U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte today said that Washington will keep pressing North Korea for details on its alleged secret nuclear work (Chung Sung-jun/Getty Images). U.S. Receives North Korean Plutonium Program Documents North Korea delivered 18,000 pages of documents describing the nation’s plutonium production program to a senior U.S. State Department official during his latest trip to Pyongyang this week, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, May 8). Included in the records is information on the Stalinist state’s efforts in 1990, 2003 and 2005 to reprocess plutonium for nuclear weapons, according to a high-level Bush administration official.  The documents do not address North Korea’s suspected uranium enrichment or nuclear proliferation activities. The records should help to clarify the amount of plutonium produced by Pyongyang.  ..Full Story

Senators Urge FBI to Reform Counterterrorism Effort Persistent intelligence collection shortcomings have undermined the FBI’s ability to assess terror threats, including those involving weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. Senate intelligence committee said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 27, 2007)...Full Story

Indian Leaders Try New Tactic on Nuclear Deal Indian leaders have begun using a new tactic to enable the government to sign a nuclear inspections agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Inter Press Service reported yesterday (see GSN, May 7)...Full Story

	Friday, May 9, 2008

Senators Urge FBI to Reform Counterterrorism Effort Persistent intelligence collection shortcomings have undermined the FBI’s ability to assess terror threats, including those involving weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. Senate intelligence committee said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 27, 2007). The panel’s report says that the bureau’s recently established WMD directorate is “poorly positioned to work across FBI programs that are likely to encounter WMD threats and investigations,” the Los Angeles Times reported. The Senate committee said the FBI “has yet to make the dramatic leaps necessary” to reform its collection and analysis of counterterrorism intelligence as recommended after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.  The Sept. 11 Commission in 2005 gave the agency a “C” grade for its implementation of reforms called for by the group. The FBI’s investigative work depends on Field Intelligence Groups across the country that are generally “poorly staffed, are led overwhelmingly by special agents, and are often ‘surged’ to other FBI priorities,” the report says. The bureau has revised its training of intelligence analysts almost annually since 2002 but continues to lack an adequate training system.  Meanwhile, more than 20 percent of managerial positions at FBI headquarters remain vacant in the FBI division that covers al-Qaeda’s activities. Intelligence analysts are commonly overseen by special agents with minimal background in that work.  Two years after the FBI received permission of Congress to fill 24 “critical” openings for senior intelligence agents, only two of the positions have been filled. The report calls on the National Intelligence Director’s Office to prepare reports twice each year on FBI efforts to improve intelligence collection and analysis.  It also asks the FBI to “engage in a credible study” to resolve “permanently the high position vacancy rates.” In documents accompanying its latest budget request, the FBI admits “there is an enormous gap between current and future capabilities.”  FBI Director Robert Mueller told a House panel last month that the bureau was moving to “accelerate our progress.” “While we will review the committee’s report, over the last year the FBI has initiated a coordinated and sweeping set of programs to address many of the issues cited in the report,” said spokesman John Miller (Richard Schmitt, Los Angeles Times, May 9). Back to top

Florida Experts Provide WMD Response Training A team of university professors is training emergency responders throughout the southeastern United States on responding to terrorist attacks, the Bradenton, Fla., Herald reported yesterday (see GSN, May 6). The University of Miami’s Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education set up the group in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to team member Bernie Montoya. “After Sept. 11 there was a void of education … having to do with any situations dealing with weapons of mass destruction,” Montoya said.  “We believe if we have some training we can minimize the [harm to] first responders” such as police officers and hospital workers.” “Just because we don’t have to worry about international terrorism that doesn’t mean local things can’t happen,” said Mike Flanagan, director of emergency medical services for Florida’s Manatee Technical Institute, where the team trained students for two days this week. About 30 people attended the session, which included training on putting on protective gear in the face of a gas attack. Montoya warned that small communities must fight complacency toward terror threats. “One woman said, ‘But not in Manatee County,’” he said.  “But that’s what people thought about Oklahoma City.  I think we’ve made them more aware of the dangers and also how to mitigate them” (Maura Possley, Bradenton Herald/Individual, May 8). Back to top

U.S. Receives North Korean Plutonium Program Documents North Korea delivered 18,000 pages of documents describing the nation’s plutonium production program to a senior U.S. State Department official during his latest trip to Pyongyang this week, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, May 8). Included in the records is information on the Stalinist state’s efforts in 1990, 2003 and 2005 to reprocess plutonium for nuclear weapons, according to a high-level Bush administration official.  The documents do not address North Korea’s suspected uranium enrichment or nuclear proliferation activities. The records should help to clarify the amount of plutonium produced by Pyongyang.  Officials there have apparently placed the stockpile at around 30 kilograms, while U.S. officials believe the actual amount could be closer to 50 kilograms.  North Korea used some plutonium in an October 2006 nuclear test. This “will help shed light on why they have a lower figure,” according to one administration official. Sung Kim, Korean affairs chief at the State Department, yesterday was reviewing the documents that filled seven boxes.  He was in Pyongyang for talks aimed at breaking the deadlock over the 2007 six-nation agreement under which North Korea would receive economic, security and diplomatic benefits in exchange for giving up its nuclear sector. The latest standoff in the years-long negotiations centered on a nuclear declaration due Dec. 31.  Washington has said North Korean leaders were unwilling to provide a full accounting of the nation’s nuclear activities.  A recent compromise apparently calls upon Pyongyang to provide details of its plutonium effort while only acknowledging U.S. uranium and proliferation suspicions. Kim and other U.S. officials are expected to return to the United States this weekend with the documents.  The records would then be reviewed further to ensure they provide a realistic picture of North Korea’s plutonium program, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. If the nuclear deal moves ahead, North Korea would be required to finish disabling three key facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear site and then move to fully dismantle the facility. “Our top three priorities are going to be verification, verification, verification,” McCormack said (Helene Cooper, New York Times, May 9). Meanwhile, Washington is still looking for the story on the full scope of North Korea’s atomic efforts, Agence France-Presse reported. “We still await more complete results and a more complete report as to exactly what happened,” Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said today in Tokyo. “I would say this was a step in a process but it's an ongoing process,” he added (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, May 9). McCormack said Pyongyang in short order could submit its nuclear declaration to China, the Korea Herald reported.  The Bush administration then might move to take Pyongyang off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, a major demand in the denuclearization effort. “The North’s nuclear program is virtually about to enter the next step of dismantling by wrapping up the second phase of getting the nuclear programs declaration,” one source told the newspaper (Lee Joo-hee, Korea Herald, May 10). Approval from Congress would be necessary for the United States to provide funding for weapons disposal and other obligations under the deal, the Associated Press reported.  However, Republican lawmakers yesterday continued to question the Bush administration’s strategy. The documents provided yesterday give “greater transparency on one part of North Korea’s nuclear program, but none on the others,” said Representative Ed Royce (R-Calif.). “Any mediocre performance by North Korea is taken as an earth-shattering positive development by our State Department,” said Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.).  “It appears they will say anything to get a deal” (Anne Gearan, Associated Press/StarTribune.com, May 8). Back to top       Indian Leaders Try New Tactic on Nuclear Deal Indian leaders have begun using a new tactic to enable the government to sign a nuclear inspections agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Inter Press Service reported yesterday (see GSN, May 7). Key supporters of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have opposed the move as part of their opposition to a tentative nuclear trade agreement with the United States.  The critics allowed Singh to negotiate the agency inspections agreement, but have not permitted him to formally sign it, warning that they would force early elections if he did. Singh officials have begun to argue, however, that the inspections agreement should not be linked directly to the U.S. trade deal, because the inspections would be needed to implement other nuclear deals with France and Russia, which are supported by opponents to the U.S. agreement. The tactic is designed to get the inspections agreement signed quickly and placed on the agenda of the agency’s governing board, scheduled to begin its next meeting on June 2.  After that, the next regular board meeting is scheduled for late September, possibly too late in the year for U.S. lawmakers to approve the deal as they face elections in early November, according to IPS. Singh officials met Wednesday with delegates from the critical Left parties in advance of a more formal session scheduled for May 28 (Praful Bidwai, Inter Press Service, May 8). Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress has been cooperating with a State Department request to keep secret information the agency delivered about the nuclear deal, even though the information is not classified, the Washington Post reported today. U.S. lawmakers would have an opportunity to review the nuclear deal if the inspections agreement is signed and international nuclear trade guidelines are modified to exempt India from current trade bans. The State Department responded to a set of about 50 questions from lawmakers earlier this year, but asked them to keep the answers secret. Representative Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), then chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, agreed and his successor, Representative Howard Berman (D-Calif.), has maintained the agreement, the Post reported. The committee leaders abided by the request because “some data might be considered diplomatically sensitive,” said committee spokeswoman Lynne Weil.  She said the issues would receive a more public treatment when Congress reviewed the deal for final approval. Some nonproliferation advocates, however, have criticized the unofficial “gag order.” “The administration’s unwillingness to make their answers more widely available suggests they have something to hide from either U.S. or Indian legislators,” said Arms Control Association head Daryl Kimball (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, May 9). Back to top       China Upgrades Nuke Arsenal Faster Than Other States While China has relatively few nuclear weapons compared to the United States and Russia, its modernization program is more active and therefore “raises arms control questions,” an international security expert said yesterday (see GSN, April 25). China is “making the most dramatic improvements in its nuclear force” of slightly more than 100 missiles, said Bates Gill of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, speaking to reporters in Beijing.  “China stands out in its efforts to modernize, expand and improve its nuclear weapons capability.” The nation has improved the accuracy and mobility of its missile arsenal and has deployed more solid-fueled missiles, allowing for shorter launch preparation times, Gill said (see GSN, March 7). Meanwhile, Beijing has concentrated even more resources toward boosting the country’s conventional military power. “This is a dramatic increase in the military capability of China, targeted mostly at Taiwan but clearly with the possibility going forward of force projection elsewhere,” Gill said.  “So this again muddies the picture for us when we think of China as a player in the arms control agenda” (Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press, May 8). Back to top       NPT Meeting Wraps Up in Geneva Members of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty today wrapped up a two-week session in Geneva intended to lay the groundwork for the pact’s 2010 review conference (see GSN, May 6). Meeting Chairman Volodymyr Yelchenko of Ukraine released a summary yesterday describing the wide variety of viewpoints expressed by treaty participants, but he reported no agreements beyond scheduling the next annual session for May 2009 in New York. In a somewhat unusual move, the five nuclear-armed nations recognized by the treaty issued a joint statement today stressing that the nonproliferation component of the pact took primacy over those nations’ nuclear disarmament obligations.  The treaty requires the nuclear powers to work in good faith toward total nuclear and general disarmament and also obligates the non-nuclear nations to remain so.  The balance of these obligations has been debated since the treaty was opened for signature in 1968 (see GSN, May 2). “We reaffirm that all states party must ensure strict compliance with their nonproliferation obligations under the NPT,” says the joint statement from China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.  “The proliferation of nuclear weapons undermines the security of all nations [and] imperils prospects for progress on other important NPT goals such as nuclear disarmament.” The statement singled out Iran (see GSN, May 8). “The proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear program continue to be a matter of ongoing serious concern to us,” says the statement, presented by British Ambassador John Duncan. For its part, Iran criticized the nuclear nations’ lack of disarmament progress. “While there has not been any actual nuclear disarmament, some limited steps far from nuclear disarmament have been over-exaggerated,” said Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh in a statement delivered today (Greg Webb, Global Security Newswire, May 9). Back to top       Russia Parades Nuclear Missiles Russia displayed strategic nuclear Topol-M ballistic missiles and other heavy weapons in a military parade today in Moscow, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Jan 2). As he oversaw the first major military display in Red Square since the collapse of the Soviet Union, newly inaugurated President Dmitry Medvedev warned against “irresponsible ambitions” that he said could ignite continent-wide conflicts. Seemingly addressing Western support for an independent Kosovo, Medvedev slammed “intentions to intrude in the affairs of other states and especially redraw borders.”  U.S.-Russian tensions have also simmered over Georgia, a former Soviet republic seeking to join NATO. The U.S. Defense Department on Tuesday expressed no worries about the parade. “If they wish to take out their old equipment and take it for a spin, and check it out, they're more than welcome to do so,” said spokesman Geoff Morrell (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, May 9) On Wednesday, Medvedev received a briefcase containing controls for Russia’s nuclear weapons (Agence France-Presse II/BreitBart, May 8). Back to top

Smallpox Drug Passes Human Safety Trial An experimental smallpox treatment was safely administered to 38 people in its first round of human tests, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported yesterday (see GSN, April 24). Test volunteers reported no major side effects from receiving the drug, dubbed ST-246, according to a report in the May issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Smallpox has been eliminated in nature but there are fears today that existing stocks could be diverted for acts of bioterrorism.  The only treatment now recognized as sound would be vaccination no more than four days after exposure. Researchers identified ST-246 while seeking materials that could be used to restrict the vaccinia virus, which is closely related to the smallpox virus, CIDRAP reported. In animal studies, the drug protected mice from lethal exposure to cowpox, ectromelia and vaccinia viruses.  In unpublished research, it also counteracted smallpox and monkeypox exposure in monkeys. In 2007, the drug helped a 2-year-old boy to overcome a life-threatening vaccinia infection obtained through his father, who had recently been vaccinated against smallpox (see GSN, May 17, 2007; Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy release, May 8). Back to top       Arkansas Mail Center Conducts Anthrax Exercise A U.S. Postal Service mail processing center in Arkansas yesterday conducted its first full drill for dealing with anthrax, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported (see GSN, Oct. 4, 2006). The Little Rock facility was briefly evacuated and inspectors wearing protective gear collected samples from the plant’s anthrax detection system.  Meanwhile, several managers entered a decontamination process that the facility’s roughly 300 workers would have to go through if the detection equipment had found actual anthrax. In the wake of the 2001 anthrax mailings, the Postal Service spent $460 million to install the Biohazard Detection Systems installed at 268 mail processing sites around the nation.  It spends another $100 million annually in operations costs for the machines, which check parcels for the biological agent. Although anthrax has not been detected at U.S. mail sites since the attacks, Postal Service spokesman Gerald McKiernan called the technology “absolutely” worth the cost.  “We’re hopeful that whoever that person is would not think of doing it again, but it’s sound reasoning to have the system in place,” he said (Andy Davis, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 9). Meanwhile, roughly 100 emergency workers on Wednesday practiced receiving treatment during a simulated anthrax attack in Douglas County, Kan., the Lawrence Journal-World reported.  First responders would need immediate care in such an incident so they could then provide support for a community-wide emergency response effort. “What we hope to learn is being able to get people through a clinic quickly in the event of an emergency,” said Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department spokeswoman Lisa Horn.  “We’re taking notes today to see if we’re doing things right — if the procedures and operations we have in place are really going to work” (Mike Belt, Lawrence Journal-World, May 8). Back to top

Japan Spent Millions on Rejected CW Recovery Plan Japan spent $6.8 million or more to develop a mechanical chemical weapons recovery system before concluding that reclaiming abandoned munitions in China could be better done manually, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday (see GSN, April 24). The Japanese government in 1999 established a department within its Cabinet Office to lead recovery and elimination of hundreds of thousands of weapons abandoned in China following World War II. Officials then believed that a remote control system would reduce the likelihood of injuries and more efficiently excavate weapons in the main burial location at Haerbaling in the Jilin Province.  At the time the deadline for full destruction of the weapons was 2007; that has since been pushed back to 2012. The ideal machine would have been capable of blowing sand and soil away from a weapon and then retrieving the munition with a mobile arm.  However, one expert warned in September 2001 that weapons could explode if collected by a machine.  The Japanese Construction and Transport Ministry also was not able to mechanically dig up abandoned weapons found in the Kanagawa Prefecture in fiscal 2003. Interest in the weapon-recovery technology persisted through fall 2007 until further reviews of the plan found that machines could damage some weapons in handling.  New facilities would be necessary for using the systems, potentially further delaying completion of the project. By the end of last year, manual efforts had also successfully recovered more then 40,000 weapons in limited projects in the Haerbaling Mountains.  Officials decided that full weapons recovery in the mountains, set to begin this year, would be done manually. By the time of that decision, the Japanese government had spent between $6.8 million and $8.8 million on consultants and testing, Yomiuri reported. “If they’d just thought it through a little, they should have realized it was impossible to do the work with machines,” said one Japanese chemical weapons expert (Yomiuri Shimbun, May 8). Back to top

U.S. Missile Defense Head Rejects Knocks on System The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency last week lauded successes in the nation’s developing missile shield and rejected criticism of its capabilities (see GSN, April 24). “I’m happy to report that 2007 was the best year we’ve ever had,” Lt. Gen. Henry Obering said in testimony before the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee.  “This past year, we’ve made progress in our fielding and testing and have taken major steps to defend our homeland and our deployed forces and allies in the Pacific.” “Active cooperation” is under way with 18 nations and NATO has backed U.S. plans for long-range missile defenses while considering options for a more limited system of its own, Obering said (see GSN, May 6). The U.S. system involves silo-based interceptors in Alaska and California, sea-based systems and technology that remains in various levels of development.  The Bush administration also hopes to install missile shield elements in Europe. Obering said that all 10 intercept tests last year were successful, meaning the agency has made 34 hits in 42 tries since 2001.  “We have not had a major system failure in our flight test program in over three years,” he said. He also noted Japan’s first-ever missile intercept test in December (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2007) and the successful destruction of a failing U.S. satellite in February (see GSN, Feb. 21). Obering said his agency has addressed criticism of the missile defense program that have developed over the years, including that a hit-to-kill system could not work, the technology could not defeat countermeasures and that enemy missiles could not be destroyed shortly after launch (see GSN, April 17). “The fact is that we can do hit-to-kill, we can be effective against countermeasures and we are making boost-phase defenses work,” he told lawmakers. Obering dismissed questions about the realism of missile shield testing. “The [Defense Department] director of operational test and evaluation concurs that we have increased the operational realism of all of our testing to include an end-to-end test of our long-range elements with operational assets,” he said.  “Our critics claim that a threat is not realistic unless it has simple or advanced countermeasures.  We take countermeasures seriously and we have tested against simple versions in the past.  Our flight tests will include more complex threat suites in the future. “However, the fact remains that there are hundreds of missiles deployed today that we do not believe carry countermeasures and we have been successful against these types of threats,” Obering added.  “What would our critics have us do, return this country and our forces to its previous state of complete vulnerability to missile attack?” (U.S. Missile Defense Agency release, May 8). Back to top

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