Threat Assessment:  Sept. 11 Passes With Suspicious Incidents, But No Attacks

While the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks passed by yesterday with no new terrorist attacks, U.S. and law enforcement officials did report some suspicious incidents (see GSN, Sept. 11).

Police evacuated an office building in Columbus, Ohio, after an employee discovered a man behaving suspiciously.  When questioned, the man, named Oscar Sesmas, said he was “looking for someplace to hide a bomb,” according to Lt. Gary Lewis, a state police spokesman.  Police and bomb experts evacuated the building and searched a van belonging to Sesmas’s employer, according to the New York Times.  Although bomb-sniffing dogs reacted several times, no bomb was found.  Sesmas was charged with inducing panic, according to the Times.

U.S. agents detected traces of radioactivity when they searched a Liberian-registered cargo ship outside the Port Newark/Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey (see related GSN story, today).  The ship was later ordered to a security zone six miles out to sea, the Times reported (see GSN, Sept. 9).

Air combat patrols were extended to 10 additional cities besides New York and Washington yesterday, military officials said.  Fighter jets were also placed on alert at more than a dozen other locations.  Pentagon officials also said U.S. military commanders in charge of a region from East Africa to Central Asia increased the region’s security level to the military’s highest threat level yesterday (Johnston/Broder, New York Times, Sept. 12).

In Baltimore, FBI agents and police investigated six men, five of which are non-U.S. nationals detained on immigration violations.  The men are suspected of being part of a terrorist cell, a law-enforcement official said.  They were among eight men arrested Tuesday in Baltimore.  The other two men were later released.  FBI agents are still investigating possible terrorist links stemming from the arrests, a bureau spokesman said.

A flight from Memphis, Tenn., to Las Vegas was diverted to Arkansas yesterday after passengers reported that four Middle Eastern men were behaving strangely, according to the Washington Times.  Passengers on the flight said the men had locked themselves in the airplane’s bathroom and were shaving their bodies.  Three of the men will be charged with interfering with a flight crew and the fourth was released, officials said (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, Sept. 12).

“It has been a somewhat busy day across the country,” said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House Office of Homeland Security. 

Johndroe did not say when the U.S. terrorism threat alert level, recently increased to “orange” for the Sept. 11 anniversary, would return to normal (see GSN, Sept. 10).  Several state and local officials said they planned to return to normal police staffing levels today (Johnston/Broader, New York Times).

The increased threat alert level resulted from information provided by captured al-Qaeda operative Omar al-Farouq, U.S. officials said.  Captured several months ago in Indonesia, al-Farouq is being held in U.S. custody and not by another government as had been reported, according to the Times.  CIA officials are debriefing him at an undisclosed location (Gertz, Washington Times).

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International Response:  IAEA Fulfilling Calls for Security, ElBaradei Says

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The International Atomic Energy Agency has rapidly implemented the nuclear terrorism prevention plan that it developed soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday.

“We moved rapidly to respond,” he said in a press statement.  “Though the primary responsibility lies with states themselves, everyone realizes that we must work together to ensure effective national and international systems of nuclear security.”

The agency released a report this week outlining the progress it has made on the action plan (see GSN, Sept. 9).  The report details the progress in seven activity areas:

*         Physical protection of nuclear materials and nuclear facilities;

*         Detection of nuclear and radiological terrorism;

*         Improving state nuclear accountancy and control systems;

*         Radioactive material security;

*         Nuclear facility vulnerability assessments;

*         Responses to nuclear terrorism and implementation;

*         Adherence to international agreements; and

*         Information management.

Protection and Detection

To help improve physical protection systems, the agency’s International Physical Protection Advisory Service has visited several IAEA member states including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Romania.  The service is planning an additional four to six missions, the report says.

The agency has also conducted a physical protection training course in Egypt, a security and safety workshop in Pakistan, and workshops on threats in Armenia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine, while educators are currently planning an additional four to five threat workshops, according to the report.

Since last year, the IAEA has held training courses in Azerbaijan and Cyprus for officers likely to encounter radioactive materials and a workshop in Macedonia on illegal trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials, the report says (see GSN, Aug. 8).  Additionally, the agency has held a regional workshop on illegal trafficking and physical protection issues in Indonesia and helped Romania plan a national training exercise for law enforcement officials there, the report says.

In January, the agency gave a workshop on handheld radiation detectors with law enforcement officials, laboratory experts and detector manufacturers.  It has also begun developing a handbook on radiation detection methods for law enforcement officials and has held meetings to develop a training curriculum, the report says.

Accountancy and Control

To help officials improve nuclear accountancy and control systems, the IAEA has held training workshops in Algeria, Argentina, the United States, Russia, Ukraine and Japan, according to the report (see GSN, June 25).  The agency has also conducted regional seminars in Japan and Peru and helped Australia implement a regional training course for personnel from some north Asian countries, the report says.

The agency’s secretariat has provided newly independent and east European countries with methods to self-assess their accountancy and control systems.  To date, nine out of the 14 countries contacted have conducted self-assessments the secretariat has evaluated their responses.

Material Security

Officials have begun several programs to increase security of other radioactive materials and to recover materials and sources out of control, the agency reported (see GSN, June 10).  Officials plan to submit a guide on the safety and security of radiation sources to the agency Radiation Safety Standards Committee for consideration by December, the report says.  A report on orphaned radiation sources is in its final draft.

Vulnerability and Responses

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the IAEA has intensified its program to improve emergency response measures in member states, the agency said in its report.  Officials are planning to revise emergency response manuals and training material to specifically address acts of nuclear or radiological terrorism.

Agreements and Information

The IAEA has begun identifying experts to advise member states on implementing international agreements against nuclear terrorism, the report says.  The experts will probably first visit five African nations to attempt to persuade officials to implement such agreements and to offer assistance in doing so, according to the report.  The agency is planning to conduct three such missions per year, depending on available resources.

The IAEA is continuing to develop ways to acquire information on nuclear security activities (see GSN, March 7).  The agency has expanded its illicit trafficking database, to which information on 90 new trafficking incidents was reported over the past year, the report says.  Since September 2001, however, the number of member states participating in the database has risen only slightly and is currently at 70, the report says.

Funds

The two-year action plan will cost about $12 million per year, the IAEA has estimated.  So far, voluntary contributions from member states total $8 million.  ElBaradei has called on member states to continue to provide more funds (see GSN, Aug. 23).

“Much more needs to be done,” he said.  “The focus of our efforts must be expanded to cover other nuclear facilities, including research installations that also have nuclear and other radioactive materials and other radioactive material but typically have less physical protection.”

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U.S. Response:  Watchdog Report Faults Security at Nuclear Plants

Security guards at nuclear power plants in the United States are unprepared for a terrorist attack, according to a report from a government watchdog group, released today (see GSN, July 30).

The Project on Government Oversight interviewed 22 guards at 13 locations.  There are 6,000 guards working at U.S. nuclear reactors, according to Reuters.

Guards have been asked to work too much overtime since Sept. 11, 2001, the report concluded.  Additionally, guards do not receive sufficient weapons training and might be armed with insufficient firearms to match the automatic weapons and explosives that terrorists might use in an attack, the report said.

The report was criticized by Richard Meserve, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its use of “a very thin sample.” 

“The security at plants is very strong,” he said. “The plants have the inherent capacity to withstand severe events of all types” (Chris Baltimore, Reuters/Boston Globe, Sept. 12).

The guards also told interviewers that rules on the use of deadly force are too ambiguous to be effective, the New York Times reported.

Guards said they are allowed to use lethal force if they are directly threatened.  If someone jumps a fence with a backpack or package that is not clearly a bomb or weapon, however, the guards are not allowed to fire, they said.

Meserve agreed that Congress should set national standards on the use of deadly force by nuclear reactor guards.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has repeatedly asked Congress to take action on this issue, he said (Matthew Wald, New York Times, Sept. 12).

Security Increase

Meanwhile, the commission has advised the operators of U.S. nuclear power plants to step up security after U.S. officials warned of another potential terrorist attack, Reuters reported today.

According to a commission press release, officials “immediately advised nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities to implement heightened security measures.”  There are no specific threats toward nuclear facilities, the commission said (Reuters/Planet Ark, Sept. 12).  

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Iraq I:  Bush Presses Case for Action; Annan Calls for Multilateral Approach

By Jim Wurst
Global Security Newswire

UNITED NATIONS — U.S. President George W. Bush told the U.N. General Assembly this morning that Iraq is a threat to international peace and that the United Nations is facing “a defining moment” in the face of Baghdad’s defiance of the Security Council.  He did not call for a new council resolution, demand the return of weapons inspectors or explicitly call for a regime change.

Yet he methodically laid out Iraq’s history of violating Security Council resolutions and international law.  “History, logic and the facts lead to one conclusion:  Saddam Hussein’s regime is a grave and gathering danger,” Bush said.  “To suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence.  To assume this regime’s good faith is to bet the lives of millions and the peace of the world in a reckless gamble.  And this is a risk we must not take.”

He warned that the United Nations is facing “a difficult and defining moment:  are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced or cast aside without consequence?  Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding or will it be irrelevant?”  Bush added, “Iraq has answered a decade of U.N. demands with a decade of defiance.”

Bush said Hussein “has proven … only his contempt for the United Nations and for all his pledges.  By breaking every pledge, by his deceptions and his cruelties, Saddam Hussein has made the case against himself.”  He laid out in detail the case against Hussein, including defiance of council resolutions and the drive to rebuild the capacities for producing weapons of mass destruction, but did not offer any new evidence.  Calling Iraq a “totalitarian state,” Bush accused Iraq not only of seeking weapons of mass destruction, but also of harboring terrorists and committing torture, summary executions and other human rights abuses.

Bush raised the specter of nuclear weapons in the hands of Iraq.  Hussein “continues to develop weapons of mass destruction,” he said.  “The first time we may be completely certain he has nuclear weapons is when, God forbids, he uses one.  We owe it to all our citizens, to do everything in our power to prevent that day from coming.”  He added, “If an emboldened regime were to supply these weapons to terrorist allies, then the attacks of Sept. 11 would be a prelude to far greater horrors.”

The White House today released a 22-page report, A Decade of Deception and Defiance: Saddam Hussein’s Defiance of the United Nations, outlining the U.S. case that Iraq is violating 16 Security Council resolutions.  It also summarizes publicly available information detailing Iraq’s attempts to rebuild its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons capabilities.   

Bush warned that if Iraq continues to violate council resolutions, “a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.”

Bush added, “My nation will work with the U.N. Security Council to meet our common challenge. If Iraq’s regime defies us again, the world must move deliberately, decisively to hold Iraq to account.”

In his speech, Bush said nothing about a new resolution.  Other U.S. officials have raised the idea of a resolution that would give Iraq one last chance to comply with the council or face military action.  Recent news reports have said such a draft resolution could be ready within a few weeks.  French President Jacques Chirac has suggested such a route.  French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin will address the assembly later this afternoon.

Annan Calls For Multilateral Approach

Speaking shortly before Bush, Secretary General Kofi Annan made a strong appeal for multilateral efforts, an obvious response to recent U.S. pronouncements suggesting unilateral action against Iraq.  “I stand before you today as a multilateralist — by precedent, by principle, by charter and by duty,” Annan said.

“The more a country makes use of multilateral institutions — thereby respecting shared values, and accepting the obligations and restraints inherent in those values — the more others will trust and respect it, and the stronger its chance to exercise true leadership,” said Annan.

Annan noted that national self-defense is enshrined in the U.N. Charter, but added, “beyond that, when states decided to use force to deal with broader threats to international peace and security, there is no substitute for the unique legitimacy provided by the United Nations.”

“Efforts to obtain Iraq’s compliance with the council’s resolutions must continue,” Annan continued.  “I appeal to all who have influence with Iraq’s leaders to impress on them the vital importance of accepting weapons inspections.  This is the indispensable first step towards assuring the world that all Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction have indeed been eliminated.”

Annan’s office took the unusual step of releasing the speech a day early because, a senior U.N. official said, “We were worried that what the secretary general says could be seen as a commentary on Bush.”  The official said the speech was also passed on to Washington “as a matter of courtesy.”  Asked if Annan’s speech should be seen being directed at Bush, he said, “We would like to think the U.S. will pay attention to it.”  He added, “If it is a warning, it’s an extremely friendly warning.”

Four Regions Pose Security Threat, Annan Says

Annan mentioned four regions which pose a threat to world peace, and Iraq was not at the top of the list.  The first he mentioned was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where he said the world must return to efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive settlement.  Annan mentioned Iraq next, followed by Afghanistan and South Asia, where tension has increased between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan.

Bush also mentioned the Middle East conflict, saying “there can be no peace for either side without freedom for both sides.”

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Iraq II:  U.S. Democrats Still Unconvinced of Need for Military Action

A recent classified intelligence briefing by the Bush administration has failed to convince key Democratic legislators of the need for military action against Iraq, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept 11).

Following a briefing by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and CIA Director George Tenet, several leading Democrats indicated that a resolution to support military action could wait until after November elections.

“I know of no information that the threat is so imminent from Iraq,” said House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee.

“It would be a severe mistake for us to vote on Iraq with as little information as we have,” said Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) regarding the briefing (VandeHei/Eilperin, Washington Post, Sept. 11).

Intelligence Estimate Still Pending

The New York Times reported yesterday that the administration has yet to produce a national intelligence estimate on Iraq, and the delay is contributing to the perceived lack of convincing intelligence.  The estimate would be a definitive document on Iraq’s WMD capabilities that would combine the resources of the Pentagon, State Department, CIA, other governmental intelligence sources and dissenting viewpoints, according to the Times.

“We’re being asked to go to war and vote on it within days, and we learn that our intelligence community has not coordinated their efforts to put together this critical document that’s essential for us to make this decision,” Durbin said.

Tenet and Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin told senators that analysts are compiling updated intelligence on Iraq.

Several intelligence officials have insisted there is intelligence available which make the case against Iraq, but congressional Democrats have remained unconvinced.

“What I’m looking for is the latest compilation that cross-analyzes agency assessments, that really gives you the best, state-of-the-art, up-to-date, full analysis of where they are,” said Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) (Schmitt/Mitchell, New York Times, Sept. 11).

French Proposal Rejected

As the administration tries to build international support for a campaign against Iraq, a senior official has dismissed a French proposal that would explore military options only if Iraq refused to allow weapons inspectors to resume their work, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

The Bush administration has said it objects to the plan because it would require two United Nations votes and allow Hussein more time to avoid maneuver.

“If a two-step — or any number of step — process is one that gives Saddam Hussein ways to fiddle with us…. it would not be a good thing,” Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said.

The United States and the United Kingdom support a resolution that would set a deadline within the next month for Iraq to allow U.N. inspectors back in the country, with military force threatened if the deadline were not met (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 11).

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U.S. Response:  NNSA Research Needs Better Oversight, GAO Says

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s research efforts into WMD detection technologies and chemical and biological weapons defenses lack formal processes to determine users’ needs and have inadequate tools with which to monitor progress, says a report released this week by the General Accounting Office (see GSN, March 29).

The report criticizes two out of three research areas in the agency’s Nonproliferation and Verification Research and Development program:  the Chemical and Biological National Security area and the Proliferation Detection area.  The two areas lack formal means for identifying users’ needs during various stages of project development, from funding to research updates, the report says.

Agency and U.S. national laboratory officials, who conduct most of the research, have said users should not provide input early in a project’s development because much of the research is long-term and the feasibility of a certain project is not always immediately known, according to the report.  Two separate agency advisory committees, however, recommended in 2000 and again this year that increasing communications with users through all stages of a project’s development would aid successful technology transfers, the GAO report says.

The report also says that while federal, state and local officials have praised agency research efforts, some have questioned whether the administration is conducting the appropriate balance of short- and long-term research.  The agency places an emphasis on long-term research projects, but some have said it needs to do more to address immediate needs, according to the report.

“Several national laboratory officials and users told us that this conflict between short- and long-term priorities has created a gap in which the most important immediate needs of users or highest risks are, in some cases, going unaddressed in favor of an advanced technology that can only be delivered over the long-term,” the report says.

Project Managing

The agency’s nonproliferation research program requires that the life-cycle plans and quarterly reports of research projects contain detailed information on project schedules, milestones, technology users and deliverables.  Many of the reports from the Chemical and Biological National Security and Proliferation Detection research areas, however, did not contain such information, the report says.

The GAO found that many of the reports from the chemical and biological lacked the information because funds for all projects are allocated in a single amount to a national laboratory, rather than to the separate projects.  This leads to a facility creating a single report for all research projects under its control, out of which specific project information is difficult to obtain, the GAO report says.

“Officials from this research area were therefore unable to provide us with even a list of their ongoing projects,” the report says.

While the agency maintains an information system to track distribution of funds to individual projects, the system is not designed to compile information as to whether projects are on schedule or within budget, according to the GAO report.  The report recommends that agency officials improve project plans and information systems to obtain information on individual project milestones and costs.

The report also recommends that the agency’s research programs work with the White House Office of Homeland Security to better clarify the administration’s research roles and to better involve users in the research process.  By doing so, the agency and the Office of Homeland Security could better leverage research funds and the technical knowledge of the national laboratories to meet short- and long-term goals, the report says.

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North Korea:  Pyongyang Hints at Cooperation With Inspectors

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is expected to announce during a North Korean-Japanese summit scheduled for next week that North Korea will cooperate with International Atomic Energy Agency inspections, officials said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 3).

North Korea indicated its willingness to begin to cooperate with the inspections during summit preparatory meetings, the officials said.  North Korean officials said Pyongyang will begin to collect information on nuclear facilities, accept visits by experts and select equipment to be used in the inspections, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun.

North Korean and Japanese negotiators have also discussed whether a statement to be released after the summit would include an agreement that North Korea will cooperate with the inspections, officials said.

The inspections are required under the 1994 Agreed Framework under which North Korea agreed to disband its nuclear program in exchange for two U.S.-built light-water nuclear power reactors (Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 12).

For further information, see:

Agreed Framework Text

KEDO

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France:  Defense Bill Calls for New Submarine by 2010

The French Council of Ministers yesterday adopted a plan to build a fourth Triomphant-class, nuclear ballistic-missile submarine by 2010 (see GSN, July 18).  The ministers adopted proposed legislation outlining the next five years of military programming that includes the submarine plan and calls for the M-51 ballistic missile to enter into service simultaneously (Anne-Charlotte De Langhe, Le Figaro, Sept. 12, GSN translation).

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Russia:  U.S. Firm Plans Lunar Landing With Converted Russian ICBM

U.S. aerospace firm TransOrbital plans to use a former Russian SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, modified into a Dnepr rocket, to launch an unmanned spacecraft into lunar orbit, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported today (see GSN, July 12).

The company recently announced that it has received required licensing from the U.S. State Department and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to conduct the first private mission to the moon.

“Right now, realistically, we’re the only ones going to the moon,” TransOrbital Chief Executive Officer Dennis Laurie said yesterday (Bruce Bigelow, San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 12).

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United States:  TRW to Service Peacekeeper, Minuteman Missiles

Defense contractor TRW is continuing to conduct engineering and repair work on Peacekeeper and Minuteman ICBMs, and will soon receive a $135.3 million payment from the Pentagon, Bloomberg.com reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 12).  

The project, scheduled to run through next year, is a modification of a 1997 contract under which TRW is managing the U.S. Air Force ballistic missile arsenal through 2012, company spokeswoman Marynoele Benson said (Jonathan Berr, Bloomberg.com, Sept. 11).

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Anthrax:  FBI Searches Hatfill’s Apartment Again

For the third time yesterday, the FBI searched the former apartment of Steven Hatfill, the former U.S. Army biologist who has become the public focus of the bureau’s investigation into last fall’s anthrax attacks, a source close to the investigation said (see GSN, Sept. 5).

FBI agents had obtained a warrant to search the Frederick, Md., apartment, the source said (Christopher Newton, Association Press/Yahoo.com, Sept. 12).

Hatfill and his attorney, Victor Glasberg, were not informed about the search, said Patrick Clawson, a spokesman for Hatfill.  Hatfill moved out of the apartment a month ago, he added.

“Why do they have to search a third time?” Clawson said.  “Isn't the FBI competent enough to get the job done the first two tries?”

The FBI did not comment on the search (Scott Shane, Baltimore Sun, Sept. 12).

For further information, see:

FBI Amerithrax Investigation

GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)

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U.S. Response:  Pentagon Should Manage Vaccines Better, Report Says

The U.S. Defense Department’s ability to obtain and manage adequate stockpiles of vaccines is complicated more by organizational problems than by science, a committee of experts said in a report last week (see GSN, Aug. 8).

“A full-fledged reorganization of DOD’s priority-setting and vaccine acquisition processes will be required if the department is to fulfill its pledge to protect U.S. warfighters against vaccine-preventable infectious disease,” said the committee, which was formed by the U.S. Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences.

Inadequate funds and management and organizational problems hinder the military’s vaccine research programs, the committee said.  The military’s technology base and research programs are also narrower now than in the past and must be improved to meet protection requirements, the report says.

The Pentagon’s distinctions between developing vaccines for naturally occurring diseases and for those caused by biological warfare agents are both scientifically and organizationally “unsound,” the report says.

The committee recommended consolidating development efforts for both types of vaccines under one authority.  The Pentagon should also create a single authority that would be responsible for the entire vaccine acquisition process, the report says.  A senior advisory board is needed to conduct regular assessments on program goals and accomplishments, it says.

The committee recommended that the Pentagon increase funding for vaccine research and development and establish better ties to private and public entities conducting similar research.  The Pentagon also needs to negotiate agreements to ensure steady vaccine production with “predictable volumes and prices” over the long-term, the report says (Catherine MacRae, Inside the Pentagon, Sept. 12).

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Bulgaria:  Sofia Destroys First SS-23 Warhead

Furthering efforts to dispose of its Soviet-era missiles, Bulgaria conducted a successful experimental demolition Tuesday of an SS-23 conventional warhead (see GSN, Aug. 13).

Several top Bulgarian officials including Defense Minister Nikolay Svinarov attended the demolition at the Zmeyovo test range, according to Sofia BTA.  Post-demolition tests indicated that environmental parameters were within normal ranges.

Officials plan to announce today the method for disposing of SS-23 engines, Svinarov said, adding that it will not involve a test range.  Controlled Demolition Inc., the U.S. contractor involved in Bulgaria’s SS-23 disposal effort, has not ruled out using outside experts, Svinarov said (Sofia BTA, Sept. 10 in FBIS-EEU, Sept. 10).

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Radiological Weapons:  Coast Guard Holds, Searches Suspicious Ship

Coast Guard officials are today searching a ship bound for Port Elizabeth, N.J., after detecting low levels of radiation on board (See GSN, July 31).

“It is probably going to take some time as it is a fairly large ship,” an FBI spokesman said.

The managing owner of the ship, Reederei Laeisz in Rostock, Germany released a statement saying the investigation “will be completed by Sept. 13” (Reuters, Sept. 12).

The Palermo Senator, traveling under a Liberian flag from Valencia, Spain, is being held at a secure location six miles off the U.S. shore.

Coast Guard officials boarded the ship for inspection as it came into New York Harbor, according to a New York Times report.  They searched it for stowaways after hearing unexplained noises in the hold.  No stowaways were found, but the officials “did a radiation test and low levels were detected,” according to Sandra Carroll, an FBI spokeswoman.

In the course of its usual 91-day circuit, the ship makes calls at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Khorfakkan, the United Arab Emirates, among other ports (Ronald Smothers, New York Times, Sept. 12).

The ship’s current journey began July 29 in Pusan, South Korea, Reuters reported yesterday.  It stopped Aug. 22 at El Suweis in Egypt (Reuters/New York Times, Sept. 11).

Incident Highlights Trade Dilemma

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported today that the searching of the Palermo Senator brings to light a difficult situation that the Bush administration faces, namely balancing free trade with increasing security controls on incoming containers.

The administration has been promising that security will not be compromised.  In the last 10 months the U.S. Customs Service has searched more than three times as many containers, by hand and with gamma ray detectors, than they did in the same period last year.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, however, has been lobbying heavily to reduce the impact on the free flow of imports and exports (Gary Fields, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 12).

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