South Korean nuclear negotiator Chun Young-woo today urged North Korea to complete its declaration of nuclear activities (Jung Yeon-je/Getty Images). U.S. Wants North Korean Nuclear Declaration Within Days North Korea should “in the next few days” provide a full declaration of its atomic activities, the lead U.S. envoy to negotiations on the Stalinist state’s nuclear programs said today (see GSN, April 1). The document is a key requirement in a 2007 denuclearization agreement which has faltered this year amid U.S. allegations that Pyongyang remains unwilling to address all components of its nuclear sector.  The declaration had been due Dec. 31. “We are very concerned about time,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said during a trip to South Korea (Burt Herman, Associated Press, April 2)...Full Story

Nuclear Terror Threat “Real,” Experts Say High-level U.S. officials and counterterrorism experts are scheduled to testify today on Capitol Hill regarding the persistent threat of a terrorist nuclear strike on a major U.S. urban center in coming decades, USA Today reported (see GSN, March 31)...Full Story

Various Uses Seen for Czech Radar The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said failure to come to terms with Poland on housing missile interceptors would not necessarily eliminate the value of a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 31)...Full Story

	Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Terror Funds Flow Through Saudi Arabia, U.S. Says Saudi Arabia continues to be the primary funding source for al-Qaeda and other terrorist entities because the country has not taken necessary actions to target individuals and organizations that finance terrorism, the U.S. Treasury Department’s top counterterrorism official said yesterday (see GSN, April 19, 2006). “Saudi Arabia today remains the location where more money is going to terrorism, to Sunni terror groups and to the Taliban than any other place in the world,” Undersecretary Stuart Levey told the Senate Finance Committee. Levey said that U.S. overtures to target terrorism funding sources have gained little traction in Saudi Arabia, which U.S. officials have named a major source of terrorism funding in the past. “We continue to face significant challenges as we move forward with these efforts, including fostering and maintaining the political will among other governments to take effective and consistent action,” he said, later adding that “our work is not nearly complete.” Referring to a March 24 Los Angeles Times report on wider problems with U.S. actions to eliminate funding for terror groups, committee members requested an independent study of Washington’s financial counterterrorism efforts. According to U.S. officials and counterterrorism analysts, the campaign has been plagued by ebbing international support, interagency strife and adaptation among terror groups. “We are simply not prepared right now to keep up with them and put them out of business once and for all,” said Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the committee’s ranking Republican (Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times, April 2). Back to top

U.S. Wants North Korean Nuclear Declaration Within Days North Korea should “in the next few days” provide a full declaration of its atomic activities, the lead U.S. envoy to negotiations on the Stalinist state’s nuclear programs said today (see GSN, April 1). The document is a key requirement in a 2007 denuclearization agreement which has faltered this year amid U.S. allegations that Pyongyang remains unwilling to address all components of its nuclear sector.  The declaration had been due Dec. 31. “We are very concerned about time,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said during a trip to South Korea (Burt Herman, Associated Press, April 2). “There is no reason to wait further,” said chief South Korean nuclear negotiator Chun Young-woo following a meeting yesterday with Hill. Hill said that a declaration Pyongyang said it submitted in November was “research material” that did not address suspected uranium enrichment efforts or nuclear exports to Syria, the Yonhap News Agency reported (Lee Chi-dong, Yonhap News Agency I, April 1). The U.S. envoy also labeled as “unhelpful” recent North Korean actions seemingly aimed at new South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s more hard-line approach toward diplomatic relations between the neighboring countries, the Associated Press reported. Since taking office in February, Lee has tied economic support for North Korea to the regime’s willingness to accept nuclear disarmament.  Seoul’s military chief also said last week that South Korea would attack North Korean nuclear sites if it appeared an atomic strike was imminent. In turn, Pyongyang has fired off several short-range missiles, expelled South Korean officials, said it could reduce the South to “ashes” and called Lee a “traitor.” As Pyongyang’s “slander and its moves to raise tensions would never be helpful to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, we urge (the North) to immediately halt these activities,” the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a fax message to the North Korean military.  “Our side is always prepared for dialogue on inter-Korean peace and reducing tensions” (Herman, AP, April 2). Despite the North Korean actions and rhetoric, a U.S. State Department official said yesterday he did not see “any change in approach either from us or from the North Koreans” on the nuclear talks, Yonhap reported. “I don’t think the kind of rhetoric we’ve seen from them is particularly helpful,” agency spokesman Tom Casey said.  “On the other hand, at this point, I certainly don’t think it’s indicative of a change in policy with respect to the six-party talks” (Yonhap News Agency II, April 2). Back to top       Nuclear Terror Threat “Real,” Experts Say High-level U.S. officials and counterterrorism experts are scheduled to testify today on Capitol Hill regarding the persistent threat of a terrorist nuclear strike on a major U.S. urban center in coming decades, USA Today reported (see GSN, March 31). “The prospect of terrorists detonating a nuclear device on American soil sometime within the next quarter-century is real and growing,” says prepared testimony by Gary Ackerman, research director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (see GSN, March 13). An act of nuclear terrorism could kill hundreds of thousands of people, cause $1 trillion in damage and spread panic around the nation, according to experts, who are set to speak as part of an ongoing Senate inquiry on U.S. defenses against the threat. “Such a calamitous attack would represent a game-changing event far exceeding the impact of 9/11 on the nation,” Ackerman is expected to tell the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, head of the Energy Department’s Intelligence and Counterintelligence Office, is expected to address initiatives to destroy and safeguard other nations’ nuclear stockpiles and other efforts to combat the threat (see GSN, March 13).  The Energy Department has also increased programs to block smuggling of nuclear materials and augmented U.S. capabilities to disarm an atomic bomb, USA Today reported (see GSN, Jan. 7).  The Homeland Security Department is testing and deploying radiation detection equipment at overseas ports and U.S. points of entry (see GSN, March 5). “Today, al-Qaeda’s nuclear intent remains clear,” Mowatt-Larssen’s testimony says, adding that regular reports of nuclear smuggling attempts suggest “that we collectively have not done enough to suppress trafficking and ensure the security of all nuclear materials worldwide.” Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman (ID-Conn.) said yesterday that the hearing “is not to encourage unnecessary fear but to confront the threatening realities so that we can then deal with them in defense of our country and people” (Mimi Hall, USA Today, April 2). Meanwhile, Sandia National Laboratories Senior Vice President Al Romig yesterday discussed various WMD counterterrorism technologies developed at the site, the Associated Press reported. Speaking at the start of a three-day conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Romig referred to detection equipment able to distinguish benign radiation sources from possible weapon ingredients as well as decontaminating foams and methods for determining biological agent sources. “There are no silver bullets that will automatically just fix the problem,” he said.  “There isn’t some magic law that we can pass, there isn’t some magic box that a place like Sandia can create to fix the problem. … It’s really a systems solution that we require.” Multilayered counterterrorism efforts involve determining the presence of terrorist threats and the likelihood they could be carried out, deploying detection technology to prevent threats from entering the country, and establishing response and recovery plans in case an attack is completed, Romig said (Sue Major Holmes, Associated Press/El Paso Times, April 2). Back to top       Khan Hopes for Release From House Arrest Former top Pakistani nuclear scientist and proliferator Abdul Qadeer Khan said Monday that he hopes to be released following more than four years of confinement, Reuters reported (see GSN, March 10). Supporters are pressing the incoming coalition administration to release Khan, who was placed under house arrest in early 2004 after admitting to providing nuclear knowledge and technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. The idea that he was confined for his own safety “is nothing but a lame excuse,” he told Nawa-i-Waqt.  “It is simply irrational.  I was roaming around the world freely at times when in 1979 numerous fake cases had been registered against me in Holland and I faced no security threat.” Khan, who turned 72 on Monday, is believed to have illegally obtained blueprints for uranium enrichment centrifuges from the Dutch branch of Urenco, the Dutch-British-German consortium where he worked the 1970s (see GSN, June 9, 2005).  A Dutch court found him guilty of nuclear espionage in 1983 and imposed a four-year prison sentence, but a technicality later forced a reversal of the ruling. There is little chance that Khan would be released in the near future, a source told Reuters.  There has been no serious discussion of the issue in policy circles, the source added (Augustine Anthony, Reuters, April 2). Back to top       U.S.-Russian Strategic Deal Possible Soon U.S. and Russian leaders could sign a “strategic framework” this weekend to guide future nuclear arms control between the two former Cold War adversaries, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, March 28). The plan has a lower profile than talks over U.S. plans to deploy missile defenses in Europe (see related GSN story, today), but it could have long-range implications. “The Cold War is over," said U.S. President George W. Bush in a speech today in Romania.  “Russia is not our enemy.  We are working toward a new security relationship with Russia whose foundation does not rest on the prospect of mutual annihilation.” An official in Moscow said there was hope for a document signing when Bush meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia. “We proceed from the assumption that we will succeed in completing the work and that it will be adopted in some form," said Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Russia has been particularly concerned with maintaining a vestige of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which is due to expire in late 2009.  The Bush administration has eschewed detailed arms control talks, but has held meetings to discuss Russian concerns (see GSN, Feb. 4). By agreeing to a long-range plan, the two presidents could achieve a lasting mark that has so far avoided them, one expert said. “Both have invested a lot in this relationship, but they haven't had a big payoff,” said Andrew Kuchins of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  “I think they would like to reverse that trajectory.” Kuchins suggested the chances of completing the framework were good. “What drives me to be optimistic is that fundamentally we are not a threat to Russia and Russia is not a threat to us,” he said (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/Google News, April 2). Back to top

Bush Seeks Boost to Biowatch Network The Bush administration has requested a nearly 40 percent increase in funding to support the Homeland Security Department office responsible for coordinating U.S. biological defense activities, a senior official testified yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 9). The department’s Health Affairs Office oversees efforts to detect biological attacks, direct the federal response to such events and to secure U.S. food and agricultural supplies. The administration has requested $161.3 million for fiscal 2009, an increase of $44.8 million from current levels, said Jeffrey Runge, the department’s chief medical officer, in testimony to the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee. Much of the requested funds would be directed toward planning an expansion of the Biowatch network of biological detection sensors.  Sensors have so far been deployed in more than 30 major U.S. cities, and the department hopes to expand the system in fiscal 2010, Runge said (U.S. Homeland Security Department release, April 1). Back to top

North Korea Pursuing Nuke-Capable ICBM, U.S. Says North Korea continues to seek a nuclear-capable ICBM despite signing a denuclearization pact last year, U.S. Missile Defense Agency chief Lt. Gen. Henry Obering said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 28). “North Korea’s ballistic missile development and export activities remain especially troubling,” Obering said during a hearing on Capitol Hill.  “Pyongyang continues to press forward with the development of a nuclear-capable ICBM.” New solid-fuel short- and medium-range missiles could allow the Stalinist state “to deploy a more accurate, mobile and responsive force,” Obering said (see GSN, Feb. 8). “North Korea’s nuclear weapons program makes these advances even more troubling to our allies and the commanders of our forces in that region,” he said. Reports of North Korean-Iranian missile cooperation are an additional source of concern, Obering said, noting that Pyongyang is believed to have sold midrange ballistic missile technology to Tehran (Kyodo News/BreitBart, April 2). Back to top

Various Uses Seen for Czech Radar The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said failure to come to terms with Poland on housing missile interceptors would not necessarily eliminate the value of a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 31). Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has appeared more reserved about the U.S. plan than his counterpart in Prague.  Warsaw has demanded security assurances and support for upgrading its military as part of any deal.  U.S. officials have remained publicly optimistic about sealing deals with both nations in coming months. A radar in Europe could have a number of uses within the U.S. missile shield, even if not tied to the interceptors, according to Lt. Gen. Henry Obering.  It could provide information for U.S. and NATO missile defense systems outside the continent, he said. “The radar itself is a tremendous capability,” Obering said during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee (Associated Press I/Washington Post, April 1). Meanwhile, U.S. leaders expressed optimism yesterday that they could overcome Russian opposition to the missile defense plan for Europe, AP reported. A scheduled Saturday meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin could result in a deal that would include measures intended to assure Moscow that it would not be the target of the system.  Proposed provisions include giving Russian officials access to the sites and keeping the installations nonoperational until an Iranian missile threat is proven. The system is now scheduled for limited operations by 2011 and full capability by 2013. “Obviously, we’ve got a lot of work to do to allay suspicions and old fears, but I think we’re making pretty good progress along those lines,” Bush said yesterday. “The need for missile defense in Europe is real and it is urgent,” he added.  “Iran is pursuing technology that could be used to produce nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles of increasing range that deliver them.” Missile defense is likely to be addressed in a “strategic framework” of issues on which the two nations agree (see related GSN story, today).  Inclusion, though, would not be an immediate sign that the dispute had been resolved, as Moscow is not expected to state its support for the program in the document. “The Russians are probably never going to like missile defense,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.  “But I think the assurances that we have provided and the mechanisms that we have proposed give them assurance that it is not aimed at them, and my hope is that that will lead to positive outcomes” at this week’s NATO summit in Romania and the subsequent Bush-Putin meeting. NATO members are likely to publicly back missile defense during the summit, Gates said (Robert Burns, Associated Press II/Las Vegas Sun, April 1). Back to top

U.S. “Dirty Bomb” Guidelines Approach Completion Proposed U.S. guidelines for responding to “dirty bomb” attacks are approaching final approval, but concerns persist that the federal rules could permit radioactivity levels outside U.S. environmental standards, Defense Environment Alert reported yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 5, 2007). The proposed guidelines are in the “clearance process,” according to a U.S. Homeland Security Department spokeswoman. The Protective Action Guidance for Radiological Dispersal Device and Improvised Nuclear Device Incidents would instruct emergency responders, all levels of government and the public at large on appropriate actions in the immediate and longer-term aftermath of a “dirty bomb” attack. Environmental Protection Agency officials, Democratic legislators and environmental activists have voiced opposition to the rules, which would allow responders to handle environmental recovery at Superfund sites using case-specific standards rather than mandating strict, long-term cleanup goals.  Resulting cleanup efforts could allow radioactivity to remain at levels thousands of times greater than EPA regulations permit (Defense Environment Alert, April 1). Back to top

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