U.S. Response:  Customs Seeks to Identify High-Risk Cargo

The U.S. Customs Service has introduced a new program to identify and deal with high-risk cargo entering U.S. seaports, the service said Tuesday in a press release (see GSN, June 26).

Introduced Aug. 19, the Sea Cargo Targeting Initiative will add new identifying criteria to Customs’ automated system to reflect the latest known information on terrorist activities, the service said.  In addition, the initiative is designed to ensure that cargo manifests are processed through the Automated Targeting System and reviewed by personnel, and to standardize Customs procedures when a high-risk shipment is found.

All high-risk cargo will be examined with at least nonintrusive inspection technology such as gamma ray scanning and radiation detection, Customs said (see GSN, Aug. 5).

“The aim of this new initiative is to improve the way we address high-risk cargo,” said Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner.  “The challenge we face is constantly changing and our policies will evolve accordingly.  This initiative will better protect Americans and seaports, and it will introduce greater uniformity, predictability and efficiency to global commerce” (U.S. Customs Service release, Sept. 4).

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Iraq I:  Bush to Present Case to United Nations

U.S. President George W. Bush plans to present a case for military action against Iraq during a speech before the United Nations next week, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Sept. 5).  Bush said he would detail his policy in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly scheduled for Sept. 12.

“I will first remind the United Nations that for 11 long years [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein has sidestepped, crawfished, weaseled out of any agreement he had made not to develop weapons of mass destruction, agreements he’s made to treat the people within his country with respect,” Bush said.  “I’m going to call upon the world to recognize that he is stiffing the world, and I will lay out and I will talk about ways to make sure that he fulfills his obligations” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo.com, Sept. 5).

Bush and Blair to Discuss U.N. Options

During a scheduled meeting this weekend, Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are expected to discuss whether to try to persuade the U.N. Security Council to pass a new resolution condemning Hussein’s regime, the Financial Times reported today (see GSN, Aug. 23).

One of the main features of British policy toward Iraq has been a demand that Hussein readmit weapons inspectors, the Times reported.  Blair is starting to believe, however, that attempts to gain inspectors’ reentry into Iraq will accomplish little, according to the Times (James Blitz, Financial Times, Sept. 5).

New Report Calls For “Coercive” Inspections

Meanwhile, a new report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace calls for a set of “coercive inspections” in Iraq supported by military force, according to the Washington Post.

The report calls for the U.N. Security Council to create a unit of up to 50,000 troops to support U.N. inspections teams as they conduct “comply or else” inspections (Allen/DeYoung, Washington Post, Sept. 5).  The unit would consist of air cavalry and at least four brigade-size military units stationed in neighboring U.S.-allied countries such as Turkey and Jordan, said retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Charles Boyd, one of the report’s authors.

The unit’s U.S. commander would have the authority to determine the amount of force needed for the unit to defend itself and the inspectors and to ensure immediate access to any suspect Iraqi site, according to the Post.  The report “didn’t discuss rules of engagement ... I envision it as a force that would have the ability to choose its options,” Boyd said (Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, Sept. 5). 

The Carnegie proposal calls for the United States to renounce the option of military action against Iraq in exchange for the prospect of an immediate U.N. supported invasion in the event of Iraqi noncompliance.

“My guess is the administration has got to support some kind of very tough variant of inspections” or risk damaging international support for the U.S. war on terrorism, said one senior European diplomat.  The Carnegie proposal, he “is a very attractive concept for those in the administration very skeptical” about inspections until now, the diplomat said (Allen/DeYoung, Washington Post).

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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Iraq II:  Baghdad Probably Still Has WMD Delivery Systems, Post Reports

U.S. and allied intelligence officials and U.N. documents indicate that Iraq has worked with mixed success to develop delivery vehicles for its chemical and biological weapons, the Washington Post reported today (see related GSN story, today).

Iraq is believed to have a collection of drone L-29 aircraft, one of three types of unmanned vehicles that the Iraqi military is thought to have tested for use in biological and chemical weapons attacks, according to U.S. intelligence officials and U.N. documents.  Iraq has also probably developed other delivery devices, including converted cropdusting equipment to spray agents and “drop tanks” that can be mounted on fighter aircraft, according to U.N documents.

While U.S. intelligence officials are skeptical of the capabilities of Iraq’s L-29s, they have said that the drones and similar devices give Iraq the capability to use its stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.

“Their (missile) warheads were not very good,” said Charles Duelfer, former deputy executive chairman of the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM).  “Most of the (biological and chemical) agent would incinerate on impact.  That’s why they became interested in other delivery methods, like remotely piloted vehicles.”

UNSCOM learned that Iraq had conducted experiments with at least two types of unmanned aircraft before the 1991 Gulf War, according to the Post.  Iraqi scientists later told inspectors that President Saddam Hussein had renewed his interests in drones in 1995 and ordered new ones to be constructed.  In 2000, U.S. surveillance flights documented what appeared to be a series of tests involving L-29s, the CIA said in a report to Congress released earlier this year.

“These refurbished trainer aircraft are believed to have been modified for delivery of chemical or, more likely, biological warfare agents,” the report says.

Other Delivery Devices

Iraq is believed to have developed two other airborne delivery systems for biological and chemical weapons, according to documents and former U.N. inspectors.  Both systems appeared to be in development stages during the final stages of weapons inspections, and U.N. officials were not able to determine how many Iraq had or what became of them, the Post reported.

One system, named the “Zubaidy” device after its Iraqi inventor, was a modification of an industrial aerosol sprayer used in cropdusting.  The nozzles were converted for spraying bacteria and the system was prepared for use on a helicopter to conduct close-range attacks, former weapons inspectors said.

The other system discovered was a modified aircraft “drop tank” that was often mounted on fighter aircraft as a reserve fuel tank.  The tanks were modified with an electric valve and an aerosol sprayer converted for biological and chemical weapons use, according to U.N. documents.

UNSCOM found four modified tanks designed for use on Iraq’s top fighter aircraft, the Mirage F-1, the Post reported.  At least eight additional modified tanks that Iraq admitted to building were never found.

“The drop-tank project appears to have been pursued with utmost vigor, UNSCOM concluded in a 2000 report.

Missiles

Both the CIA and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency believe that Iraq has in its missile arsenal two types of short-range ballistic missiles and a small number of medium-range Scud ballistic missiles that operatives were able to hide from inspectors, according to the Post (see GSN, Aug. 23).  Iraq also probably has dozens of missile warheads and large numbers of rocket and artillery shells that were loaded with biological and chemical weapons years ago, the agencies said.

During an annual military parade last year, Iraq displayed al-Samoud and Ababil short-range ballistic missiles along with mobile launch systems, the CIA told Congress in its report.

“We believe that development … is maturing, and that a low-level operational capability could be achieved in the near future,” the CIA said, citing in part images captured on videotape from the parade.

It is relatively easy to extend the range of the two ballistic missiles through the modification of payloads and fuel tanks, former U.N. inspectors and missile experts familiar with the systems said.  While there is no evidence, some missile experts believe Iraq is developing new medium-range ballistic missiles from parts of banned Scud-B missiles, the Post reported.  Iraq could have developed the equivalent of as many as 25 Scuds from old parts that went unnoticed, according to U.N. inspectors.

“We assess that Iraq has a couple of handfuls” of missiles derived from the Scuds, said a senior Pentagon intelligence official.  “The parts are probably dispersed, but on short notice you could pull them together into a working missile and shoot it.”

Despite technical problems, Iraq has long had knowledge of how to equip its missiles with biological and chemical warheads, the Post reported (see GSN, April 5).

“Iraq demonstrated amply its ability to deliver chemical and biological weapons before the war,” said Timothy McCarthy, a former UNSCOM deputy chief inspector.  “If one assumes Iraq retained its missile system, then that capability is still there” (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, Sept. 5).

For further information, see:

UNMOVIC

U.N. Resolution 687 (Sanctions Regime)

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

Carnegie Endowment World Missile Chart

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Russian Response:  U.S., Russian Officials Discuss Cooperation

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov and Linton Brooks, acting administrator of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, met yesterday to discuss cooperation on nonproliferation issues, the Russian Foreign Ministry said (see GSN, July 19).

Mamedov and Brooks discussed issues including surplus fissile materials, secure storage and transport of nuclear materials and a $20 billion plan to help Russia destroy its weapons of mass destruction, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.  The two officials also discussed refitting nuclear reactors “to meet modern nonproliferation, ecological and economic needs,” the ministry said.

Meanwhile, Russian customs officials have installed Russian-manufactured radiation monitors at four cargo checkpoints, the Associated Press reported yesterday.  Officials have put one monitor in the Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg and three at crossing points in the Baltic Sea, said Nikolai Vragov, head spokesman for the Northwest Customs Department.

Officials plan to install monitors — which are manufactured by the firm Yantar and funded by U.S. nuclear safeguarding funds — in at least five more crossing stations (Associated Press/Russia Journal, Sept. 4).

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Baltic Response:  U.S. Customs Agents Teach Tracking Skills

Members of the Shadow Wolves, a U.S. Customs Service unit made up of American Indians known for their tracking skills, have helped train customs agents in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to prevent smuggling of weapons of mass destruction, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Aug. 7).

Three members of the unit spent three weeks last month in the Baltics to help train customs officials, border guards and police to detect and track suspected WMD smugglers, according to AP.  Other members of the unit visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan earlier this year.

Kevin Carlos, a Shadow Wolves member who went to the Baltics, said Baltic officials learned how to detect footprints, broken branches and other clues.

“They all said they can now see the forest from a different point of view,” said Carlos, a Tohono O’odham Indian.

The trips are part of a joint effort that involves the U.S. State Department, Customs and other agencies to assist more than 24 nations in preventing WMD smuggling, according to AP.  The training sessions, which last about one week, consist of classroom instruction and outdoor simulations.

“They basically teach them how to pick up foot signs,” said Kyle Barnett, associate agent in charge of Customs’ Arizona district.  “The terrain in the Baltics is very similar to the Arizona desert.  There’s a lot of rocky terrain, so our trackers adapt well” (Walter Berry, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Sept. 4).

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Australian Response:  Sydney Unveils New Anti-WMD Unit

Australia unveiled today a new military unit designed to counter terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction (see GSN, May 16).

The 300-member Incidence Response Regiment can operate anywhere in the world that terrorists might threaten Australian interests, Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill said.  Officials have allocated $66 million to develop the regiment and have recruited a dozen scientists with expertise in weapons of mass destruction, Agence France-Presse reported.

“The Incident Response Regiment will be called out only in extreme cases where police and emergency services do not have the capability to deal with a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive threat,” Hill said during a presentation ceremony for the new unit at Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney.

“Their training means they will be able to conduct high-risk searches with detection equipment and dogs, disarm and dispose of a device, decontaminate victims and the exposed area and analyze the hazardous material on site” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo.com, Sept. 5).

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U.S. Response:  Expansion Planned for Capital’s Biological Detection Capability

By Bryan Bender
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department said last month it is preparing to invest billions of dollars in coming years to develop the first multi-layered, nationwide biological detection system to defend highly populated areas from germ warfare.

Through early detection of deadly toxins that might be unleashed against civilian or military targets by terrorists, and by linking those sensors to a network of human and animal health statistics, military officials are seeking to develop a single surveillance picture to quickly identify a biological-related incident.

In announcing the project — including nearly $300 million earmarked in the defense budget for fiscal 2003 — defense officials also acknowledged that the military already operates aerosol detection systems and other surveillance measures throughout the Washington metropolitan area to detect biological agents, according to experts.

Officials did not provide details of the sensors or other operational surveillance capabilities currently being utilized in the Washington area.  Nevertheless, the acknowledgement highlights the growing concern about a possible biological attack in the United States and indicates that detection efforts have been underway outside of public scrutiny.

A Significant Challenge

Despite having a framework, however rudimentary, already in place, developing a biological detection system to provide timely and accurate information could prove to be an extremely challenging proposition, experts said.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Michael Moodie, president of the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, told Global Security Newswire.  “That is a significant challenge, collecting and putting into a usable form such information.  If they do what they suggest, they will have an awful lot of information from a variety of sources.”

Moodie, a proponent of strict control of chemical and biological weapons materials, said there are inherent challenges in detecting biological agents in the atmosphere as well as pulling together into an intelligent format vast amounts of epidemiological data.

“It is not clear that bio detectors are as advanced as we would like them to be in terms of their timeliness and accuracy in identifying specific agents,” he said.

Perhaps even more difficult to perfect will be gathering all the epidemiological information to help make rapid decisions on whether an outbreak is occurring, how unusual it is, and whether it is deliberate, according to Moodie. “The integration may be the hardest nut to crack,” he said.

Multi-Layered Approach

The Biological Defense Homeland Security Support Program, as the project is called, will get underway in October, combining traditional detection techniques such as environmental sensors with medical data from hospitals and health care providers in an overarching, computerized surveillance system.

“The program provides an integrated homeland security capability to detect, mitigate and respond to biological-related incidents through enhanced biological detection capabilities and a fusion of medical surveillance systems, wide-area environmental sensors and communications systems integration,” the Pentagon announced Aug. 27.

“The purpose of this program is to achieve early detection and characterization of a biological-related incident in an urban area in order to reduce casualties, minimize disruption to infrastructures and support consequence management efforts,” the Pentagon announcement added.

The Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency will oversee the Biological Defense Initiative, or BDI, portion of the project, which will develop and deploy two prototype environmental monitoring systems by June 2004 and demonstrate a potential model for a nationwide system.

“The BDI program will demonstrate the feasibility of integrating disparate information sources to enhance the capability to detect and characterize a biological-related incident,” the Pentagon said.  The effort will take up $211 million the first year, the bulk of the seed money.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s Program Executive Office for Chemical/Biological Defense will be responsible for conducting a demonstration in the Washington area of current and expanded aerosol monitoring systems in the vicinity of the nation’s capital and integrate the sensor data and medical information into an overarching biological surveillance network called ESSENCE II.

“This expanded capability integrates both military and civilian health care and other nontraditional medical indicators to allow for early warning of acts of bioterrorism,” the Pentagon told Global Security Newswire in written answers to questions.

For example, health maintenance organizations, pharmaceutical providers, hospitals, wildlife and animal care providers and educational institutions will all be included and tied into the Essence II network.  In the first year the capital area demonstration will cost $85 million, officials said.

Pentagon Says Biological Detectors Already in Place

The program, however, will not have to start from scratch.  Officials revealed that a modest biological detection capability, including the deployment of aerosol sensors, is already in place in Washington. Defense officials previously announced the placement of military battlefield bio detector units around the Pentagon building itself.

“The [Defense Department] currently conducts monitoring activities in the [national capital region] including government and military locations,” the Pentagon said.  “The NCR urban pilot demonstration is an extension of, and enhancement to and an improvement over the ongoing aerosol monitoring activities.  First, the NCR pilot system will conduct biological detection and surveillance for military and civilian populations.  Additional aerosol monitoring locations will be added.”

Moodie says chemical detectors deployed near civilian and military locations in Washington have been previously discussed publicly, but government officials have said little about biological detection technologies or surveillance networks (see GSN, Aug. 20).

“We know they have deployed pilot detectors in the subway system,” he said, “but don’t know they went full-blown … to add biodetection capability.  I’ve never seen a description, probably with good reason.  That’s not something you want to provide.”

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Anthrax:  Justice Department Denies Funds for Hatfill

The U.S. Justice Department last month ordered employer Louisiana State University to ban former Army biologist Steven Hatfill from working on any department-funded projects, the Washington Post reported today.  Hatfill has become the public focus of the FBI’s investigation into last fall’s anthrax attacks.

Timothy Beres, acting director of Justice’s Office for Domestic Preparedness, sent an e-mail message Aug. 1 to Hatfill’s supervisor, Stephen Guillot.  The message instructed the university to “immediately cease and desist” allowing Hatfill to work on Justice-funded projects.  The university had employed Hatfill as associate director of the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training, which receives nearly all of its funding from Justice.

University Chancellor Mark Emmert decided to fire Hatfill Tuesday — the same day that the chancellor learned of the month-old e-mail — but that decision had nothing to do with the e-mail, Emmert said (see GSN, Sept. 4).

“We had made an internal decision to terminate our relationship with Dr. Hatfill quite independent of that communication,” he said (Guy Gugliotta, Washington Post, Sept. 5).

The university fired Guillot yesterday, the Baton Rouge Advocate reported.  Guillot had not notified higher-level university administrators about the e-mail, said Gregory Vincent, the university’s vice provost for academic affairs.

Just Cause or Just Because?

Hatfill is planning to challenge Justice’s restrictions on his employment activities, said Patrick Clawson, a spokesman for Hatfill.

“The federal government cannot just bar someone from getting federal contracts or working on federal contracts,” Clawson said.  “They have to have just cause to do that.  There are administrative procedures and due process … the Justice Department has done none of these things (in Hatfill’s case).”

Hatfill attorney Victor Glasberg has contacted the university and Justice to get records of all relevant communications between the two, Clawson said (see GSN, Sept. 3).

“We’re trying to find out who’s at the bottom of trying to railroad Steve (Hatfill),” Clawson said.  “What the Justice Department is doing with this blacklisting, it’s like the ’50s or something, where the Justice Department steps in with an employer and tells people they can’t work … Steve Hatfill’s civil rights have been completely violated by the Justice Department.  We intend to find out who was responsible and hold them accountable.”

The university had placed Hatfill on 30 days of paid leave from his position Aug. 2, but the action was unrelated to the e-mail, Vincent said (Joan McKinney, Baton Rouge Advocate, Sept. 5).

University officials had consulted FBI officials twice before hiring Hatfill, but bureau investigators conducted a search of Hatfill’s former apartment in Maryland Aug. 1 — immediately before the university placed him on leave — according to the Post (Gugliotta, Washington Post).

One Justice official told the Advocate that investigators knew nothing about the directive from the Office for Domestic Preparedness.  The Justice Department, however, confirmed the contents of the e-mail.  Deborah Daniels, assistant U.S. attorney general for the Office of Justice Programs said in a written statement that the department told the university it could not employ Hatfill as an instructor or bioterrorism expert in programs funded by the department.

“It is a specific condition of our grant to LSU that we maintain management oversight and control,” she said, adding, however, that the department “has not been involved in any decisions made by LSU with respect to Mr. Hatfill’s status as an employee at that university” (McKinney, Baton Rouge Advocate).

For further information, see:

FBI Amerithrax Investigation

GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)

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United States:  Incinerator Fails Environmental Test

Simulated chemical weapons material burned in tests last month at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon emitted heavy metals in levels that exceed Oregon environmental standards, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, July 30).

Officials at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said the metals — arsenic, chromium, lead, nickel and antimony — might pose health or environmental concerns.  Spokeswoman Mary Binder for the U.S. Army, which operates the facility, denied that the metals, which were present only in low levels, pose any such concerns.

The Army plans to conduct a full-scale test-burn beginning Friday and extending several days, the AP reported.  Oregon officials, however, have the power to stop the test burns, according to the AP.

“We want to take the time to evaluate the data and to make sure the system is functioning properly,” Oregon environmental official Wayne Thomas said (Associated Press, Sept. 4).

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