British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, shown last month, announced a new package of incentives today to try to persuade Iran to freeze its nuclear programs (Aamir Qureshi/Getty Images). U.N. Powers Finish Offer on Iran’s Nuclear Program Talks between six U.N. powers today ended with agreement on an updated incentives package aimed at persuading Iran to halt disputed nuclear activities, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, May 1). “I am glad to say that we have got agreement on an offer that will be made to the government of Iran,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said following talks in London with the top foreign officials from China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States...Full Story

North Korea Pledges to Destroy Nuclear Site Cooling Tower, Release Documents on Reactor History North Korea has agreed in principle to destroy a cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear facility and to release documents related to production of plutonium that could be used in atomic weapons, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, May 1)...Full Story

Disarmament Depends on Others, Nuclear Powers Say By Greg Webb Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Nuclear-armed powers this week reaffirmed their commitment to total nuclear disarmament provided other nations move first to ease security concerns (see GSN, April 29)...Full Story

	Friday, May 2, 2008

Defense Bill Addresses WMD Threats The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday unanimously endorsed legislation that authorizes hundreds of millions of dollars for anti-WMD and nonproliferation programs (see GSN, March 7). The fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill “adds more than $120 million for various nonproliferation and combating WMD efforts” in the United States and abroad, according to a committee press release.  It also includes language intended to bolster those programs (U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee release, May 1). The total authorized amount for WMD nonproliferation efforts is $1.8 billion, according to Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.).  It would also allow $6.6 billion in spending on nuclear stockpile maintenance (Senator Jeff Bingaman release, May 1). Lawmakers backed another $50 million for procurement of biological and chemical defense equipment and for continued research in this area, the committee said. They also provided $50 million for denuclearization of North Korea and waived prohibitions against such work by the Energy and Defense departments (see related GSN story, today). The legislation designates the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration as the agency in charge of managing excess fissile material and consolidated funding for the mixed-oxide fuel program under the agency. The full Senate must approve the legislation, which would then be melded with the House version of the bill.  Fiscal 2009 begins Oct. 1 (SASC release). The bill urges the Defense Department to assign a permanent WMD response unit to its Northern Command, said Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). Sessions backed language in the fiscal 2009 legislation that he said would eliminate the need for Northern Command to pull trained military personnel from other units to respond to an unconventional weapons attack on the continental United States. “Given the current threat environment and the general risk of a terrorist attack at home, it makes sense that we specifically train and equip our troops to respond in case of an emergency,” Sessions said in a statement. The bill would also increase the funding authorized for the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon to $45 million, allowing the program to develop high-speed, long-range precision missiles to continue (see GSN, Nov. 8, 2007). “Advanced Hypersonic Weapons technology is critical for long-range precision strikes.  I am pleased that my subcommittee has been able to provide substantial support to this program for the second year in a row,” Sessions said (U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions release, May 1). The legislation would also authorize $1.28 billion for operations at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, $74 million more than the amount requested by U.S. President George W. Bush, said U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) (see GSN, April 28). The site’s program for converting weapon-grade plutonium into mixed-oxide fuel would receive the full $487 million requested by the Bush administration. Another $10 million would be provided to the joint gas reactor technology demonstration program under the Russian fissile material program.  The committee notes in the bill that Russia would provide greater funding for the reactor, which can burn excess plutonium more efficiently than reactors currently in use (U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham release, May 1). Back to top       DHS Seeks More Money for Nuclear, Biological Defense The U.S. Homeland Security Department is seeking $1.18 billion in the next fiscal year for nuclear and biological security work involving several offices, according to an independent analysis published yesterday (see GSN, March 7). The budget for the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office would increase from $484.8 million in this fiscal year to $563.8 million in fiscal 2009, a jump of $79 million.  The office would direct $334.2 million toward continued development of the “global nuclear detection architecture” for interdiction of potential weapons material, the Partnership for Global Security said. That would include $67.7 million for development of new Advanced Spectroscopic Portal detectors that would be used to scan cargo containers and vehicles for nuclear or radiological material (see GSN, March 5).  Another $20 million would go toward the Securing the Cities Initiative, which is presently preparing a nuclear detection system to safeguard the New York City region (see GSN, Feb. 4). Homeland Security hopes to receive $146.9 million for laboratory projects under its Science and Technology Directorate, according to the analysis.  That would be $43.1 million more than allocated this year.  The agency would direct $16.2 million to beginning operations at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, which would conduct research on disease agents’ infectious properties, countermeasure efficacy and other areas.  Another $12.9 million would be used to prepare for construction of the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2007). The Homeland Security budget would provide $111.6 million for the Biowatch program, which has deployed biological agent sensors in 30 metropolitan areas around the country (see GSN, Jan. 9).  That would be a $35.5 million increase from funding this year and would provide for deployment of 150 sensors and testing of next-generation technology. Meanwhile, another $2.2 billion is scheduled to become available beginning in fiscal 2009 for the Project Bioshield program to develop countermeasures against WMD agents (see GSN, July 3, 2007).  The funding, the last part of $5.6 billion allocated several years ago, would be available through fiscal 2013. Funding for Customs and Border Protection cargo screening programs would drop from $158.1 million in this fiscal year to $149.5 million in the budget year beginning Oct. 1.  The program encompasses the Container Security Initiative and Secure Freight Initiative, which deploy detection systems at foreign ports (see GSN, Oct. 17, 2007). Homeland Security also plans to reduce funding for the Chemical and Biological Countermeasures Division of the Science and Technology Directorate from $208 million to $200.4 million (Jennifer Lacey, Partnership for Global Security, May 1). Back to top

U.N. Powers Finish Offer on Iran’s Nuclear Program Talks between six U.N. powers today ended with agreement on an updated incentives package aimed at persuading Iran to halt disputed nuclear activities, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, May 1). “I am glad to say that we have got agreement on an offer that will be made to the government of Iran,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said following talks in London with the top foreign officials from China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. The latest offer is a revised version of an incentives package from June 2006, Miliband said in a statement.  It is intended to illustrate “the benefits of cooperating with the international community,” he said. “We will be transmitting that offer, we won’t be revealing details except to the government of Iran and we very much hope that they will recognize the seriousness and the severity with which we have approached this issue and that they will respond in a timely manner to the suggestions we are making,” Miliband said (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, May 2). Miliband did not specify a particular schedule for Tehran’s response or indicate what might occur if the answer is negative, the Associated Press reported (Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, May 2). U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday expressed skepticism regarding Iran’s insistence that its nuclear activities are directed solely toward civilian power production, AP reported. “I continue to suspect this is not at all about a civil nuclear program,” Rice told journalists accompanying her to the meeting in London.  That claim appears questionable given Tehran’s dedication to developing its own uranium enrichment capability, she said.  “One has to wonder what is going on here,” according to Rice. Some proliferation experts believe that Iran might be obfuscating its nuclear intentions to gain diplomatic sway over its neighbors and a strong position in negotiations.  Other analysts contend that Tehran will attain nuclear weapons despite all international efforts to prevent that from happening (Anne Gearan, Associated Press II/Google News, May 1). Rice indicated yesterday that Washington might not support a significant increase in incentives for Iran, Reuters reported. “Diplomacy has many forms … and it’s not always a matter of sweeter,” she said. “The Iranians haven’t shown any interest — I don’t care what’s been put before them — in doing what they need to do, which is to suspend enrichment and reprocessing,” Rice said.  “Nothing has been able so far to change the fundamental problem. … It’s Iran, that’s the problem” (Arshad Mohammed, Reuters/International Herald Tribune, May 1). Meanwhile, Azerbaijan yesterday allowed Russian equipment to be shipped to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant after holding the material for several weeks, Voice of America reported. After receiving details on the delivery’s contents from Russia earlier this week, Azerbaijani officials permitted the equipment to move through a border checkpoint into Iran.  The country had held the shipment on grounds that it could violate U.N. sanctions imposed on Iran (Voice of America, May 1). Back to top       North Korea Pledges to Destroy Nuclear Site Cooling Tower, Release Documents on Reactor History North Korea has agreed in principle to destroy a cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear facility and to release documents related to production of plutonium that could be used in atomic weapons, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, May 1). Reaffirming an earlier offer, Pyongyang said last week during a visit by U.S. experts that destruction of the cooling tower would occur within one day of North Korea’s removal from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism (see GSN, May 1). The cooling tower is already unusable due to ongoing efforts to disable facilities at Yongbyon as part of a 2007 agreement intended to shutter North Korea’s nuclear infrastructure.  However, its destruction would be strong visual proof of progress in the denuclearization effort, the Post reported. Being taken off the list is one of the rewards Pyongyang stands to receive for giving up its nuclear capabilities. Access to thousands of documents, some nearly two decades old, would help U.S. officials to assess North Korea’s claims that it has produced about 30 kilograms of plutonium.  Some of that would was used in the Stalinist state’s October 2006 nuclear test and the amount does not include waste or residue material found in pipes.  U.S. officials have estimated the plutonium production figure to be roughly 50 kilograms (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, May 2). “The North Koreans were more forthcoming than they have been in the past about their plutonium effort” at last week’s meetings in Pyongyang, a high-level Bush administration official told the Washington Times. “I’m talking about their willingness to disclose what the program looks like — the elements, how the whole thing was put together, the facilities and the processes by which they came up with the plutonium for weapons,” he added. The Bush administration is seeking a detailed description of North Korea’s plutonium program under the second phase of the denuclearization process, which also includes disablement of key facilities at Yongbyon.  Under a recent compromise aimed at reigniting the faltering process, Pyongyang would reportedly only have to “acknowledge” U.S. suspicions regarding uranium enrichment activities and support for reputed Syrian nuclear efforts. “We have to make sure this is something we can take to Congress and the American people and stand behind,” the official said.  “We are moving closer to a declaration that has credibility on plutonium.” The third phase would involve actually dismantling North Korea’s nuclear infrastructure (Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times, May 1). A South Korean official today reaffirmed hopes that nuclear negotiations involving China, Japan, Russia, the United States and both Koreas could resume this month, Agence France-Presse reported. “I’m cautiously optimistic that the six-party talks will resume before the end of this month,” the official said.  “North Korea is expected to submit a declaration of its nuclear weapons programs to talks host China within one week or two.  China will circulate it among the other members before the six-party talks resume” (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, May 2). The White House expressed less certainty about receiving the declaration, originally due at the end of 2007, AFP reported. “I don’t think it’s something you can put a timeframe on.  Sooner is better than later, and that’s what our negotiators are working toward,” said spokesman Tony Fratto (Agence France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, May 1). Back to top       Disarmament Depends on Others, Nuclear Powers Say By Greg Webb Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Nuclear-armed powers this week reaffirmed their commitment to total nuclear disarmament provided other nations move first to ease security concerns (see GSN, April 29). Their spirited defense of nuclear weapons came during the first of two weeks of meetings by Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty members in Geneva to lay the groundwork for the pact’s 2010 review conference. Non-nuclear nations have, as expected, leveled heavy criticism at the five countries the treaty permits to have nuclear weapons, with the condition that those states promise “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament.”  The five — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — have argued this week that they have made dramatic reductions in their nuclear arsenals to meet their treaty obligations. As the NPT meeting moved into more topic-specific sessions, the nuclear powers also sought to describe the reasons they retain their arsenals. “The world in which the NPT as negotiated is not today’s world, and states party will do themselves, and the treaty regime, a great disservice if they pretend otherwise,” said U.S. delegation leader Christopher Ford in a statement today.  Treaty members “should be wary of reflexively adhering to yesterday’s approaches just because they seemed to make sense yesterday. “The most likely risk of the threat or use of nuclear weapons in our world comes not from the five nuclear-weapon states at all, but rather from the potential acquisition of nuclear weapons technology by nonstate actors such as terrorists, from proliferation to dangerous regimes such as Iran or North Korea, or from escalation involving nuclear-weapons possessing NPT nonparties.” British Ambassador John Duncan concurred. “It is important … to realize that the conditions for complete disarmament are not solely in the gift of nuclear-weapon states,” he said in the British statement.  The main hurdles were concerns that some nations have violated the treaty and others have not joined it. “A world in which complete nuclear disarmament became a possibility would be one in which we could all be confident in the compliance by all states with their nonproliferation obligations under a universalized NPT,” Duncan said. For its part, France noted other WMD and missile threats as justification for retaining its nuclear weapons. “We are currently witnessing the rise of other threats:  certain nuclear arsenals are still expanding, biological proliferation and chemical proliferation are continuing, as is the proliferation of ballistic and cruise missiles,” said Ambassador Jean-Francois Dobelle in the French statement. Russia focused its gaze on other world powers, particularly the United States and Washington’s plans to deploy missile defenses in Europe (see related GSN story, today). “The Russian leadership [has] repeatedly declared Russia’s willingness to continue reducing its strategic nuclear stockpiles,” said a Russian statement.  “At the same time, there can be no nuclear disarmament without taking into account the process of strategic defensive arms.  We believe that any unilateral plans to deploy global missile defense systems, given implementation of the nuclear and conventional global blitzkrieg concept, undermines strategic stability.” Back to top       GAO Finds Problems With Global Strike Plan Federal auditors have criticized the U.S. Defense Department for failing to clearly define the goals of its global strike mission, which could call for using strategic nuclear bombers and missiles to deliver conventional weapons (see GSN, April 24). Congress last year struck down one component of the mission, an effort to develop a conventionally armed version of the submarine-launched nuclear Trident missile, over concerns that other nuclear-armed nations might misinterpret a launch as an atomic attack.  In general, the Pentagon has sought to improve its ability to strike targets, such as WMD sites, around the world at short notice.  The U.S. Government Accountability Office, however, has found that the larger mission lacks clarity and that different military commands held different understandings of the program, thus making it difficult to begin. “This disparity in stakeholder interpretation affects their ability to clearly distinguish the scope, range and potential use of capabilities needed to implement global strike and under what conditions global strike would be used in U.S. military operations,” says the report issued yesterday. “We are recommending that DOD develop a universally accepted joint definition of global strike,” the report says (U.S. Government Accountability Office release, May 1). 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Cloned Antibodies Could Fight Anthrax Infection Researchers in Georgia and Oklahoma have developed a method of locating and cloning specific human antibodies to potentially boost the immune system’s response to anthrax and other diseases, the Oklahoman reported yesterday (see GSN, March 14). “Their accomplishment opens the way to producing [monoclonal antibodies] that potentially could be used diagnostically or therapeutically not only for influenza but for other infectious diseases as well,” Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said in a press release. The project involves collaboration between scientists at Emory University, the University of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, according to an OMRF release. While the process is currently being tested against infectious diseases such as anthrax and pneumococcal pneumonia, it might someday be used against noncommunicable diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis, according to foundation chief Stephen Prescott. As scientists refine the method, "the ability to test subjects with other diseases and create antibodies to aid in the fight will follow,” Prescott said (Jim Killackey, Oklahoman, May 1). Back to top

Senate Committee Approves European Missile Shield A U.S. Senate panel yesterday said it had agreed unanimously to “fully authorize” the Bush administration plan to place missile interceptors in Poland and an early warning radar in the Czech Republic, Reuters reported (see GSN, April 29). The Senate Armed Services Committee endorsed U.S. President George W. Bush’s proposal within a $542.5 billion defense authorization bill, according to an official summary (see related GSN story, today). The legislation, however, would withhold funding until Poland and the Czech Republic finalize agreements to host the installations (see GSN, April 10).  It must still be approved by both houses of Congress and signed by the president.  The Bush administration is seeking $719.8 million in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 for developing the European sites intended to provide defense against the potential threat of Iranian long-range missiles. “This is a clear, unequivocal statement by the Democratic-controlled United States Senate that reflects endorsement of missile defense deployment,” said Riki Ellison, head of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, which supports the planned European shield The committee also said that the “feasibility and advisability” of pursuing a space-based missile interceptor must be studied independently before the panel could approve such a project (Jim Wolf, Reuters, May 1). Back to top       Lockheed Completes Phase of SBIRS Testing U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin said Wednesday it had completed an important test for the first geosynchronous satellite of the planned U.S. Space-Based Infrared System (see GSN, April 4). “The GEO-1 satellite … has completed a comprehensive Baseline Integrated System Test (BIST) phase which began in early March to characterize the overall performance of the GEO-1 satellite and establish a performance baseline for entering environmental testing” ahead of the planned launch late next year of the satellite, the company said in a statement. The completed system would provide early warning data on missile launches, including flight information on targets for missile defense systems as well as intelligence on technical specifications of enemy missiles and their performance in surrounding environments.  The tested satellite is one of two that Lockheed Martin plans to place over specific geographic regions under a Pentagon contract.  “This comprehensive test confirms our readiness to enter the critical environmental test stage,” Jeff Smith, SBIRS vice president and program manager for Lockheed, said in the press release.  “Our team continues to make significant progress on this sophisticated satellite and we look forward to achieving mission success” (Lockheed Martin release, April 30). Back to top

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