U.S. Response:  Proposed “Fee” Delays Port Security Bill

A proposed “fee” has left legislation to bolster security in U.S. ports stuck in committee for months, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, July 2).

The fee, proposed by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), would be attached to cargo and paid by importers and exporters to help fund the bill’s provisions.  House Republicans have complained, however, that the fee is actually a tax, and taxes must originate in the House of Representatives.  There is also concern that Congress has already given ports $300 million in grants in two emergency spending bills. 

“The proposal came apparently out of nowhere,” said Steven Hansen, spokesman for House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young.  “It’s the one major issue holding up the bill.”

Hansen also noted that the bill passed through the Senate and the House without this provision.  Hollings insisted, however, that the fee is necessary.

“We’ve got to get the money,” he said.

The bill would require each seaport to implement a federal security program; obtain more information about ship’s cargo, crew and passengers before they reach the port; conduct background checks on employees in sensitive areas; provide more funding for security agents; and coordinate law enforcement efforts.

Hollings said that he hopes to move the bill through conference by changing the language in his proposal and avoiding designation of a tax.

“I’m getting optimistic for the first time,” he said (Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post, Sept. 16).

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International Response:  African Union Adopts Anti-Terror Plan

The African Union adopted a plan of action to implement the 1999 Algiers Convention on preventing and combating terrorism, the Boston Globe reported today.

The move came during an African Union conference on terrorism that had been timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and concluded yesterday.

“We have demonstrated that the whole of Africa is ready to assume its full responsibility on an international level to eradicate terrorism once and for all,” Algerian Prime Minister Ali Benflis said.

Fifteen member countries were required to ratify the convention for adoption.  During the conference, Comoros, Ghana, South Africa and Sudan ratified the agreement, bringing the total to 17.

At South African insistence, the plan to implement the convention includes several costly measures — such as issuing forgery-proof passports — that could prove difficult for impoverished nations.

“We appreciate your resolve to take vigorous action to counter terrorism,” John Walser of the U.S. State Department said, speaking on behalf of international observers at the conference. “We take careful note of your appeal for international support in building capacity to fight terrorism. We will convey this to our governments” (Jean-Jacques Cornish, Boston Globe, Sept. 16).

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Al-Qaeda:  Equipment Indicates WMD Plans, Officials Say

Equipment recovered last spring from an al-Qaeda laboratory discovered near Kandahar, Afghanistan, indicates that the terrorist organization had acquired essential technology to develop chemical and biological weapons agents, U.S. Defense Department officials said Friday (see GSN, March 25).

The equipment — a centrifuge and an oven that could have been used to dry agents — supports assessments that al-Qaeda might have been able to put together “a very limited production of biological and chemical agents,” a Pentagon official said.

Officials said that they did not believe the equipment had been used and that no live agents had been found at the laboratory, which was still under construction when British special forces found it.  The equipment and documents at the site did indicate, however, that al-Qaeda was working to obtain weapons of mass destruction, a senior Pentagon official said.

The equipment and documents recovered from the laboratory indicate that al-Qaeda was working to produce several biological and chemical agents to use against both people and food supplies, a Pentagon official said.  The laboratory could have been used to produce anthrax, plague and cholera, as well as agricultural diseases and foot-and-mouth disease, intelligence analysts said.

“They were actively hunting with shopping lists for equipment, materials, and expertise, and they were working with foreign scientists familiar with such agents,” the Pentagon official said.

U.S. officials did not know about the laboratory until British troops discovered it, Pentagon officials said.  Out of about 60 sites that U.S. officials have investigated, the laboratory was the only one that was previously unknown, according to the New York Times.  Officials said that out of 370 samples taken from the various sites, only five indicated trace amounts of biological agents (Judith Miller, New York Times, Sept. 14).

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Iraq:  Baghdad Conditionally Approves Inspections

Iraq is ready to readmit weapons inspectors, but only under a plan that would prevent a possible U.S. attack and end U.N. sanctions, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Saturday (see GSN, Sept. 13).

“If there is a solution which maintains Iraq’s sovereignty, dignity and legitimate rights and prevents aggression, we are ready,” Aziz said during a news conference held in response to U.S. President George W. Bush’s Thursday address to the United Nations (see GSN, Sept. 3).  Iraq is ready to prevent inspectors from returning, however, if “there is no honest, balanced and credible formula that will take us to the truth,” he added.

Aziz said he is concerned that if weapons inspectors were readmitted and a crisis were to occur, the United States might use such a situation as a reason to attack.  He cited as an example the December 1998 U.S.-British air campaign, in which the two countries bombed Iraq for four days after it failed to comply with inspectors.

“We are facing the same situation as we faced in 1998,” Aziz said.  “Continuous accusations are being made in Washington and London.”

U.N. inspectors worked in Iraq for more than seven years without finding any prohibited weapons, Aziz said (see GSN, Sept. 6).  “They made thousands of inspections ... but they did not find anything,” he said.

Aziz again invited U.S. legislators to travel to Iraq and visit suspected WMD sites (see GSN, Aug. 19).  “You can bring all the experts ... and you can bring all the equipment you need to search for the truth,” he said (Reuters/Los Angeles Times, Sept. 15).

Powell Rejects Conditions

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday rejected Iraq’s offer, saying inspectors must be allowed to travel “anywhere, anytime.”

“If they have no weapons, what are they hiding?” Powell said on CNN’s Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer.  “They find all kinds of excuses, a thousand excuses — ‘There are spies on this team.  We don’t want this.  When are sanctions going to be relieved and removed?’  The issue is Iraqi noncompliance, and we should not allow them to move us off that issue.”

New Resolution

It is too late for Iraq to attempt to negotiate conditions for the return of weapons inspectors, Powell said.  He said he is working with other members of the U.N. Security Council to create a resolution that would list Iraq’s past violations of U.N. resolutions, what Iraq must do to meet U.N. conditions and what response would be taken if Iraq failed to do so.

“The time for Iraq to respond was years ago,” Powell said.  “They now have an opportunity to respond now with this new resolution.  But what we cannot allow to have happen is to get into this haggling and listening to the duplicitous comments that are constantly coming out of Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz” (CNN.com, Sept. 15).

Powell said he hopes that intensive work to draft a council resolution will begin by the end of this week.  The resolution should give Iraq “a matter of weeks” to comply with U.N. resolutions, he said, adding he is optimistic that the council would vote on the resolution within a few weeks (Associated Press/Globe and Mail, Sept. 16).

Bush Makes Diplomatic Progress

Meanwhile, Bush is making progress in convincing leaders of other countries that the issue of Iraq’s noncompliance with the United Nations needs to be dealt with, U.S. officials said Saturday.  At Camp David in Maryland Saturday, the president met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who expressed support for Bush’s position on Iraq, a U.S. official said.

“You are seeing the international community coalesce around this idea that Iraq must comply” with U.N. resolutions, a senior Bush administration official said (CNN.com, Sept. 15).

Congressional Timetable

In the U.S. Congress, legislators are still in the midst of debate over when to take action on a resolution to support U.S. military action against Iraq, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Sept. 12).  The Bush administration has pressed for Congress to vote before the November elections.

Concerning whether Congress will take up the issue before the elections, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said it is only possible.  Noting that Bush has yet to ask Congress for a resolution, he said, “We don’t know what this administration wants to do.”

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, however, said it is up to Congress to introduce a resolution.

“Obviously, it is up to the Congress to offer resolutions, not to the administration,” she said (Associated Press/Globe and Mail, Sept. 16).

For further information, see:

UNMOVIC

U.N. Resolution 687 (Sanctions Regime)

U.N. Resolution 1409 (“Smart Sanctions”)

U.S. State Department Fact Sheet on Iraqi Sanctions Revisions

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U.S. Response:  U.S. Pushes Anti-WMD Technology

Several technology options that the United States is exploring to defeat chemical and biological weapons hold promise, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported this week (see GSN, Aug. 7).

The Defense Department is seeking technology that would destroy stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons without dispersing them into the atmosphere.  A senior defense official told Jane’s, however, that the problem is not solved.

“There is no silver bullet for the defeat of a chemical or biological weapon,” Defense Threat Reduction Agency director Stephen Younger said.  “Kilogram quantities I think we are getting reasonably close to being able to deal with.  Hundreds of kilograms to tons — which exist in some places — that is a more difficult problem.”

Potential solutions include a tool called Agent Defeat Phase II, which is in the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration phase (see GSN, March 6).  With this project, defense officials hope to create a filling that would burn at 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit for an extended period of time in a contained area to destroy any chemical or biological agents in the immediate vicinity.  The filling is being developed for penetrating warheads designed to strike deeply fortified or deeply buried targets.

The Defense Department hopes to build eight of these weapons by fiscal 2004 for testing and 20 more for operational use, Jane’s reported.

Other technology being discussed by defense and industry officials includes microwave weapons to destroy electronic and computerized controls in chemical and biological weapon facilities; computer network attacks to damage infrastructure vital to facilities; and sticky or hardening foams to deny access to weapons (see GSN, July 24; Andrew Koch, Jane’s Defense Weekly, Sept. 18).

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CTBT I:  Senior Diplomats Renew Push for Test Ban Ratifications

By Jim Wurst
Global Security Newswire

UNITED NATIONS — Seeking to give a new impetus to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, 18 foreign ministers issued a statement on Saturday “reaffirm[ing] the vision” of an end to nuclear testing that “would contribute to systematic and progressive reduction of nuclear weapons and the prevention of nuclear proliferation.”

Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called the CTBT “the most effective barrier against the spread of nuclear weapons, and it is crucial on the road to the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons.”  Scheffer, joined by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, spoke at a news conference following the ministerial meeting.  France, Russia and the United Kingdom also signed the statement.

There are 44 nuclear-capable states that must ratify the CTBT for it to enter into force. Thirty-one have ratified, but the holdouts include the United States, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

“We are very concerned that the whole multilateral arms control and disarmament agenda has become bogged down,” said Downer, referring not only to the CTBT, but also the Conference on Disarmament, which after four years still does not have a program of work (see GSN, Sept. 13).

The ministerial statement said, “Additional international tensions … make entry into force of the treaty, within the broader framework of multilateral arms control and nonproliferation efforts, even more urgent today.”  In the specific case of Iraq, Downer said, it “should encourage more signings,” not only of the CTBT but also the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions.  The proliferation of mass destruction weapons is “the greatest single threat the world faces and the more countries that sign up to the [three treaties] the better,” he said, “We hope the Iraq debate will be a true incentive for more countries to sign and ratify the CTBT.”

The statement also called on all concerned states to expand the CTBT’s verification regime, a network of sensors around the world that can detect nuclear explosions (see GSN March 19).  The system “will be unprecedented in its global reach” and “will ensure a high level of confidence that states are maintaining their treaty commitments.”  The full system cannot become operational until the treaty enters into force.

Downer said, “A fairly good mechanism has been put into place,” arguing that the system in Australia alone can detect most tests.  If some country were to test, “there is every chance that it would be detected,” he said, “This would cause an international outcry.”

The ministers also called for the informal existing moratorium on testing to continue.

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IAEA:  State of Iraqi, North Korean Programs is Uncertain, Director Says

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been unable to verify the current states of Iraq’s and North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said today (see GSN, Sept. 12).

At the time of the last IAEA inspections in Iraq in 1998, the agency determined that there were no signs that Iraq had developed a nuclear weapon or that the country had the physical capability to produce weapon-grade materials, ElBaradei said in his opening address to the IAEA’s annual general conference in Vienna, which began today.

“Since that time, however, the agency has been unable to draw any conclusion or provide any assurance regarding Iraq’s compliance with its obligations under the [U.N.] Security Council resolutions,” he said.  “It will therefore be important for the agency to resolve, upon recommencement of inspections, the key issue of whether the situation regarding Iraq’s nuclear activities and capabilities has changed in any material way since December 1998.”

“Resumption of inspections is ... a crucial step towards providing assurance to the international community that Iraq’s nuclear weapons program has been neutralized and is not being revived,” ElBaradei said (see GSN, Sept. 13).

The IAEA has also been unable to verify that North Korea has declared all of its weapon-grade materials as required under its safeguards agreement with the IAEA, ElBaradei said.  Noting North Korean delays in allowing IAEA inspections, ElBaradei said it would probably take three to four years to verify Pyongyang’s initial declarations.  Further delays could seriously slow construction of two light-water nuclear reactors as agreed to in the 1994 Agreed Framework, he said (see GSN, Sept. 13).  Under the framework, North Korea agreed to end its nuclear program in exchange for the reactors.

Proliferation, Security and Funding

In his opening address, ElBaradei also called for more nuclear nonproliferation efforts, including strengthening of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

“The universalization, consolidation and strengthening of the nonproliferation regime, including concrete steps to reduce the number of and dependence on nuclear weapons, are more important than ever for the continuing sustainability and credibility of the regime,” ElBaradei said.

So far, only 27 countries have brought into force Additional Protocol agreements that give the agency more authority to monitor nuclear programs and ensure civilian use, ElBaradei said.  He called for all countries to enter additional protocols into force (see GSN, May 31).

Much work also still needs to be done to reduce the threat of terrorists obtaining and using nuclear weapons, ElBaradei said.

“One year after the terrorist attacks in the United States, we have moved rapidly to respond with a plan of enhanced and new activities to upgrade nuclear security worldwide,” he said.  “Much more, however, clearly needs to be done.”

Additional efforts including threat assessments are needed to protect nuclear facilities against attack or theft of materials, ElBaradei said.  One immediate priority of the IAEA is to safeguard radioactive sources such as orphaned materials, he said (see GSN, June 10).

The IAEA’s funding levels for many of its high priority programs are still “inadequate,” ElBaradei said, warning that the agency cannot meet its legal obligations with the current level of funding.  He called on the delegates assembled at the conference for an increase in IAEA resources, labeling it a “must” (IAEA release, Sept. 16).

For further information, see:

IAEA Iraq Action Team

NPT Text

States Parties to the NPT (U.N.)

UNMOVIC

U.N. Resolution 687 (Sanctions Regime)

U.N. Resolution 1409 (“Smart Sanctions”)

Agreed Framework Text

KEDO

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United States:  Washington Asks to Station B-2s in Indian Ocean

The United States has asked the United Kingdom for permission to station B-2 stealth bombers at the Diego Garcia air base in the Indian Ocean for possible use in strikes against Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

The U.S. Defense Department has said it would like to build special shelters to hold as many as six B-2s at the base (see GSN, Aug. 13).  If the United Kingdom were to agree to the request, as is expected, it would be the first time B-2s would be based overseas for a combat mission, a senior Pentagon official familiar with the negotiations said.

With in-air refueling, the U.S. fleet of B-2s could strike Iraq from the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri where bombers are currently stationed, the Journal reported.  By stationing the fleet on Diego Garcia, however, the Pentagon would be able to use them in more missions early on in any potential military action against Iraq.

“Even a small number of B-2s can wipe out Iraqi air defenses in a few days and clear the skies for coalition air power to take out Iraqi targets,” said Daniel Goure, a senior analyst at the Lexington Institute defense think tank.

While the Pentagon has been negotiating with the United Kingdom, it also has begun moving munitions to warehouses in Qatar and Diego Garcia, an official said.

Saudi Arabian Bases

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian officials said yesterday that they might grant the United States access to bases located there if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were to violate a new U.N. Security Council resolution on inspections (see related GSN story, today).

“Saddam must be brought into compliance.  Saudi Arabia will not support unilateral action in terms of Iraq but we will support the U.N. decision,” a senior Saudi official said.

Saudi Arabia currently sees any use of its bases as a way to enforce U.N. resolutions and not to overthrow Hussein, the official said.  The United States has not yet asked for access to Saudi bases, the official said.  U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to discuss Iraq with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal this week, a senior U.S. official said (Jaffe/Cloud, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 16).

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International Response:  IAEA Begins Anti-Smuggling Training Course

The International Atomic Energy Agency today began a training course for customs officials in Vladivostok, Russia, on preventing smuggling of nuclear materials (see GSN, Sept. 12).

Law enforcement officials from the Commonwealth of Independent States, Russian Far East customs officials and specialists involved in producing radiation control equipment are attending the three-week course, after which they will be required to pass a test, according to ITAR-Tass.  Observers from several other countries including the United States, China and Japan are also attending the course (Leonid Vinogradov, ITAR-Tass, Sept. 16).

Nuclear Waste Conference Begins

Meanwhile, Ekoforum-2002, an international conference on nuclear waste issues, also began today in Vladivostok.  More than 150 experts from Russia and 60 from other countries are expected to attend the four-day conference held by the Russian Nuclear Energy Ministry.  Conference attendees are expected to visit sites where nuclear waste is processed and disposed of, including the Zvezda nuclear submarine repair plant (RosBusinessConsulting Database, Sept. 16).

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CTBT II:  Niger Ratifies Treaty

Niger ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Sept. 9 (see GSN, May 30).  To date, 165 nations have signed the treaty and 94 have ratified it, including 31 of the 44 nations whose ratifications are necessary for the treaty to enter into force (CTBT Organization Web site, Sept. 16).

For further information, see:

CTBT Text

CTBT Parties

U.N. Background on CTBT

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U.S. Response:  New York Stock Exchange Considers Backup Site

The New York Stock Exchange is considering building a second facility outside New York to be able to continue to operate in the event of a nuclear attack, the Globe and Mail reported Saturday (see GSN, Sept. 11).

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, which shut down the exchange for a week, it has examined measures to prepare for another terrorist attack.  The exchange has already established a second trading floor in New York that could become operational within 24 hours, the Globe and Mail reported.  Chairman Richard Grasso has suggested that investors should be assured that the exchange would still function even after an attack with a nuclear weapon, which would require setting up the contingency facility outside of New York.

“The more we work at it, the more we realize that to do it right, you have to do it at a nuclear distance,” Grasso said.

No location has been selected yet for the backup exchange, according to the Globe and Mail.  The proposed site might be underground and equipped with food and water to ensure that stock trading could continue uninterrupted, Grasso said.

The New York Stock Exchange also needs to consider the possibility that all of its employees might be killed in a nuclear strike, Grasso said.

“You can have a second site, but if everyone dies at the primary site, then there is no one to send over there,” he said.  “So we will pursue a strategy where we will operate two trading floors simultaneously, each handling half our business” (Miro Cernetig, Globe and Mail, Sept. 14).

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West Nile Virus:  Outbreak Not Terrorism, Officials Say

It is highly unlikely the U.S. outbreak of West Nile virus is the result of biological terrorism, public health officials and scientists said Friday (see GSN, Sept. 13).

“All of (the evidence) points to this being a naturally occurring outbreak,” said Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) last week addressed the possibility that terrorists are responsible for the outbreak, calling for an investigation.  Experts have said, however, that the virus would be a poor choice for a biological weapon.

“For a weapons choice, it’s a pretty poor choice,” said William Bicknell, a professor at Boston University School of Public Health.  “If bioterrorists focus on organisms like West Nile, I would be happy.”

The virus probably entered the United States accidentally, experts said.  Increased globalization has led to an increase of new infectious diseases appearing in the United States, said Kathleen Gensheimer, state epidemiologist for the Maine Public Health Department.

“What creeps up as an infectious disease in a developing country will be on our plates as well,” she said (Eunice Moscoso, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 14).

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Anthrax:  Photocopiers Might Have Spread Spores

U.S. investigators believe photocopiers helped spread anthrax spores throughout the American Media Inc. headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., believed to be the site of the first infections in last fall’s anthrax attacks, the Palm Beach Post reported Sunday (see GSN, Sept. 11).

During their renewed search of the AMI building, FBI agents discovered that each of the more than two dozen photocopiers within the building tested positive for anthrax, according to a source familiar with the investigation.  The spores are believed to have entered the photocopiers via copy paper that had become tainted in the building’s mailroom, where it was stored, according to the Post.

Investigators believe that someone opened an anthrax-tainted letter in the mailroom, spreading spores to the copy paper.  AMI employees further distributed the spores by taking supplies of copy paper to every department in the building, according to the FBI’s reconstruction of events.  When the paper was placed into the photocopiers, the machines’ fans and other moving parts dislodged and spread the spores, the Post reported.

The FBI’s discovery of how anthrax might have been spread throughout the AMI headquarters could provide information for studies on how spores travel throughout buildings, the Post reported (see GSN, June 27).

“No doubt, whatever they discover will be significant, because it will be a one-time opportunity to see what happened,” said Keith Ward, program manager in the Biomolecular and Biosystems Group at the U.S. Office of Naval Research.  “The problem is we don’t have a lot of experience with this sort of thing” (John Murawski, Palm Beach Post, Sept. 15).

“Amerithrax” Could Be New Unabomber Case

U.S. sources have said the FBI’s renewed search of the AMI headquarters was a last-ditch attempt to find clues in the bureau’s “Amerithrax” investigation into last fall’s attacks — an investigation some have compared to the search for the Unabomber (see GSN, Sept. 12).

“It’s a fair assessment,” said a senior-level law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.  “I think many of us are resigned to the fact this could be another Unabomber case.”

“The only way we may ever find this guy is if he says the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time,” the source said.  “That could be next week.  It could be eight years.  It could be two decades” (David Kidwell, Knight Ridder/St. Paul Pioneer Press, Sept. 16).

For further information, see:

FBI Amerithrax Investigation

GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)

CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax

Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax

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U.S. Plans:  Pentagon Works to Defeat Possible Countermeasures

The U.S. Defense Department has begun work on developing ways to defeat any enemy countermeasures that would hinder a U.S. missile defense system, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported today (see GSN, Aug. 23).

A U.S. missile defense system could face enemy ballistic missiles equipped with countermeasures such as active jammers, infrared flares, radar-absorbing materials on warheads and decoy-equipped reentry vehicles, according to a report to the Defense Science Board.

The Missile Defense Agency is working to develop a kill vehicle that would have both passive infrared sensors and other active sensors that could distinguish between a warhead and a decoy, according to Aviation Week.  The agency is expected to have defense contractor Boeing develop a complementary exotatmospheric kill vehicle (CEKV), which would replace the kill vehicle designed by Raytheon for use in the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, Aviation Week reported.  Officials would probably also use the new kill vehicle in the Navy’s ship-based missile defense system.

Multiple types of sensors are planned for the new kill vehicle because missile defense countermeasures are often based on either infrared or radar detection techniques.  An enemy could build a decoy that matches both a warhead’s infrared and radar signatures, but it would be complex and decrease the size of the warhead payload that a missile could carry, defense officials said.

The report to the science board calls for developing active sensors to defeat countermeasures because passive sensors are seen as ineffective against advanced decoys.  An active system works by causing a physical effect, such as a temperature change, in a target to determine whether it is a warhead or a decoy (Robert Wall, Aviation Week & Space Technology, Sept. 16).

For further information, see:

MDA Basics of Missile Defense

MDA Missile Defense System

MDA Midcourse Defense Segment

Sea-Based Midcourse

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United Nations:  General Assembly Focuses on Iraq and Terrorism

By Jim Wurst
Global Security Newswire

UNITED NATIONS — A weekend of speeches before the U.N. General Assembly revealed support for the U.S. position on Iraq, but also concerns that attention needs to be paid to the issues raised by the United States beyond the context of Iraq, including the Middle East, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (see GSN, Sept. 13).

By the end of the day Sunday, the majority of Security Council members had spoken.  On Iraq, views ranged from strong support for the U.S. position, to stressing concerns U.S. President George W. Bush played down in his speech Thursday, to avoiding the question altogether (see GSN, Sept. 12).

The United Kingdom voiced the strongest support for the United States, echoing the arguments Bush made Thursday.  “Saddam Hussein has persistently mocked the authority of this United Nations.  No country has deceived every other country in the world as systematically and cynically as Iraq,” said Foreign Minister Jack Straw.  “So those of us who believe in an active international community cannot stand by and do nothing while Iraq continues to defy the U.N.  All of us who believe in the United Nations have to make our minds up now about how to deal with Iraq.  For the authority of the United Nations itself is at stake.”

“We have to be resolute in the face of Iraq’s defiance and secure the will of the United Nations,” Straw continued.  “We must require Iraq to re-admit inspectors with unfettered access.  We have not just an interest, but a responsibility to ensure that Iraq complies fully with international law.  We have to be clear to Iraq and to ourselves about the consequences, which will flow from a failure by Iraq to meet its obligations.”

Russia and China, both of which, like the United Kingdom, have veto power on the Security Council, revealed little of their negotiating positions on any potential new resolution.  According to Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, “Experience shows that no matter how complex international crises and conflicts may be, whatever challenges and threats they may be fraught with, they can be settled with the aid of United Nations instruments and at the basis of international law.  This fully applies to the situation around Iraq, which has long required political settlement in strict compliance with the Security Council resolutions.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said, “We stand for a political settlement of the Iraqi issue. The United Nations should play an important role in this regard.  Iraq should implement the relevant Security Council resolutions in a faithful and strict manner.”

Mexico and Syria expressed the strongest concerns about the U.S. position.  Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda of Mexico said, “The Security Council is the proper body that can today adopt the necessary measures to achieve a lasting solution to the situation in Iraq.  That is why we welcome [Bush’s speech] regarding the importance that collective debate and decision will have, during the days and weeks to follow, in determining the actions that must be taken with regard to Iraq.”  He added, “It is essential for the council to be given the necessary time and support in order to facilitate the return of the U.N. inspectors, and we therefore support President Jacques Chirac’s recent proposal to set a specific period of time for meeting this objective” (see GSN, Sept. 9)

Castaneda added, “Mexico believes that unilateral military action taken without first consulting the council would undermine the foundations of the new world security architecture and could affect the consensus that has been reached in the battle against international terrorism.”

Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara of Syria told the assembly, “We strongly believe that striking Iraq, who no longer occupies the lands of others, while keeping silent about the Israeli occupation of the Arab territories, occupied since 1967, represent the blind bias and the distorted vision of the real situation in the Middle East.”  He said Israel has not implemented Security Council resolutions and has nuclear weapons.

“The international community has committed itself to the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq. We cannot recall anyone doubting this commitment.  We also stress here that it is the right of the Iraqi people alone to decide their future without any interference in their internal affairs,” said al-Shara.  “Syria supports the resumption of dialogue between Iraq and the secretary general of the United Nations with the objective of reaching a political solution that responds to the requirements of the Security Council.”

Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen framed the issue more in terms of what the United Nations is doing rather than what the United States wants.  Saying his government supports the work of Secretary General Kofi Annan in his dealings with Iraq, Cowen added, “Let us express wholehearted agreement with the call by the secretary general for Iraq ‘to comply with its obligations for the sake of its own people and for the sake of world order. If Iraq’s defiance continues, the Security Council must face its responsibilities.’ We call on Iraq to respect its obligations and implement in full and without preconditions all the Security Council resolutions addressed to it ... Iraq’s leadership has it within its own power to end the current predicament and to alleviate the great hardship on its people.  It should do so without delay.”

Colombia, Mauritius and Singapore, all nonpermanent members of council, had little to say on the subject.

Germany, Malaysia Opposed to U.S. Attack

No country unconditionally defended Iraq.  All agreed that Iraq is in violation of Security Council resolutions calling for it to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction and to admit inspectors to ensure this has happened.  But there were also questions about the wisdom of military action and warnings that political solutions needed to be pursued.

Showing that the European Union is not united on this issue, Germany took a position at odds with the United Kingdom.  After calling the Iraqi government “horrendous for the Iraqi people and a risk for the region,” Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said, “We do not want, however, any automatism leading to the use of military force.  The fight against international terrorism remains highly dangerous.”

“The following central questions arise for us,” Fischer added.  “Have all economic and political means of pressure been truly exhausted?  To what consequences would military intervention lead?  What would this mean for regional stability?  What effect would it have on the Middle East conflict?  Are there new and definite findings and facts?  Does the threat assessment justify taking a very high risk — namely, the responsibility for peace and stability in the entire region, and what is more for years or even decades?  Would this meet with consent amongst the Arab neighbors?  What consequence would this have for the continuation of the global coalition against terrorism?  In the face of these open questions, we are full of deep skepticism regarding military action and therefore remain with our approach.”

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told the assembly, “We remain concerned that targeting Iraq outside the framework of the United Nations and in contravention of international law will not only be wrong, but will result in a more volatile world order.”  While welcoming “the decision by the United States to work with the United Nations to address this issue rather than pursuing a unilateral policy of military intervention,” he said, “engaging the international community through the United Nations must not merely be an exercise in public diplomacy.  The international community cannot be made to assume that military intervention against Iraq, in the pursuit of both disarmament and regime change, is inevitable and that the United Nations is only being engaged as a matter of course.”

Badawi added, “A preemptive attack against Iraq without any credible evidence to the international community of the threat it poses will have serious implications on the international campaign against terrorism.”

Terrorism Still Seen as the Priority

Despite the intensifying debate over Iraq, the global campaign against terrorism dominated most of the speeches.  Several reminded the assembly that the draft comprehensive treaty on terrorism and the proposed conference on terrorism are still unresolved (see GSN, Feb. 4). 

Ivanov said, “The priority task in combating terrorism consists in strengthening its international legal framework.  First of all, a genuine universal character of the existing antiterrorist conventions should be secured. ... We are seriously concerned over the absence of real progress in negotiating a comprehensive convention on combating terrorism and a convention on suppressing the acts of nuclear terrorism.  The known differences in a number of states’ approaches to the content of these documents are quite reconcilable.”

Fischer told the assembly, “On the one hand, terrorism has to be resolutely fought by the military and police.  On the other hand, we need to solve the political and social conflicts quite rightly emphasized in the Millennium Declaration as these form the breeding ground for the emergence of terrorism.  Opting for one approach and neglecting the other risks failure.  This problem can only be solved through multilateralism, that is, if nations work together.  Terrorism does not stop at these borders and shaping globalization is a task that governments can no longer tackle alone.”

Badawi said, “We forget that, however unjustified, terrorism is often rooted in political and economic grievances that have still not been adequately addressed.  The fight against terrorism is not merely a fight against the perpetrators and conspirators of terrorist attacks, but it is also a fight against poverty, injustice, subjugation and illegal occupation that breeds anger and hatred.  There can be no comprehensive victory against terrorism if the root causes of terror are not eliminated.”

Disarmament Beyond Iraq

A few countries used Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction as a link to pleas for general elimination of these weapons.  Cowen of Ireland said, “The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction — chemical, biological and nuclear — is, of course, an issue that goes far beyond Iraq.  They represent a major threat to international peace and security.  The international instruments and regimes to control the spread, and bring about the elimination, of such weapons must be strengthened and fully implemented.  Ultimately, the long term control and elimination of weapons of mass destruction can only be achieved through a comprehensive and rigorous system of international treaties and obligations that are verifiable and universal.”

Russia lauded the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions between Russia and the United States, which Ivanov said “has become a specific contribution by the leading nuclear powers to the nuclear disarmament process.”  He then listed areas where Russia feels more progress is needed.  “The missile sphere needs a sustainable negotiating process aimed at concluding an international arrangement on a global regime of missile and missile technology nonproliferation. The prevention of the deployment of weapons in outer space forms an integral part of the nonproliferation process.  Together with a number of our partners, we suggest that a comprehensive agreement be worked out aimed at preserving outer space as a zone free from any kind of weapons.”

Ivanov added, “Another most important area is ensuring nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction.  The very risk of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons or their components falling into hands of irresponsible people and terrorists multiplies the destructive potential of international terrorism.”

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer of Australia took up the same line.  “We have to be alive to the willingness of terrorist groups to develop and use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.  Australia, for its part, intends to pursue practical and effective measures through international nonproliferation treaty regimes and export control arrangements.  These regimes and arrangements have delivered tangible security benefits, and should be supported strongly.”

Anerood Jugnauth of Mauritius said, “While we combine our efforts to wage a war on terrorism, we should, at the same time, continue to work towards global disarmament and a complete elimination of weapons of mass destruction within a specified timeframe.  My delegation reiterates its appeal for the early convening of a conference on nuclear disarmament.”

For more on Friday’s debate in the General Assembly, click here and here; for Saturday’s session, click here and here; and for Sunday’s meeting, click here and here.

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Radiological Weapons I:  Inspectors Clear Ship

U.S officials Friday cleared a German container ship on which inspectors had detected low levels of radiation (see GSN, Sept. 13).

The 708-foot Palermo Senator, which had been held six miles off the coast of New Jersey since Sept. 10, “poses no danger or threat,” FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll said.

Officials allowed the ship to enter Port Newark and unload its cargo after inspectors — including Coast Guard officials, FBI agents, Energy Department technicians and U.S. Navy personnel — determined the radiation occurred naturally in ceramic tiles on board (Ronald Smothers, New York Times, Sept. 14).

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Radiological Weapons II:  United States Wants Conference on “Dirty Bombs”

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham today called for an international conference to focus on the threat of radiological dispersal devices, or “dirty bombs” (see GSN, Sept. 9).

Abraham addressed the International Atomic Energy Agency’s annual general conference, which started today in Vienna.

“Although these dirty bombs are not comparable to nuclear weapons in destructiveness, they are far easier to assemble and employ,” he said.

The United States plans to work with the IAEA to make the proposed conference a reality, Abraham said.  He has previously said that while the agency’s primary mission is to safeguard “weapons-usable material,” the threat has now expanded.

“The organization also needs to seek ways to formally expand its scope to deal with dangers posed by lower-grade nuclear materials,” Abraham said.  “The IAEA is the best and most appropriate vehicle for marshalling our collective resources.”

The proposed conference would encourage countries using IAEA resources to account for and track radiological materials (U.S. Energy Department release, Sept. 16).

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