magazine depicted Fallon as the single high-level official speaking out against a potential U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear facilities suspected of abetting a nuclear weapons development.  Iran maintains its nuclear program is only for civilian power production. “I don't believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command area of responsibility,” Fallon said, adding he regrets “the simple perception that there is.” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed the matter was a distraction and accepted the general’s resignation, he told reporters at the Pentagon.  He added, however, that Fallon was not pressed to resign and his statements did not contradict White House policy. “I don't think that there really were differences at all,” he said (Robert Burns, Associated Press/Charlotte Observer, March 12). The author of the Esquire article, former Naval War College professor Thomas Barnett, wrote that Fallon’s resignation would indicate U.S. plans for military action against Iran.  Gates yesterday dismissed the claim as “just ridiculous,” the Washington Post reported.  In conversations with colleagues, Fallon diverged from supporters of military action against Iran by arguing that — as with China — a system of regular diplomacy was needed to address the potential threat. According to Esquire, Fallon said that Iraq is distracting Washington from other foreign policy concerns.  The Middle East now has “five or six pots boiling over,” the magazine quoted him as saying, and “our nation can’t afford to be mesmerized by one problem.” Many military professionals expected Fallon to be disciplined over the article, according to one retired general who said the piece was “definitely the straw that broke the camel’s back,” largely because of its “extraordinarily flip, damning and insulting tone” (Thomas Ricks, Washington Post, March 12). Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday called on world powers to take all possible measures to resume talks with Iran over suspending the country’s disputed nuclear activities, Agence France-Presse reported. “We must seek an innovative approach.  This means first and foremost doing everything possible — and even impossible — to begin discussions with Iran,” he said (Agence France-Presse/Google News, March 11). Back to top       Indian Nuclear Officials to Get Safeguards Briefing Indian diplomats were scheduled today to begin briefing their own nuclear agency officials on the terms of an inspections agreement recently reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency, India’s NDTV reported (see GSN, March 11). The in-house briefings would precede meetings set for March 17 to present the agreement to key critics of a planned U.S.-Indian nuclear trade deal. That deal would allow New Delhi to buy U.S. nuclear technology in exchange for placing Indian nuclear power facilities under international supervision, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has so far failed to overcome opposition to the agreement from key political supporters. Four communist parties agreed to allow Singh to negotiate the inspections agreement but vowed to withdraw their parliamentary support, thus forcing early elections, if the prime minister signed the agreement without their approval. Lead critic Prakash Karat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said recently that his group would need two to three months to study the accord before offering potential approval.  That timing could jeopardize the trade deal, which needs to leap some key hurdles before the Bush administration’s term ends 10 months from now. Singh’s nuclear envoys planned to describe the IAEA inspections agreement to India’s 11-member Atomic Energy Commission today, NDTV reported, and commission head Anil Kakodkar was also scheduled to meet personally with Singh (NDTV, March 12). Meanwhile, a former senior IAEA official lambasted the bilateral trade deal yesterday, Iran’s news agency reported. “The U.S.-India deal is an absolute catastrophe.  It is negating and jeopardizing” the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, said Pierre Goldschmidt, former agency deputy director general.  “It will have terrible consequences if it gets through.  What’s so special about India?” (Islamic Republic News Agency, March 12). Back to top       U.S. Commander Seeks Chinese Transparency China’s reluctance to discuss its military ambitions creates uncertainty and thus concern among U.S. defense officials, a top U.S. military commander said yesterday (see GSN, March 7). “The transparency that they profess is insufficient in our view,” Adm. Timothy Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.  “They clearly want to expand their areas of influence, and those strategic goals of theirs, if not exactly counter to ours, then they are at least of concern.” A recent Defense Department reported highlighted Chinese progress in developing cruise and ballistic missiles, including strategic nuclear systems, Agence France-Presse reported. In addition, the Pentagon has estimated that China’s military budget is increasing rapidly (see GSN, March 5). How that spending is allocated, whether it is going toward weapon systems or personnel, remains unclear, Keating said. “When I ask them they choose not answer the question,” he said. “They do not share with us their intentions … beyond the overarching ‘We seek to defend those things that are ours.’  It’s the same answer to nearly every question we ask,” Keating added (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, March 12). Back to top       Kazakh Lawmakers Back Anti-Nuclear Terror Treaty Lawmakers in the lower house of Kazakhstan’s parliament endorsed a measure today that would ratify a 2005 U.N. nuclear terror prevention treaty, Interfax reported (see GSN, July 27, 2007). The International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism calls on nations to better secure their nuclear materials and implement laws to criminalize nuclear smuggling. “The ratification of the convention creates a legal ground for international interaction in the area of countering terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” the parliament’s international affairs, defense and security committee said in a statement. The legislation moved to the parliament’s upper chamber for approval (Interfax, March 12). Back to top       Health Field Urged to Demand End to Producing Medical Isotopes With Highly Enriched Uranium Health professionals have a “strategic opportunity and obligation” to pressure medical isotope makers to stop using highly enriched uranium in their production process, two Australian nonproliferation advocates said in a Lancet commentary this week (see GSN, June 19, 2006). Four radiopharmaceutical producers dominate the global market and all of them fuel their production facilities with weapon-usable uranium, said Bill Williams of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and Tilman Ruff of the Nossal Institute for Global Health. Commercial security standards for protecting that fuel are inadequate, leaving the uranium vulnerable to terrorist theft, the two said. To reduce that risk, isotope producers should convert their facilities to use low-enriched uranium, a move that is technically feasible and can be achieved at low cost, they said. While governments and scientific academies should advocate this policy, pressure from consumers could have the greatest effect. “Physicians and health care organizations should pressure relevant governments (and the Euratom Supply Agency) to compel existing facilities that use HEU to convert to LEU, and ensure that no new reactors within their jurisdiction use HEU,” Williams and Ruff wrote (Williams/Ruff, The Lancet, March 8-14). Back to top

Enforcement Needed for BWC, Russian General Says The Biological Weapons Convention’s lack of an enforcement system could enable nations and terrorists to produce biological warfare agents, the commander of Russia’s WMD protection force said today (see GSN, Dec. 17, 2007). “At present, there is no official proof that some countries are developing biological weapons.  At the same time, unlike other international treaties banning weapons of mass destruction, the [Biological Weapons Convention] is declarative and has no mechanism to control its compliance,” ITAR-Tass quoted Col. Gen. Vladimir Filippov as saying. A decade of “multilateral talks involving signatory countries to create a mechanism of equal control yielded no results, as the United States blocked them in 2002,” he told a military newspaper (see GSN, Nov. 15, 2002).  “This circumstance opens opportunities for some countries and most terrorist organizations to translate into life their criminal intentions.” Filippov added that Russia’s military is equipped with “state-of-the-art, highly effective means of protection from most potential biological agents,” as well as biodefense laboratories that can safeguard the military and public against an attack (ITAR-Tass, March 12). Back to top

Quick Resolution Sought for Design Issue of Blue Grass Chemical Weapons Disposal Plant A senior official at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky expressed hope yesterday that a new question regarding the design of a planned chemical weapons disposal plant would not throw the project off track, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported (see GSN, March 11). The Defense Department Explosive Safety Board is unfamiliar with the design of steel reinforcement to be used in concrete walls for rooms in which explosives would be removed from munitions.  The matter could delay the beginning of construction of the facility, further complicating the depot’s ability to meet its congressionally mandated deadline of 2017 to neutralize 523 tons of blister and nerve agents.  The Pentagon had previously estimated that weapons disposal would be finished in 2023. Officials are scheduled to discuss the issue next week in Washington, said Jim Fritsche, senior government manager for the disposal effort. “I’d like to have things resolved before June, but I can’t predict at this point in time when it will be done,” he said during a public meeting.  “I guarantee we’ll work on this as quickly as we can.” Doug Hindman, chairman of the Chemical Demilitarization Community Advisory Board, questioned why the issue developed after 80 percent of design work had been completed for the 87,000-square-foot facility. “We all take some blame for this,” Fritsche said.  “I think it’s a fact that you get tied up in the design, and tied up in the project, and tied up in moving things forward, and you forget that you’re not bringing everyone else along with you. “If we had thought that this would be a problem, and had seen that earlier on, we would have gotten data to the [safety board], and we could have gotten calculations to them … beforehand,” he added. Safety remains the primary focus in preparing the facility, officials said. “When something goes ‘Boom!’ it’s never good, and a lot of times there are people nearby,” Fritsche said.  If the safety board requires “more detail, we want to give them more detail” (Greg Kocher, Lexington Herald-Leader, March 12). Back to top

U.S. Awards SBIRS Contract The U.S. Defense Department announced Monday that it had awarded a $350 million contract to Lockheed Martin Corp. to acquire components and conduct engineering work for the Space-Based Infrared System High satellite program for detecting enemy missile launches, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 13, 2007). The defense contractor’s space systems division has led work on the project, which aims to establish a network of missile warning satellites that would improve U.S. intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance (Associated Press/CNBC, March 11). 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.