Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki today rebuffed U.S. calls to respond to a six-nation nuclear offer by Saturday (Atta Kenare/Getty Images) Iran Dismisses Nuclear Deadline Iran today brushed off U.S. calls to decide by Saturday whether to halt uranium enrichment so that it can receive a multinational package of political and financial benefits, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 30). Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran agreed earlier this month it would consider the offer from six world powers while they studied Tehran’s own proposal for wide-ranging negotiations. The United States, which is concerned that Iran’s uranium enrichment program is aimed at nuclear weapons development, yesterday said Tehran must respond to the six-nation offer by Saturday or face new penalties...Full Story

India Nuclear Vote Tomorrow; IAEA Board of Governors Expected to Approve Inspections Plan Easily The International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing board is likely to approve by consensus a nuclear inspections agreement with India tomorrow, the Hindu reported.  The easy outcome has been partially enabled by Pakistan’s decision not to oppose the agreement, which would remove a key hurdle to allowing India to purchase nuclear materials and technology from foreign suppliers (see GSN, July 30)...Full Story

U.S., North Korea Set for Nuclear Talks A senior State Department official is expected to meet with Chinese and North Korean officials this week in Beijing for talks on the Stalinist state’s nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 30)...Full Story

	Thursday, July 31, 2008

Gates Cites Terror Fight as Main U.S. Military Job U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has circulated a National Defense Strategy to congressional leaders, recommending that terrorism be the top U.S. military priority in years ahead, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, July 30). The document appears to agree somewhat with a RAND Corp. study released yesterday suggesting that military force is not the best strategy to combat terrorism. “The use of force plays a role, yet military efforts to capture or kill terrorists are likely to be subordinate to measures to promote local participation in government and economic programs to spur development, as well as efforts to understand and address the grievances that often lie at the heart of insurgencies,” Gates’ document says.  “For these reasons, arguably the most important military component of the struggle against violent extremists is not the fighting we do ourselves, but how well we help prepare our partners to defend and govern themselves.” Some analysts questioned why Gates released the strategy so late in the Bush administration’s final term, knowing that the next president would surely conduct his own review.  Gates said, however, that the document could serve as a “blueprint to success” for the next administration (Josh White, Washington Post, July 31). Back to top

Danish Man Charged With WMD Smuggling British authorities have charged a Danish businessman with seeking to smuggle chemical and biological weapons to Uganda, the Ugandan Daily Monitor reported yesterday. Niels Jorgen Tobiasen was arrested July 17, about three months after a Ugandan diplomat was arrested and charged with multiple counts of money laundering.  The indictment unveiled at Tobiasen’s first court hearing yesterday accused the 55-year-old of conspiring with the diplomat “to transfer, acquire, use or have possession of criminal property … namely chemical and biological weapons.” Tobiasen heads a software and hardware firm with clients that include the militaries of the United States, United Kingdom and NATO, according to the Monitor.  His trial could begin Aug. 22 (Daily Monitor, July 30). Back to top       U.S. First Responders Train for Disaster The U.S. Defense Department is leading a large-scale disaster preparedness exercise this week aimed at helping first responders at all levels prepare for a possible WMD event (see GSN, July 30). Noble Resolve ’08 began Monday and ends tomorrow, according to a DOD release.  It involves personnel from several agencies within the Pentagon, the U.S. Homeland Security Department, and state and local emergency response personnel from Colorado, Indiana, Oregon and Virginia. Scenarios in this year’s event include a train derailment and fire in Virginia and major earthquakes in Indiana and Oregon, the Joint Forces Command said. The exercises are intended to test responders’ ability to deal with obstacles to communication and to distribute intelligence among various agencies.  Organizers also hope they will help strengthen defenses against potential WMD threats to the country and ensure “long-term sustainment of consequence management forces following a possible chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive event,” according to the press release. “We can’t afford to wait.  The timeliness and robustness of response is too important to leave it to a sort of ‘pickup game’ in the event of nature or man-made disasters,” Air Force Col. Gen Taylor, who is leading the event, said in the release. NATO sent observers to the exercise, as did Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden and a number of other nations (U.S. Defense Department release, July 30). Meanwhile, more than 230 local and federal firefighters and explosives experts this week conducted disaster exercises in Utah, the Deseret Morning News reported. “It allows us to interact with each other and see the tools we’ve accumulated since 9/11,” said South Salt Lake Fire Chief Steve Foote. On Monday, responders dealt with a disturbed individual who shot the police chief of Midvale during a City Council meeting.  The man had left a suspicious package in his car and was carrying another one. Responders faced a series of developing scenarios on Tuesday at the Rocky Mountain Raceway, including discovery of an unconventional weapon.  Local first responders were required to notify their federal counterparts when the situation exceeded their capabilities. The exercise involved National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams from Nevada and Utah, along with U.S. Army North from Texas. Local personnel have the ability to deal with chemical explosives but probably lack the equipment needed for a biological or radiological weapon, said Bill Havlic of U.S. Army North (Pat Reavy, Deseret Morning News, July 30). Back to top       Libya, Russia Discuss Nuclear Power Libya discussed purchasing a nuclear power plant with Russian officials yesterday, reflecting the African nation’s growing integration with the international community since abandoning its WMD programs in 2003, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 9). “We are working on the project of creating a nuclear power plant, to be used for electricity generation,” said Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi after meeting in Moscow with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The two officials also discussed Russian sales of conventional arms and cooperation in the oil and gas industries (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, July 31). Back to top

Iran Dismisses Nuclear Deadline Iran today brushed off U.S. calls to decide by Saturday whether to halt uranium enrichment so that it can receive a multinational package of political and financial benefits, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 30). Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran agreed earlier this month it would consider the offer from six world powers while they studied Tehran’s own proposal for wide-ranging negotiations. The United States, which is concerned that Iran’s uranium enrichment program is aimed at nuclear weapons development, yesterday said Tehran must respond to the six-nation offer by Saturday or face new penalties. "The language of deadline-setting is not understandable to us.  We gave them our response within a month as we said we would, now they have to reply to us," Iranian state media quoted Mottaki as saying. At the July 19 meeting, Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili left EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana with the impression that Iran would respond within two weeks to the incentives package offered by the five permanent U.N. Security Council member nations and Germany.  However, Iran later said it had agreed to no firm deadline on its reply. "Perhaps based on incorrect analysis, some of the Geneva participants got the wrong expectation, but our job was to give our views to the 5+1 framework... then we gave our own framework," Mottaki said (Agence France-Presse I/Google News, July 31). The U.S. State Department warned yesterday that "there are consequences diplomatically for defying the just demands of the Security Council. "It's clear.  This is the other side of the two-track approach," said spokesman Sean McCormack, referring to a strategy of offering incentives for nuclear cooperation while responding to noncompliance with penalties.  "Nobody is really desirous of going down that pathway.  The P-5 plus one does not want it,” he said. "This is serious stuff and we along with the P-5 plus one are absolutely prepared to go down that pathway should the Iranian regime take the world down that pathway," McCormack added (Agence France-Presse II/Google News, July 30). McCormack today, though, did not lock down Saturday as the deadline, AFP reported. I didn't count the days.  It's coming up soon," he said (Agence France-Presse III/Google News, July 31). The European Union hopes to augment three sets of Security Council sanctions already imposed on Iran, a European diplomat said yesterday. One diplomat said EU nations agreed Tuesday to enforce independent measures not included in the most recent sanctions resolution against the Islamic state, calling for European governments and businesses to exercise “restraint” rather than merely “vigilance” when dealing with Iranian banks or financially supporting trade. France and the United Kingdom pushed the EU states to “go beyond” measures in the Security Council resolution “and apply the things they had to concede to Russia and China" to win approval for the penalties, the diplomat said (Agence France-Presse IV/Spacewar.com, July 30). Italy has called for an "immediate, firm and serious response" from EU nations if Iran continues uranium enrichment, Reuters reported today. "I'm very disappointed about the latest statement made by Mr. Khamenei … about their intention to continue in any case with the nuclear program of enrichment of uranium," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said, referring to a statement yesterday by Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. At the United Nations, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called for new economic penalties on Iran over its nuclear work and said other options for dealing with the nuclear program should not be eliminated from consideration. Neither Israel nor the United States has ruled out military action against Iran as a final option to roll back its nuclear progress (Hosseinian/Dahl, Reuters, July 31). U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) reportedly said he believes Israel would attack Iran if diplomacy fails to end activities that could support a nuclear weapons program, AFP reported yesterday. "Nobody said this to me directly, but I get the feeling from my talks that if the sanctions don't work, Israel is going to strike Iran," the Democratic presidential candidate was quoted as telling a meeting of U.S. lawmakers following his trip to Israel Wendy Morigi, Obama’s spokeswoman on national security matters, refused to comment directly on the alleged quote. "Senator Obama has always said that Iran must end its illicit nuclear program,” she said (Agence France-Presse V/Yahoo!News, July 30). In Tehran, 115 Nonaligned Movement member nations yesterday voted to support Iran’s right to develop a civilian nuclear energy program, the Associated Press reported. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, called backing by the group a "strong positive signal that the only way” to handle the nuclear dispute “is negotiation and dialogue." "Get the message," he said.  "Come to the negotiating table" (George Jahn, Associated Press/Google News, July 30). Back to top       India Nuclear Vote Tomorrow; IAEA Board of Governors Expected to Approve Inspections Plan Easily The International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing board is likely to approve by consensus a nuclear inspections agreement with India tomorrow, the Hindu reported.  The easy outcome has been partially enabled by Pakistan’s decision not to oppose the agreement, which would remove a key hurdle to allowing India to purchase nuclear materials and technology from foreign suppliers (see GSN, July 30). For India to engage in nuclear commerce, it would next need an exemption from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to trade rules that bar key nuclear sales to nations that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and do not allow international monitoring of all their nuclear activities.  Under those rules, India and Pakistan have both been denied major access to nuclear suppliers. Indian officials have fanned out across the globe to lobby NSG members to support the exemptions; the group might discuss the matter from Aug. 21-23 in Vienna, the Hindu reported (Siddarth Varadarajan, The Hindu, July 31). Pakistan is member of the IAEA board, but not the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and has apparently decided to allow the board to approve the Indian inspections agreement without taking a vote.  This strategy could be driven by hopes that the Indian exemption would set a precedent that would someday allow Pakistan to receive similar treatment, enabling it to modernize its civilian nuclear power sector, the Times of India reported. “There should be no preferential [treatment], there should be no discrimination,” said Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations.  “If they want to give nuclear status to India, we would also expect the same for Pakistan too” (Times of India, July 31). Back to top       U.S., North Korea Set for Nuclear Talks A senior State Department official is expected to meet with Chinese and North Korean officials this week in Beijing for talks on the Stalinist state’s nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 30). “The U.S. official [Sung Kim] will arrive in Beijing this afternoon and he will exchange views with the officials of the Chinese side of the six-party talks,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said today. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing indicated that Kim was also expected to conduct talks with North Korean negotiators before returning Saturday to Washington. Envoys from the six nations — China, Japan, Russia, the United States and both Koreas — are trying to develop an acceptable set of procedures to verify Pyongyang’s recently released declaration of its nuclear activities and holdings.  The long-delayed declaration was required under a 2007 deal in which North Korea agreed to eliminate its nuclear programs in exchange for economic, diplomatic and security concessions from the other nations (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, July 31). State Department spokesman Sean McCormack yesterday ducked a question regarding possible troubles with talks on developing the verification system, Reuters reported. “It’s not done yet, and he [Kim] is going to go to try to move it forward,” he said. Kim, the State Department’s top Korea expert, recently took the position of “special envoy for six-party talks” (Reuters/Washington Post, July 30). Back to top       Japanese Firm Suspected of Illegal Nuclear Exports Japanese police today searched the offices of a company suspected of illegally exporting equipment that could be used to produce nuclear weapons, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 25, 2007). The investigation involves shipment of multiple “machining centers” that could contribute to manufacturing of uranium enrichment centrifuges. Investigators believe that machine tool and construction equipment producer Horkos Corp. sent the machines four years ago to South Korean businesses that could have exported them to other nations, Japanese media reported. Japanese authorities went through the company’s Fukuyama headquarters and several other spots in the city, police spokesman Ryoji Manda said. Japan mandates that firms in the country obtain permits to send sensitive precision equipment overseas.  Still, it is believed that some businesses have sent such technology to nations intent on acquiring nuclear-weapon capabilities, AP said (Jay Alabaster, Associated Press/Google News, July 31). Back to top       Report Pins U.S. Plutonium Leak on Poor Procedures Untested and poorly trained personnel assigned to a radiological “dirty bomb” detection project were largely to blame for last month’s spill and dispersion of a radioactive plutonium mixture at the National Institute of Standards and Technology laboratory in Boulder, Colo., according to an internal report released yesterday (see GSN, July 16). The report found that researchers had obtained three plutonium sources without proper authorization or assessment of risks posed by the radioactive element, the Denver Post reported.  The sources were then stripped of nearly all safety measures, leaving only screw-capped glass vials sealed in plastic bags. Ungloved researchers handled the plutonium sulfate tetrahydrate in a heavily used, unrestricted area not reserved for radioactive-material activities, the NIST Ionizing Radiation Committee said in its findings. When one decades-old container cracked, a staffer attempted to physically manage the plutonium mixture, dispersing it around the office and on his body.  The worker then exited the room, spreading the substance elsewhere in the facility.  He also washed his hands, sending plutonium into the city sewer system, according to the report. The institute yesterday said it is moving to resolve problems revealed by the incident.  It said it has already halted all nuclear-material work and "will not be reapplying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to use plutonium or any other special nuclear materials at any time in the foreseeable future." In addition, the U.S. Commerce Department is organizing a safety oversight committee that would focus on the affairs at the institute, which the federal agency manages. The facility said it plans to fund an investigation into the spread of plutonium through Boulder’s sewers and its possible effects.  The institute is also drafting a thorough decontamination plan for the affected laboratory (Howard Pankratz, Denver Post, July 31). Back to top

Florida Researchers Develop Plague Vaccine An experimental plague vaccine developed by scientists at the University of Central Florida has proven capable of protecting test animals against the deadly disease, the school said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 17). Rats treated with the vaccine, which can be administered orally or by injection, showed no symptoms of infection after exposure to Yersinia pestis bacteria, which can cause bubonic and pneumonic plague.  All unvaccinated animals died within days of exposure at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md. If terrorists used plague as a weapon, a vaccine in oral form could be more quickly distributed than one requiring injection and could be taken without particular skills or sterilized equipment, said research team leader Henry Daniell. “We are very excited because it appears the oral vaccine is even more effective than traditional injectable vaccine,” he said. “It’s expensive to create an injectable vaccine.  But with oral vaccines, it is quite cheap.  You grow your plants and then convert them into capsules.” Daniell said he expects the vaccine to perform equally well in future studies involving humans. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers pneumonic plague a potent biological weapon agent because it spreads quickly and kills 60 percent of carriers who do not receive prompt treatment with antibiotics. The study’s results are slated for publication in the August issue of Infection and Immunity (University of Central Florida release, July 30). Back to top

Colorado to Sue Over CW Disposal Deadline The Colorado Public Health and Environment Department is preparing a lawsuit aimed at forcing the U.S. Defense Department to eliminate chemical weapons stored in the state by 2017, the Pueblo Chieftain reported today (see GSN, June 20). The U.S. Congress last year demanded that the Pentagon finish off its stockpile of chemical warfare materials in the next decade.  The primary obstacles to that deadline are storage depots in Colorado and Kentucky, which do not yet have disposal plants. The state health agency last month also issued a mandatory order setting 2017 as the completion date for elimination of more than 2,600 tons of mustard agent at the Pueblo Chemical Depot.  Under existing estimates, work might not be finished before 2021. The defense agencies with authority over U.S. chemical weapons destruction programs have indicated their intention to appeal the directive.  Rather than going through an extended appeals process, the state has decided to sue in order to obtain a court order that would compel the Pentagon to carry out the order. The head of the Pentagon’s Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program, which manages disposal efforts at Pueblo, said it is not a matter of simply agreeing to meet the deadline. The Defense Department must sign off on the work and Congress must provide the funding, said ACWA program manager Kevin Flamm. “I can’t sign up for a compliance agreement until I have the approval to proceed,” he said. A plan devised by Flamm’s agency and contractor Bechtel is intended to help meet the 2017 deadline, the Chieftain reported.  It involves adding another shift to the construction project; moving sooner than anticipated on assembly and testing of equipment and hiring of plant personnel; and conducting continuous operations rather than one eight-hour shift per day.  That would increase the expense on an annual basis but ultimately save money assuming the disposal operations end sooner than now scheduled. While lawmakers have proven willing to supply needed funding, current spending is also limited by authorization legislation approved five years ago, Flamm said (John Norton, Pueblo Chieftain, July 31). Meanwhile, differences persist over the value of filters intended to prevent mercury mixed with mustard agent from entering the atmosphere during disposal operations at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reported yesterday. Tests in fall 2007 indicated that it is safe to incinerate 2 million pounds of contaminated mustard agent, said depot spokeswoman Alaine Griese. “A thousand hours of filter testing at the University of South Dakota energy and environmental research center demonstrated that mercury wouldn’t even make it through the first of four beds of the Pollution Abatement System Filtration System,” Griese said. Critics disputed that claim. “We’ve asked them to bring forward evidence and data from operations such as what they are proposing to do, to demonstrate that this is a proven technology,” said Chemical Weapons Working Group head Craig Williams, a longtime opponent of chemical weapons incineration.  “But there’s no data.” Utah “has some of the worst mercury contamination in the country and because no filter is 100 percent effective, burning this agent will only worsen the problem,” said Christopher Thomas, policy director for the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.  He said that the mustard agent could be destroyed using nonincineration technology. There was no estimate for the cost to operate the system of whether it would affect the scheduled completion of disposal at Deseret in 2011 (Matthew LaPlante, Salt Lake Tribune, July 30). Back to top

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