International Response:  EU Freezes Fewer Potential Terrorist Assets

The European Union disagrees with the United States over whether several groups around the world are terrorist organizations and has blocked the assets of fewer groups than the United States, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Dec. 19).

EU officials have blocked the assets of only two of 28 groups that the United States has identified as non-al-Qaeda terrorist groups, and the union has targeted only eight of several dozen individuals on the U.S. terrorist list, the AP reported (David Kalish, Associated Press/Washington Times, March 8).

At the end of December, the United States had named 189 groups and individuals that it said were linked to terrorism (see GSN, Jan. 30).  The entities included Middle Eastern militant Islamist groups, South American militant organizations, the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, companies suspected of channeling funds to terrorists and others (State Department release, Dec. 31, 2001).

The European Union did not block the assets of several of those groups, including the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey, the Shining Path in Peru, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and even several European groups that the union lists as terrorists, including the Basque ETA in Spain, the Real IRA in Ireland and the Revolutionary Organization 17 November in Greece, according to the Times.

Some EU members said legal questions, an unclear definition of terrorism and reluctance to support governments with poor human rights records as reasons the union has not completely followed the U.S. list.  For example, after the United States froze the assets of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, EU officials decided to block the assets of the group’s “terrorist wing” but not its political leaders, the Times reported.

“As you expand and broaden the definition of terrorism, you are likely to also expand the likelihood of disagreement between countries over who should be included and how to deal with it,” said Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution (see GSN, Nov. 6, 2001).

“In those few cases where the United States has taken action and our friends and allies have not, we are working internationally on several fronts to encourage other blocking countries to take action as well,” said Tasia Scolinos, spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The United Kingdom blocked the assets of more U.S.-listed groups than the European Union, including Aum Shinrikyo and the Real IRA.  The Bush administration has said that 149 countries have frozen more than $104 million of assets owned by groups and individuals on the U.S. terrorism list (Kalish, Associated Press/Washington Times).

Meanwhile, the United States has not yet ratified the U.N. International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, although the United States signed the convention in 1999 (see GSN, Feb. 4).  While 132 countries have signed the convention, only 21 have ratified it, and it has not entered into force (U.N. release, March 8).

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U.S. Response:  NRC to Republish Nuclear Plant Status Report

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it plans to relaunch its daily plant status report by the end of March, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Feb. 27).

“The target date for the plant status report is March 31,” said NRC spokesman Victor Drecks.

The NRC pulled the status report after the Sept. 11 attacks to limit public access to information concerning the operating status of the 103 nuclear power plants in the United States (Reuters/Planet Ark, March 8).

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Iraq:  U.N. Talks End With Agreement Only to Meet Again

By Jim Wurst
Global Security Newswire

UNITED NATIONS — The first high-level talks between the United Nations and Iraq in one year ended yesterday with an agreement only to meet again next month.  No progress was reported on the most sensitive issue on the agenda:  the return of inspectors to Iraq to ensure it is not producing weapons of mass destruction (see GSN, March 7).

Secretary General Kofi Annan and Iraq’s new foreign minister, Naji Sabri al-Hadithi, met here for two rounds of talks lasting 3« hours.  In a statement after the meeting, Annan said the talks were “both frank and useful.  They focused on core issues, such as the return of the U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq, Kuwaiti and Iraqi missing persons and the return of Kuwaiti property.”

The sanctions imposed on Iraq by the council cannot be lifted until Iraq meets all these conditions.

“We had a positive and constructive exchange of view.  We will meet again in the middle of April to continue our dialogue,” al-Hadithi said.  “Our concerns are legitimate because they have been stated in Security Council resolutions,” he added, an apparent reference to the Iraqi position that sanctions should be lifted since Iraq is in compliance with the council’s demands.

The key issue is the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq to see whether Baghdad has resumed production of weapons of mass destruction — chemical, biological and nuclear. The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission was set up by the Security Council in December 1999 to complete the disarmament of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and to operate a system of ongoing monitoring and verification.  Iraq maintains it has no weapons of mass destruction and thus is in compliance with Security Council resolutions.  No UNMOVIC inspectors have ever visited Iraq.

Annan was accompanied by UNMOVIC Chairman Hans Blix, Deputy Legal Counsel Ralph Zacklin and two staff members.  This was the first time Blix has met any Iraqi official since he became the head of the commission.  He explained the procedures the commission would follow for resumed inspections.  The Iraqi delegation included U.N. Ambassador Mohammed al-Douri, three Foreign Ministry officials and General Hussan Amin, the official in charge of dealing with the inspectors.

U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham said today that Annan “kept the focus, properly, on the return of inspectors. ... That’s the name of the game.”

The United States maintains that the return of inspectors should be the only issue on the agenda. U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte said last week, “There is really nothing to discuss on this score.  The Baghdad regime must comply with the council’s resolutions, accepting the return of weapons inspectors, fully declaring and destroying its prohibited weapons of mass destruction and missiles, and dismantling its weapons of mass destruction programs.”

Annan’s spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said Annan had proposed resuming the talks in April.   Annan will send an agenda for that meeting to Baghdad ahead of time for Iraqi comments, Eckhard said.

While the return of weapons inspectors topped the agenda, Annan raised other outstanding issues covered by the various Security Council resolutions, including the return of missing Kuwaiti citizens and property.  On the issue of Kuwaiti property, Annan’s statement said the two sides “agreed that a concrete way will be found for Iraq to return some Kuwaiti property through the United Nations.”

“The Iraqi side raised a number of specific concerns, such as the lifting of sanctions, no-fly zones and establishment of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East,” Annan’s statement said.  This last issue is referred to in Resolution 687, the August 1991 resolution that created the inspection regime after Iraq had been driven out of Kuwait. The proposal is often lost in the controversy over Iraq’s weapons programs and continuing violence in other parts of the Middle East.

The two no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq are maintained by the United States and United Kingdom.  They were never explicitly authorized by the council.  Iraq says the zones are illegal.

Annan and Blix are scheduled to brief the Security Council on the talks in closed session this afternoon.

“It is significant that we discussed the specific issue of inspectors in the presence of Hans Blix and the head of their own monitoring team, General Amin,” Annan said today. 

“I think this is an indication, at least for now, that they are taking the issue seriously,” he said.  “I do not want to run ahead of ourselves and declare success.  It was a good start.  I do not think we should claim success or failure yet.”  Lifting sanctions, Annan said, depends on “how quickly we get inspectors in and how quickly [Iraq] disarms.”

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U.S. Response:  U.S. Will Secure GPS, Mineta Says

The U.S. Transportation Department will implement an action plan to secure the Global Positioning System, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced yesterday.  Emergency teams responding to an attack with weapons of mass destruction would use the system, which supports U.S. transportation infrastructure (see GSN, Jan. 25).

The department’s decision followed a September report by the Volpe National Transportation System Center that determined GPS is vulnerable to unintentional and intentional disruptions.  The report offered several recommendations, and the department has concurred with all of them, according to a Transportation press release.

“The action plan we are announcing today will ensure that the vulnerabilities identified in the report do not affect the safety and security of our transportation system as we work to ensure that GPS fulfills its potential as a key element of the nation’s transportation infrastructure,” Mineta said.

The department’s action plan includes steps to maintain backup systems for GPS, work with the Defense Department to apply anti-jamming technology and educate state and local departments about GPS vulnerabilities (U.S. Transportation Department release, March 7).

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CTBT:  China and Iran Are Slow With Reports

China and Iran have stopped transmitting real-time information to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, possibly due to concerns over cost and U.S. opposition to the treaty, Reuters reported today.

China, which has four stations on its territory to monitor nuclear blasts, has not installed the communication facilities necessary to send data to the CTBT headquarters in Vienna.  China has other monitoring stations as part of an agreement with the United States, but it has also stopped sending data in real time from those stations, using diplomatic pouches to carry computer discs instead, U.S. officials said.

Iran stopped sending data to Vienna a few months after establishing a monitoring station last year, according to a U.S. official and a diplomatic source.

Iran, China and other countries have expressed concern that they must pay millions of dollars to the CTBT Organization without any assurance that the treaty will ever take effect.  The CTBT, which prohibits all nuclear test explosions, cannot enter into effect until 44 nuclear weapon-capable states ratify it, but only 31 have done so.  The organization’s operations cost $85 million to $90 million annually, according to Reuters.

Retaliation for U.S. Opposition

China and Iran might also be trying to retaliate for the Bush administration’s decision to oppose the treaty and for a U.S. decision to pay only certain costs of the treaty.  The United States signed the treaty in 1996, but the U.S. Senate refused to approve it during the Clinton administration, and President George W. Bush opposes it (see GSN, Jan. 8).

The United States has agreed to pay most — but not all — of its $18 million annual share of the CTBT organization’s cost.  China might be slow to comply with the treaty’s reporting mechanisms partly because the United States said it would pay only costs related to the monitoring system and not other functions of the CTBT Organization, a U.S. official said.

Problems for the CTBT Organization

“The whole thing could unravel” if other countries decide to withhold data or to not pay dues, the U.S. official said.

Meanwhile, a new human resources report by an independent consultant said a “consistent message of fear and mistrust” exists among the organization’s 260-member secretariat, Reuters reported.  Some employees feel the organization places priority on political concerns rather than technical requirements, and many top employees have left, the report said.

Organization’s Response

The organization is working with China to establish a data-reporting framework and with Iran to resolve a “legal question” that is interfering with reporting, said CTBT Organization spokeswoman Daniela Rozgonova.  The organization is addressing recommendations in the human resources report, she added.

The organization has 337 sensors around the world to verify the test ban if the treaty enters into force (Carol Giacomo, Reuters/Planet Ark, March 8).

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Russia:  “Debt for Nonproliferation Swap” Introduced in U.S. House

Russia would be allowed to swap portions of its foreign debt in exchange for securing nuclear materials (see GSN, Nov. 15, 2001), according to a bill introduced in the U.S. House Monday by Representatives Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and John McHugh (R-N.Y.).

“Unsecured nuclear material is a bigger threat to our national security today than it has ever been,” Tauscher said in a news release.  “We simply cannot squander this opportunity to secure nuclear material in Russia.  Given the dismal Russian financial picture and the ever-changing world we live in, America has a limited time to act.”

The Russian Federation Debt Reduction for Nonproliferation Act of 2002 would create “debt for nonproliferation swaps” based on previous measures for environmental protection efforts.  Under the swaps, the U.S. Treasury Department would restructure part of Russia’s debt owed to the United States.  In return, Russia would continue work on joint programs designed to secure nuclear materials, dismantle facilities and provide work for Russian nuclear scientists (see GSN, March 7).

More than $18 billion of Russia’s foreign debt is due in 2003, according to a Tauscher press release.  Russia owes the United States almost $4 billion, two-thirds of which comes from the Soviet era.  Russia also owes several European nations, such as Germany and Italy, more than $67 billion.  Italy is also examining debt for nonproliferation swaps.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del.) said he is pleased that a debt for nonproliferation bill has been introduced in the House.  Biden was one of the authors of a similar bill that passed the Senate in November.

“Last year, former Senator Howard Baker told our committee that the world should spend $30 billion over the next eight to 10 years to fully safeguard Russia’s nuclear weapons materials and expertise,” Biden said.  “Debt reduction could be a major means of raising the needed funds, especially from our allies who hold the bulk of Russia’s Soviet-era debt” (Representative Ellen Tauscher release, March 4).

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Anthrax I:  Antibiotics Prevented Infections, Study Says

The preventive use of antibiotics among people believed to be exposed to anthrax in locations in Florida, New Jersey and Washington, limited the number of inhalational anthrax infections, according to a study published today in Science.

The study examines inhalational anthrax infections among people in three groups exposed to anthrax:  visitors to the American Media Inc. headquarters in Florida, workers at a New Jersey postal facility and workers at the Brentwood Road postal facility in Washington — all of whom were placed on 60-day preventive anthrax antibiotic regimens.

The number of inhalational anthrax infections in the three groups would have been twice as large if antibiotics had not been supplied, according to the study.  Only eight people in the three groups were infected, instead of the 17 the study estimated would have become infected had they not received antibiotics, based on statistical modeling.

“Our results also underscore the importance of disease surveillance and rapid identification of exposed persons as critical elements of any strategy to minimize mortality and morbidity from future acts of bioterrorism,” wrote study authors Ron Brookmeyer and Natalie Blades (Brookmeyer/Blades, Science, March 8).

The study shows that the widespread use of antibiotics during last fall’s anthrax attacks was justified, said Brian Strom, chairman of a scientific panel at the Institute of Medicine examining the safety of the anthrax vaccine (see GSN, March 7).

“If the model is right, and it saved nine people’s lives, then giving 5,000 people antibiotics” was justified, Strom said.  “We spend a lot of money in order to save a life” (Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times, March 8).

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Anthrax II:  Researchers Home in on Antitoxins

Scientists are making progress in finding better treatments against anthrax — particularly against the toxins that make anthrax lethal — medical researchers John Young and John Collier reported in this month’s Scientific American.

Relatively early diagnoses coupled with antibiotics such as Cipro generally worked well to contain the spread of anthrax last fall, but the fact that five people died illustrates that better treatments are still needed, the authors said (see related GSN story, today).

Antibiotics only worked when physicians caught anthrax in early stages of infection, not later stages when spores flooded the body with lethal toxins, Young and Collier said.  Many scientists are searching for antitoxin drugs that would help patients in later stages of anthrax infection.

Anthrax kills body cells by releasing three toxins — protective antigen, edema factor and lethal factor — which work together.  The protective antigen works like a syringe, Young and Collier said.  Seven molecules of protective antigen join together to form a donut-shaped ring, attach to a body cell and inject the two factor toxins through the ring into the cell.

Researchers are experimenting with drugs that could lure any of the three toxins away from cells, or that could block the protective antigen’s ability to act as a syringe.

Young, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Collier, at Harvard University in Massachusetts, along with their colleagues Kenneth Bradley, Jeremy Mogridge and Michael Mourez found a compound, called sATR, that binds to molecules of protective antigen.  Researchers hope that sATR can be used in a drug to decoy protective antigen away from body cells (see GSN, Oct. 24, 2001).

Meanwhile, a team of researchers led by Robert Liddington of the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, Calif., mapped the three-dimensional structure of the lethal factor, aiding other researchers who are searching for drugs to deactivate the toxin (see GSN, Jan. 24).

In another project, Collier and his colleague George Whitesides are looking for drugs that would bind around the hole of a protective antigen ring, clogging the hole in the toxin syringe.

In a new treatment that is probably closest to being ready for human testing, mutant forms of protective antigen alter the seven-molecule protective antigen ring itself, Young and Collier said.

A researcher on Collier’s team, Bret Sellman, made mutant protective antigens called DNIs — dominant negative inhibitors — and mixed them with the natural form of protective antigen.  Rings formed that contained both kinds of protective antigen, but the mutants impaired the rings from acting as syringes, the authors said.

A small amount of DNIs, can neutralize a quantity of toxin that would otherwise kill a rat in 90 minutes, Young and Collier said.

Researchers will probably discover many antitoxin drugs, the authors said.  The drugs might be most useful together in cocktails, much like treatments for HIV infection, Young and Collier said (Young/Collier, Scientific American, March).

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Threat Assessment:  Industrial Facilities Need Greater Safety, Group Says

U.S. chemical facilities need to enhance their security, said the Safe Hometowns Initiative, a new U.S. public safety group, yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 17, 2001).

The group said the public needs to ask officials what chemicals are being used in their communities and how are they being securely stored.  People also need to know what, if any, evacuation plans are in place in the event of an accident or terrorist attack that causes a release.

The Safe Hometowns Initiative, made up of emergency management officials and environmentalists, called for several new safety and security measures, including reduction of chemical hazards through local efforts and new federal policies; passage of the Chemical Security Act and the use of liquid chlorine — which is less lethal than gaseous chlorine — at water treatment plants.

“More guards and higher fences alone cannot protect our communities,” said Tom Sadler, Florida representative for the National Environmental Trust, a member of the Safe Hometowns Initiative.  “These may be useless against terrorists known to use passenger planes and truck bombs” (Natalie McNeal, Miami Herald, March 8).

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CWC:  OPCW Passes 40 Percent Mark in 2002 Dues Collections

Russia recently paid its full 2002 dues to the administrators of the Chemical Weapons Convention, making the year-to-date income for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons 41 percent of the group’s annual budget (see GSN, Jan. 15).

While 54 of the organization’s 145 member states have paid their 2002 dues in full, their payments account for only 24 percent of the total assessed member contributions.  Another 18 member states have partially paid their dues, accounting for 17 percent of owed contributions.

Member states were obligated to fully pay their dues by Jan. 1.  Annual dues are calculated based on the U.N. assessment scale, which is adjusted to match the composition of OPCW membership (OPCW release, March 7).

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Threat Assessment:  U.S. to Replace Missile-Tracking Radar System

The U.S. Defense Department plans to spend at least $620 million over the next five years to replace the Cobra Judy radar system that tracks foreign countries’ ballistic missile tests, Aerospace Daily reported Monday.

The Cobra Judy system uses old technology, and the ship on which it is based — the USNS Observation — has reached the end of its service life, officials said.

The Defense Department is considering alternatives to replace the system by 2007 while matching or improving its ability to monitor missile tests conducted by countries such as Russia (see GSN, Feb. 27), China (see GSN, Feb. 1) and North Korea (see GSN, Feb. 7).

Alternatives could be shipborne, airborne or a mix of the two, although airborne systems would probably be more expensive, said John Conway, business development manager for surface radar systems at Raytheon, the defense contractor that developed the Cobra Judy’s S-band phased-array and X-band dish radars.

The Pentagon plans to request $620 million over five years for an alternative, and the fiscal 2003 budget request for the Air Force includes $51 million for the system, said Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency.

Although the radar system is not currently configured to be part of the national missile defense system, and the United States does not have plans to use it for that purpose, it might be possible to adjust the radar to fulfill that role, Conway said (Sharon Weinberger, Aerospace Daily, March 4).

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Israel:  U.S. Gives Israel Early Warning Radar System

The United States has transferred equipment to Israel that should enhance the early warning capability of the Arrow anti-missile system, the Jerusalem Post reported today (see GSN, Feb. 15).

Israel has asked for increased U.S. assistance to protect Israel against missiles from Iraq in the event of a U.S. strike against Iraq.  The United States was initially hesitant to link its warning system with Israel’s Arrow system, according to the Post.  U.S. Representative Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) thanked U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell for providing the assistance.

“In a little-reported action, but I think vital to what’s coming, thank you for providing early warning radar assistance to Israel,” Kirk said.  “The United States is moving to provide real-time missile data to Israel” (Janine Zacharia, Jerusalem Post, March 8).

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Nuclear Waste:  Senate Confirms Yucca Mountain Project Director

The U.S. Senate Wednesday unanimously confirmed Margaret Chu as the Energy Department’s director of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project (see GSN, March 7).

“I want to enhance the credibility of the Department of Energy and communicate more with all participating parties” concerning Yucca Mountain, said Chu, former head of nuclear waste programs at Sandia National Laboratories.

Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) delayed a vote on Chu’s nomination for almost three months, saying he was unsatisfied with her answers to his questions on the Yucca Mountain project.  According to Reid spokesman Nathan Naylor, the senator lifted his opposition to Chu because she could not hurt Nevada any more than President George W. Bush already has with his decision to approve the project.

“What Chu could do at this point pales in comparison to what the president did,” Naylor said.  “But with that said, it might help to have a change in that office.  Maybe the scientist in her will kick in once she stumbles over all the potholes in the Yucca Mountain program” (Tony Batt, Las Vegas Review-Journal, March 8).

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