U.S. Response:  Bush Releases Frozen Shchuchye Funding

U.S. President George W. Bush signed a special order Friday releasing about $450 million in U.S. funding for Russian nonproliferation projects, according to USA Today (see GSN, Aug. 9, 2002).  Bush is expected to officially notify Congress of the order, which waives certification criteria for the projects, by early next week, administration officials said.

Of the $450 million in released funding, about $150 million will go to assist Russia in constructing a chemical weapons disposal facility near the city of Shchuchye, USA Today reported (see GSN, Oct. 1, 2002).  It is especially important to dispose of the large number of “small and easily transportable” chemical munitions being stored at Shchuchye, incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said.  “They would be deadly in the hands of terrorists, religious sects or paramilitary units,” he added (see GSN, Dec. 9, 2002; Peter Eisler, USA Today, Jan. 14). 

[EDITOR’S NOTE:  Richard Lugar is a board member of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the sole sponsor of Global Security Newswire, which is published independently by National Journal Group.]

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Iraq I:  U.N. Inspectors to Step Up Operations

U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq will soon expand their operations, chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 13).  He added that his Jan. 27 briefing to the U.N. Security Council on the progress of the inspections would mark “the beginning of the inspection and monitoring process, not the end of it.”

About 60 new inspectors, mostly American and Arab, began training yesterday and would soon arrive in Iraq, bringing the total number of inspectors to about 200, Blix said.  Inspectors also will soon open a base in the southern Iraqi city of Mosul and are planning to conduct high-altitude surveillance operations using unmanned aerial vehicles donated by several countries, he said. 

“I’m upscaling as fast as I can” in response to U.N. Security Council directives, Blix said.   “The Pentagon may not be impressed by my numbers (or) by what we’re doing ... but there’s a limit to how many inspections you can do in a day,” he added (DeYoung/Pincus, Washington Post, Jan. 14).

U.N. inspectors are also receiving additional U.S. and British intelligence information, Blix said.  “They have given us a lot of information about how they calculate their programs and what size they are and so forth,” he said.

What inspectors need now is what Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has described as “actionable evidence” — specific information on possible Iraqi WMD storage sites, Blix said. 

“I felt in the past that sometimes they (the intelligence agencies) were a bit like librarians who had books that they didn’t want to lend to the customer but I think that is changing,” Blix said (CNN.com, Jan. 14).

More Time Needed

Blix said his scheduled Jan. 27 report to the Security Council “is just an update” on the inspections.  He added that he did not expect the next two weeks of inspections, or his scheduled visit to Baghdad next weekend with ElBaradei, to result in any definitive answers to the outstanding questions on Iraq’s WMD programs.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, which established the new inspections regime, does not call for any further reporting dates beyond Jan. 27, according to the Washington Post.  If the Security Council does not establish any new reporting deadlines, then inspectors will work under previous U.N. resolutions, which called for quarterly reports, Blix said.  The next report would be in March, when a list of “key remaining disarmament tasks” and a future work program would be given to the council, he said (DeYoung/Pincus, Washington Post).

ElBaradei yesterday echoed Blix’s calls for more time, saying inspectors needed “a few months” to determine if Iraq has disarmed.

“We still need a few months to achieve our mission,” ElBaradei said at a press conference following talks with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.  “We need to give [the] inspection [effort] a chance to run its full course,” he added (DAWN, Jan. 14).

Scientists and Defectors

Experts have agreed that inspectors will need several more months at least before they will find any conclusive evidence of Iraq’s WMD efforts, according to the Boston Globe (see GSN, Dec. 31, 2002).  That time could be shortened, however, if inspectors were able to enlist the aid of an Iraqi defector, the Globe reported.

“My advice is, get some defectors,” said former U.N. Special Commission on Iraq spokesman Tim Trevan.  “We really shouldn’t expect inspections to turn up a smoking gun, unless there is a defector,” he added (Elizabeth Neuffer, Boston Globe, Jan. 13).

As part of an effort to obtain insider information, U.S. officials hope inspectors will begin interviewing Iraqi scientists and technicians outside the country next week for interviews, according to U.S. and European officials familiar with the plan.

The interviews will probably be conducted on Cyprus or at U.N. facilities in Europe, officials said.  U.S. officials have prepared a list of about 100 Iraqi personnel they recommend the U.N. inspectors interview, according to the New York Times.  Once the interviews are completed, the scientists will probably receive offers to be placed in a type of witness protection program or offered residency in the United States or other countries, the Times reported.

The interviews have been timed to obtain information from the Iraqi scientists before Blix and ElBaradei’s Jan. 27 Security Council briefing, according to the Times.

“The idea is to make sure that life starts getting a lot hotter for Saddam in the next few weeks,” said an official familiar with the plans.  “This is how we will know whether we are getting cooperation or a pattern of noncooperation.  This should give us a much better picture,” the official added (David Sanger, New York Times, Jan. 14).

War Timeline

Meanwhile, unless there are aggressive moves by Iraq or a major find by inspectors, there is little hope that the Security Council would agree by the end of the month that Iraq had violated U.N. resolutions — eliminating a rationale for military action, the Washington Post reported.  The United States could try to increase support for its position by disclosing its intelligence information on Iraq’s WMD efforts, but that information is mostly circumstantial or out of date and is unlikely to have a persuasive effect, U.S. and diplomatic sources said (DeYoung/Pincus, Washington Post).

Such political pressures, as well as logistical difficulties, could delay any U.S.-led military action against Iraq for months, U.S. officials and defense experts said yesterday. 

“Those soldiers can’t just hit the sand shooting on arrival.  I wouldn’t expect anything in February, or even early March.  And who knows what the political landscape will be then?” a U.S. official said.

The White House has said repeatedly, however, that there is no timetable for the inspections process and that any attack is not imminent, according to Reuters.

“The president thinks it remains important for the inspectors to do their job and have time to do their job,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday.  “The president has not put an exact timetable on it,” he added (Charles Aldinger, Reuters/Globe and Mail, Jan. 14).

Inspections

U.N inspectors have visited at least three suspect Iraqi sites today, according to Reuters.  Inspectors visited a missile engine testing facility, a military depot and a state-owned company located in the National Monitoring Directorate complex, Iraqi officials said.  The directorate is the Iraqi liaison with inspectors (Reuters/MSNBC.com, Jan. 14)

Yesterday, inspectors visited at least 10 sites, according to an IAEA press release.  Chemical experts from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission visited the Baghdad Technology University to conduct a rebaselining inspection and to inspect the university’s Chemical Technology Department.  UNMOVIC biological inspectors visited the Baghdad University College of Science for Women and the Baghdad University College of Science’s Biology Department, according to the IAEA release. 

UNMOVIC missile experts visited the al-Ameer Factory, which produced Scud ballistic missile components before the 1991 Gulf War.  UNMOVIC inspectors also visited an airstrip, an adjacent storage area and a bombing range near al-Muhammadiah, the IAEA release said

IAEA inspectors visited yesterday the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center to confirm certain sections of Iraq’s declaration to the Security Council, according to the IAEA release.  They also visited the Baghdad Technology University to verify the scientific and technical activities being conducted at the site (International Atomic Energy Agency release, Jan. 13).

For further information, see:

UNMOVIC

IAEA Iraq Action Team

U.N. Resolution 1441

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Iraq II:  Summary of Inspections

Experts from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency have conducted hundreds of inspections in Iraq since resuming the post-Gulf War inspection regime Nov. 27.  More than 100 inspectors are now based in the country at two facilities in Baghdad and Mosul.  The following chart summarizes some of the inspectors’ reported activities.

Date	Site	Activity
Jan. 14	Missile engine testing plant	See GSN, Jan. 14.
	Military depot
	State-owned company housed in the National Monitoring Directorate complex
Jan. 13	Al-Ameer Factory	UNMOVIC missile inspectors visited the site, which had produced Scud missile components before 1991 (see GSN, Jan. 14).
	Airstrip near al-Muhammadiah	See GSN, Jan. 14.
	Storage area adjecent to the airstrip near al-Muhammadiah
	Bombing range near al-Muhammadiah
	Baghdad Technology University	UNMOVIC chemical inspectors conducted a rebaselining inspection and inspected the Department of Chemical Technology.  IAEA inspectors verified the scientific and technical activities conducted at the site (see GSN, Jan. 14).
	Baghdad University College of Science for Women	See GSN, Jan. 14.
	Department of Biology at the Baghdad University College of Science
	Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center	IAEA inspectors visited the site to confirm sections of the Iraqi declaration (see GSN, Jan.14).
	Ibn Rushed Company	See GSN, Jan. 13.
Jan. 12	National Chemical Plastic Industry in Baghdad	IAEA release, Jan. 13.
	Sharqat EMIS Facility	A joint UNMOVIC and IAEA team visited the site, which was originally designed to house an electromagnetic isotope separation facility (see GSN, Jan. 13).
	Al-Rafah Liquid Engine Test Facility	UNMOVIC missile inspectors visited the site to observe a static test of an al-Samoud missile engine (see GSN, Jan. 13).
	Al-Mutaseem	UNMOVIC missile inspectors visited the site to observe a static test of the al-Uboor motor (see GSN, Jan. 13).
	Iraqi military unit north of the southern city of Mosul	UNMOVIC missile inspectors tagged al-Farah missiles at the unit (see GSN, Jan. 13).
	Microbiology Department at Baghdad University’s College of Medicine	See GSN, Jan. 13.
	Baghdad University’s College of Pharmacy
	Air Force Technical Military Depot at al-Taji
	Jaber Ben Hayan State Establishment	Inspectors visited the site, which produces chemical protection equipment (see GSN, Jan. 13).
Jan. 11	Bin Sina Center	UNMOVIC missile inspectors visited several buildings at the site to verify equipment and raw materials used in missile activities (IAEA release, Jan. 11).
	Airfield about 300 kilometers west-northwest of Baghdad	IAEA release, Jan. 11.
	Tiklit University College of Science
	Tiklit University College of Agriculture
	Tiklit University College of Engineering
	Tiklit University College of Medicine
	Tiklit University College of Women’s Education
	State Company for Drugs and Medical Appliances Marketing at al-Addile	See the Jan. 10 entry.
	State Company for Drugs and Medical Appliances Marketing at al-Dabash
	Mosul Dairy Plant	Inspectors determined the site’s current activities and verified previously tagged equipment (IAEA release, Jan. 11.)
	Saddam GE Plant	IAEA release, Jan. 11.
	Qa Qaa Sumood Explosives Plant
Jan. 10	Al-Mamoun Plant of al-Rasheed State Company, about 25 miles southeast of Baghdad	UNMOVIC chemical inspectors visited the site, which produces missile propellants (see GSN, Jan. 10).
	State Company for Drugs and Medical Appliances Marketing at al-Addile	IAEA release, Jan. 10.
	State Company for Drugs and Medical Appliances Marketing at al-Dabash
	Trade Ministry’s al-Dabbash stores in Baghdad	See GSN, Jan. 10.
	Trade Ministry’s al-Adel stores in Baghdad
Jan. 3-9	See GSN, Jan. 10

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North Korea:  U.S. Will Demand Expanded New Agreement

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States is not seeking to restore the 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea and would require “a new arrangement” if a future agreement with Pyongyang can be reached, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Jan. 13).

The 1994 framework “did succeed in capping production,” Powell said.  “But (it) left intact the capacity for production.  I think, therefore, that we need a new arrangement and not just go back to the existing framework,” he said.

Powell said it is not certain that the United States would agree to resume its commitment to build two light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear aspirations.

“It might be reactors, it might be some other form of energy,” Powell said.

Powell hinted that the Bush administration would not sign a nonaggression treaty, but he said “there are other ways to document” the White House’s repeated assurances it will not attack North Korea.

Pyongyang, meanwhile, said that it might allow inspections to resume if the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency change their policy toward North Korea.

“If the United States drops its hostile policy,” Pyongyang could allow a “check to prove that we aren’t building nuclear weapons,” said Pak Ui Chun, the North Korean ambassador in Moscow (Robbins/Cloud, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 14).

North Korea also pushed for direct talks with the United States on the issue.

The nuclear standoff is “a bilateral issue that can only be peacefully resolved through negotiations between the principal parties,” said a statement from the official North Korean news agency (CNN.com, Jan. 14).

A comment from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly yesterday, which was viewed as a conciliatory gesture from the United States, has drawn criticism from the White House.  A reporter asked if an Exxon Mobil gas pipeline project would help North Korea solve its energy problems and Kelly said that after the nuclear weapons issue is solved, there “may be opportunities with the U.S., with private investors, with other countries, to help North Korea in the energy area.”

Bush administration hardliners were upset with the comments, the Washington Post reported.

“Kelly went off the reservation with that answer,” said one administration official.  The White House has implied that North Korea would benefit from dropping its nuclear aspirations, but no specifics have been mentioned, the official said.

“He should not have planted that seed,” the official added.

Another official in the White House said there was nothing wrong with Kelly’s remarks.  Hard-line administration officials “increasingly don’t give a damn,” about Pyongyang’s actions, the official said.

“They know (Korean leader Kim Jong Il) is evil.  They want him dead,” the official added (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Jan. 14).

Officially, the White House said the United States would only consider helping solve North Korea’s energy crisis if Pyongyang made “verifiable” and “irreversible” moves to prove it was not developing nuclear weapons.

“I think that it’s clear that North Korea first knows what it needs to do,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.  “And we’ve always said that if North Korea comes into its international obligations, then they will stop isolating themselves,” he added (CNN.com, Jan. 14).

U.N. Envoy to North Korea

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan sent special envoy Maurice Strong to North Korea to evaluate humanitarian conditions, Reuters reported yesterday.

“The pipeline is drying up and unless new humanitarian supplies start to move quickly, there could be a significant crisis in March or April,” Strong told reporters in Beijing before heading to Pyongyang.

The United States suspended its food aid over concerns about the distribution system (see GSN, Jan. 6; Juliana Liu, Reuters/MSNBC.com, Jan. 13).

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Brazil:  Official Backtracks After Expressing Desire for Nuclear Weapons Technology

A top Brazilian official caused a stir last week when he suggested Brazil should develop nuclear weapons technology, but his statements were corrected by the newly elected president.

In a Jan. 5 BBC interview, Science and Technology Minister Roberto Amaral called for Brazil to develop the scientific  “knowledge” necessary to create a nuclear bomb, while at the same time insisting that the country would uphold its international commitments and not develop such a weapon.

Following several days of reaction to the unexpected announcement and attempts to clarify the issue, a spokesman for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Jan. 7 that Brazil will carry out nuclear research for “exclusively” peaceful ends, the Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported (Ordonez/Galhardo, O Globo, Jan. 8, GSN translation).

Amaral’s comments have reawakened debate over Brazil’s nuclear weapons program and raised both domestic and international concern, especially in neighboring Argentina, the New York Times reported (Larry Rohter, New York Times, Jan. 8).

Space and Nuclear Priorities

In the Jan. 5 interview, Amaral said nuclear and space research were two of his main priorities.  He said Brazil is committed to “strategic” atomic energy and he noted the importance of “dominating the atomic cycle” and insisting on nuclear power, whether “one likes it or not.”

Commenting further on the notion of “strategic development,” which has been associated in the past with development of nuclear weapon technology, Amaral insisted that Brazil needed to develop such technology, but he insisted that Brazil remains committed to a policy of nonproliferation.

“You know that one cannot have a weak armed forces, it is better to have none,” he said.  “You have to have a modern armed forces, defense forces.  All of Brazil’s military development is for defense,” he added.  “But it has to be of the highest technological level” and developed indigenously, “if possible,” he said.

“It makes no sense to have armed forces that depend on imported technology for its airplanes to fly, for its ships to sail, for its tanks to move,” he said.  “It is fundamentally important for a country to develop technologies.”

Nevertheless, “We are against nuclear proliferation, we are signatories to the Nonproliferation Treaty, but we cannot renounce scientific knowledge,” he said.  “We are going to renounce the production of military artifacts, but we are not going to renounce any scientific knowledge,” Amaral said.

Asked if this included the technology necessary to create a bomb, Amaral said yes.

“It includes all knowledge,” he said.  “The knowledge of the genome, knowledge of DNA, knowledge of nuclear fission. ... We want to know everything which is possible” (BBC Brazil, Jan. 5, GSN translation).

IAEA Responds

Following the publication of the interview, the International Atomic Energy Association said it was waiting for further clarification from Brazil on the issue, with one official expressing concern about the timing of the statements.

“This is not the appropriate moment in the world to be making such declarations,” said one IAEA official.

According to the IAEA, Brazil has international and regional obligations, including an agreement with Argentina, that prevent it from constructing nuclear weapons, but Brazil is allowed to develop nuclear technology for peaceful uses (Jamil Chade, Agencia Estado, Jan. 6, GSN translation).

Brazilian Experts, Scientists Criticize Statements

Brazilian experts also responded to Amaral’s statements this week, with many dismissing the notion of conducting such research outright.

“Brazil is a world leader against nuclear arms,” said nuclear physicist Luiz Pinguelli Rosa, who will soon head the country’s main electricity provider, Electrobras.  “Brazil does not have, does not need and should not have knowledge about this technology.  Bombs are the scourge of humanity,” he said (Ordonez/Galhardo, O Globo).

In an interview with O Estado de Sao Paulo, physicist and local Sao Paulo state official Jose Goldemberg said Amaral’s statements reminded him of the “position of military governments” on the issue and contained some of the same positions that North Korea has been asserting.

“Nuclear arms possession is not going to resolve” the problems of fighting hunger and fostering development, the key priorities of the Lula administration.  “On the contrary,” he said, “it is going to waste resources of other areas and endanger the international stature of Brazil.”

“Pakistan and India, who dominated this technology, did not increase their own security,” he added.  “On the contrary, they increased insecurity. ... When one wishes to enrich uranium to 93 percent, it is no longer for scientific purposes, but for arms production,” he said (Alexandre Rocha, O Estado de Sao Paulo, Jan. 8, GSN translation).

Amaral, Government Attempt To Clarify Statements

All last week, Brazilian officials tried to clarify their official position, with Amaral saying Brazil has no intention of constructing a nuclear bomb.  “We are against a Brazilian nuclear bomb, as well as against an Argentine atomic bomb, a Bolivian, an American,” he said.  “We are against the nuclear option.  We want to defend peace” (Melchiades Cunha Junior, Agencia Estado, Jan. 7, GSN translation). 

Foreign Minister and former U.N. Ambassador Celso Amorim backed up that same message in a message, clearly intended for Washington, O Estado reported.  “Brazil has no interest whatsoever in using the technology to construct weapons or a nuclear bomb,” he said.  “Brazil will continue to fight for nuclear disarmament” (Denise Chrispim Martin, O Estado de Sao Paulo, Jan. 8, GSN translation).

“The issue is closed,” Amaral said Tuesday, who insisted he was misunderstood.  “I never spoke about an atomic bomb” (Claudio Angelo, Folha de Sao Paulo, Jan. 8, GSN translation).

Amaral’s Statements Highlight Uncertainty on Lula’s Policy Toward Issue

Amaral’s statements highlight U.S. concerns about Lula’s policy regarding nuclear weapons, according to the New York Times.  In a speech earlier last year, Lula criticized the NPT for unjustly favoring the United States and other countries possessing nuclear arms.  “If someone asks me to disarm and keep a slingshot while he comes at me with a cannon, what good does that do?” he asked before a group of retired Brazilian military officers in September.  Lula has also spoken out against “hegemony” and is currently developing a joint rocket program with China, the Times reports.

Following the September statements, Lula issued a clarification, insisting Brazil had no intention of nuclear arms development, but a group of U.S. legislators sent a letter to President George W. Bush criticizing Lula’s relationship with “communist dictator and sponsor of terrorism” Cuban leader Fidel Castro and said such statements raised questions about Lula’s future policies as president.

Nevertheless, Brazil’s 1988 constitution, written after years of military rule, explicitly prohibits the development of nuclear weapons.  According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Brazil officially renounced its secret nuclear weapons development program in 1990 and promised in 1993 not to enrich uranium over 20 percent.  It then signed the NPT in 1995 (Rohter, New York Times).

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Russia I:  Japan to Contribute $100 Million for Plutonium Disposal

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said his country will allocate $100 million to help Russia recycle weapon-grade plutonium, ITAR-Tass reported Saturday (see GSN, Dec. 6, 2002). 

Koizumi said the creation of a reliable system to dispose of surplus weapon-grade plutonium is a valuable tool for accelerating the disarmament process (ITAR-Tass, Jan. 11 in FBIS-SOV, Jan. 11).

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Russia II:  Nuclear Safety Agency Closes Mayak Reprocessing Plant

The Russian nuclear safety agency Gosatomnadzor has closed a spent-fuel reprocessing plant at the Mayak nuclear facility in the city of Ozyorsk, located in the Ural Mountains region, officials said yesterday (see related GSN story, today).  The agency did not approve a 2003 operating license for the plant because of concerns that dumped radioactive wastes were contaminating nearby Lake Karachai and local water supplies (Reuters/Moscow Times, Jan. 14).

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India:  Russian Lease of Bombers and Submarines on Track

Russia is committed to leasing India strategic bombers and nuclear submarines as part of a larger deal involving the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, the Press Trust of India reported (see GSN, Dec. 2, 2002).

In 1995 the two countries agreed on a lease that would send four Tu-22 bombers and two Akula class nuclear submarines to India, according to Krishnan Raghunath, India’s ambassador to Russia (see GSN, Feb. 8, 2002).

“At their New Delhi summit last month President Putin and Prime Minister Vajpayee reaffirmed their commitment to 1995 intergovernmental agreement, and the Gorshkov deal would be signed, when ready, simultaneously with the leasing of Tu-22M3 reconnaissance planes and (nuclear) submarines,” Raghunath said.

Raghunath said he did not anticipate U.S. interference in the deal (Vinay Shukla, Press Trust of India/BBC Monitoring, Jan. 14).

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Iran:  Georgian Scientists Working in Country, Shevardnadze Says

Georgian nuclear physicists are currently working in Iran through private contracts that have not been officially approved, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 28, 2002). 

Georgia has informed the United States that scientists from the Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology have traveled to Iran, but little can be done because the scientists are working as private citizens, Shevardnadze said.  The issue should be resolved in a way that will satisfy U.S. concerns, but will not damage Georgian-Iranian relations, he added (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Jan. 13).

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United States:  Los Alamos Shakeup Continues

Personnel changes at Los Alamos National Laboratory continued yesterday with the reassignment of the laboratory’s audit director, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, Jan. 8).

Top auditor Katherine Brittin was reassigned to a nonmanagement position and the auditing duties will be handled from the University of California’s laboratory system headquarters in Oakland until a replacement is found, according to the Times.

The Los Alamos laboratory’s director, deputy director and two top security officials have all resigned in the wake of mismanagement allegations including employee credit card misuse, property theft and a subsequent cover-up of investigators’ findings.

Congressional interest in the situation is rising and the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked the General Accounting Office to investigate the Energy Department’s other laboratories run by the University of California (Rebecca Trounson, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 14). 

In a Jan. 10 letter, Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Rep. James Greenwood (R-Pa.) asked the GAO to investigate the Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley laboratories in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“In conjunction with the committee’s continuing review of contract management at DOE, we request that GAO undertake a review of procurement practices at LBNL and LLNL for fiscal years 2001 and 2002,” the letter said.

The legislators specifically asked the GAO to look at internal controls on procurement and high-risk procurement methods (George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, Jan. 14).

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Anthrax:  NIH Study Says Anthrax Protein Effective Against Cancer

Genetically modified anthrax protein has been found to reduce, or in some cases eliminate, cancerous tumors in tests on hundreds of mice, according to a U.S. National Institutes of Health study published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

Three types of tumors have been found to respond to the modified anthrax protein — soft-tissue fibrosarcoma, skin melanoma and lung carcinoma, according to NIH scientist and study coauthor Stephen Leppla.  Theoretically, the new treatment should be effective against almost all forms of cancer, he said (Seth Borenstein, Knight-Ridder/Boston Globe, Jan. 14).

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United Kingdom:  No Ricin Found in Latest Arrests

British police said they found no ricin after arresting six people Sunday in connection with last week’s ricin discovery in London, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Jan. 13).

“No chemical materials were found in connection with the arrests,” said Chief Superintendent Bob Boulton of the Dorset Police.

Four of the seven men arrested last week were formally charged in court yesterday and were asked to confirm their addresses.

Mouloud Feddag, 18, lived at the north London apartment where police said they found traces of ricin, AP reported.  Samir Feddag, 26, gave the court an address in Algiers, Algeria, according to AP.

The four men did not apply for bail and are due in court Friday (Michael McDonough, Associated Press/Yahoo.com Jan. 14).

Russian Forces Find Poison Instructions

Meanwhile, Russian special forces found instructions for making ricin and other poisons in the possession of a Chechen militant they killed last week, CNN.com reported (Jill Dougherty, CNN.com, Jan. 13).

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Israel:  Country to Hold Joint Exercise with United States

The Israeli air defense command is scheduled to conduct a joint missile defense exercise this week with U.S. forces, according to Ha’aretz (see GSN, Jan, 3).  The exercise, Juniper Cobra, will involve two U.S. Patriot missile interceptor batteries deployed in the southern Negev desert and assistance from the U.S. Sixth Fleet’s radar units, Ha’aretz reported.

The joint exercise, one of several scheduled, raises “the level of preparedness to that of a possible transition from exercise to operational situation,” a senior Israeli defense source said. “It's good for the Americans, and good for us as well,” the source added (Aluf Benn, Ha’aretz, Jan. 14).

Meanwhile, as of tommorow, Israel will be on a higher state of alert, according to the Associated Press.  Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, confirmed the new “Red Hail” alert level, adding that the change had been planned in advance and was not releated to any possible U.S. attack on Iraq (Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Jan. 14).

For further information, see:

MDA Terminal Defense Segment

Federation of American Scientists Background on Arrow

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U.S. Plans:  Kwajalein Lease Negotiators Fail to Close Deal

The United States and the Marshall Islands have failed to reach an agreement on the long-term U.S. use of the Kwajalein missile testing facility, ABC Radio Australia News reported yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 4, 2002).   Kwajalein landowners rejected a U.S. offer of $14 million annually to lease the range and are instead asking for $19 million per year.  Further negotiations will take place soon, Marshallese Foreign Minister Gerald Zackios said (ABC Radio Australia News, Jan. 13).

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