U.S. Response: First Responder Gap Widening as Iraq War Looms, Officials Say

By Bryan Bender
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Local and municipal government officials this week restated their demands for substantially more federal aid to help them respond to potential WMD attacks.  The officials consider the risk of domestic terrorist attacks to be rising, including the threat from nuclear, chemical, biological or radiological weapons.

As the new Homeland Security Department opens its doors today at a naval facility in Washington, officials at the city and county level meeting in Washington this week painted a stark picture of their ability to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks.  The officials believe their cities and counties are more vulnerable with the prospect of a war against Iraq, which could result in retaliatory attacks in the United States.

“Cities now face the likelihood of a foreign war that may require even stronger domestic preparedness efforts,” according to the Conference of Mayors’ economic security and stimulus plan, proposed this week at its winter meeting here.

Experts contend that even the most basic equipment — such as respirators to allow emergency personnel to operate in areas contaminated by chemical or biological agents — is in short supply, raising the risk that ill-equipped first responders could make matters worse if they find themselves in a situation for which they are not prepared.

Local officials also said they are learning that a disproportionate number of these first responders also serve in either the National Guard or Reserve, placing an additional strain on communities trying to brace for a possible attack.  There are currently an estimated 78,000 reservists on active duty.

The mayors, along with their county government counterparts, echoed the concerns of a recent Council on Foreign Relations task force that concluded that police, fire, health and emergency personnel remain underprepared to deal with the aftermath of a terrorist attack, despite federal pledges to provide grants to states and local communities for equipment, training and other necessities (see GSN, Nov. 25, 2002). 

The report warned of the heightened risk of retaliatory attacks, perhaps involving weapons of mass destruction, in the event of a U.S.-led invasion to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime.

“We’re doing what we need to, but it will get more challenging,” Knoxville, Tennessee, Mayor Victor Ashe told Global Security Newswire.  “We’re still finding our way,” he said.

Ashe and others called for quick approval of proposed federal funding for first responders, while also calling for substantially greater homeland security investments in the future to ensure the front-line forces in the war on terrorism are adequately prepared should federal crisis responders not be available quickly enough.

Still Waiting for Federal Grants

U.S. President George W. Bush, following the 2001 terrorist attacks, promised at least $3.5 billion in grants to state and local governments to beef up their crisis response capabilities.  However, while the federal government pours resources into a new Cabinet department responsible for protecting U.S. territory — backed up by a new military headquarters, the U.S. Northern Command (see GSN, Oct. 1, 2002) — those grants have yet to be approved by Congress.

“That simply cannot continue,” U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told nearly 300 mayors yesterday.

The Senate is now considering a spending bill that would provide $2.4 billion for local emergency response programs.  An earlier effort by Senate Democrats to restore the full $3.5 billion failed.  Cities have already spent an estimated $2.6 billion of their own money since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“We are pleased that Congress has approved legislation to streamline homeland security preparedness and prevention efforts at the federal level through the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security, and that important information-sharing legislation is included in the bill,” the Conference of Mayors told Bush in a letter earlier this month. 

Nevertheless, “these acts alone will not make our communities safer.  New resources, in addition to continued funding for existing federal-local public safety programs, are needed directly at the local level for planning, training, equipment and overtime expenses related to homeland security — so we can both prevent and prepare for acts of terrorism,” the group wrote.

The National League of Cities, for its part, is in the midst of a massive letter-writing campaign to the White House and Congress to build support for the funds.  The group has called on members to include badges, uniform patches, helmets and photos of their first responders as “a reminder of the important role” they play in homeland security efforts. 

How the money is dispersed is also a matter of debate.  Current plans call for state governments to distribute federal funds to cities, counties and towns, but local officials would like to receive the money directly to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy that could delay the money even longer.

“As cities have already made significant investments to help secure the homeland, we call on the president and Congress to provide flexible homeland security resources directly to America’s cities and counties,” according to the Conference of Mayors’ economic proposal.  “We can’t wait for struggling state bureaucracies to reallocate these urgently needed resources.  We agree a portion of the homeland security funding should be used by states to support regional partnerships,” the proposal says.

“We think the president’s proposal could be more effective,” Ashe added.

Beyond the $3.5 billion in grants that Bush says he still supports, local leaders say much more will be needed.  The National League of Cities this week proposed a $75.5 billion stimulus package that would include $10 billion for unmet homeland security needs, including airport and port security, bioterrorism response, and security at chemical and nuclear facilities across the country.

Mayors met with Bush earlier today to press their case.

Myth vs. Reality

Federal officials, meanwhile, were also on hand to assess local response plans and to educate visiting officials about the federal role in responding to catastrophic terrorist attacks.  One federal responder that attended the mayors’ conference was the Joint Task Force — Civil Support, established in 1999 to provide command and control for military forces managing the consequences of a WMD or high-explosive attack in the United States.

“That’s why we’re here; to review their plans,” said a contractor for the task force, who asked not to be named.  “If we need to go to Salt lake City, we want to know ahead of time their strengths and weaknesses,” the contractor said.

However, experts contend that one of the myths of the homeland security debate — particularly involving weapons of mass destruction — is that the federal government “will take care of this,” as one put it.

“All terrorism is a local problem,” said Donald Ponikvar, senior vice president of Defense Group Inc., an Alexandria, Virginia, firm specializing in WMD response.  “Multiple incidents can quickly deplete federal resources,” he warned an audience of first responders at Catholic University in Washington earlier this month.

Even the U.S. Northern Command, the new military command designed to support state and local authorities in the event of a terrorist attack or other civilian disaster, considers itself the “heavy lifter of last resort.”

However, Ponikvar highlighted the lack of sufficient respiratory equipment at the local level in the event of a terrorist attack with dangerous environmental implications. “Cleanup is a problem” without such basic protection for on-site personnel, he said.

Leaving first responders wanting “is like sending soldiers into battle without weapons or training,” Kenneth Mayfield, a commissioner in Dallas County, Texas, and president of the National Association of Counties, said this week.

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Iraq I:  White House Details Baghdad’s Noncompliance With Inspections

The White House tried to increase support for its policy on Iraq yesterday, releasing a detailed report outlining the various ways Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has failed to remove weapons of mass destruction from his country (see GSN, Jan. 23).

The eight-page report, What Does Disarmament Look Like?, contrasts the disarmament of Iraq with the successful disarmament of other countries.  The report also presents a detailed outline of Iraq’s efforts to hinder inspections and of discrepancies in the declaration Iraq submitted to the U.N. Security Council in December.

To contrast Iraq’s failure to peacefully disarm, the report describes the successful disarmament of South Africa, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.  South Africa produced simple nuclear weapons in the 1970s and 1980s, and Kazakhstan and Ukraine inherited sophisticated weapons when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.  Ultimately the three countries launched national initiatives to dismantle their arsenals and practiced full cooperation and transparency, according to the report.

“The first common element is that when a government decides to disarm cooperatively, there is a high-level political decision and commitment to that disarmament.  We saw that in all three of these cases,” a senior Bush administration official said during a press briefing. 

Iraq, however, has taken an “exact opposite” approach to disarmament, the official said.  “Instead of a political commitment to disarm at the highest level, you have a commitment to defeat the inspectors,” the official said.

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz echoed similar concerns yesterday in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Instead of charging national institutions with the responsibility to dismantle programs, key Iraqi organizations operate a concealment effort that targets inspectors and thwarts their efforts,” Wolfowitz said.

Iraq uses a number of organizations to hide its WMD efforts and hinder inspections, including the Special Security Organization, headed by Saddam Hussein’s son Qusay Hussein, according to the White House report.  The Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate — which is officially intended to act as a liaison with U.N. inspectors — works more as an “anti-inspections” organization by alerting inspection sites before U.N. inspectors arrive, using “minders” to intimidate Iraqi personnel, and by directing suspect site officials on what to hide, the report says.

“These ‘anti-inspectors’ vastly outnumber the 200 UNMOVIC [U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission] and the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] personnel on the ground in Iraq,” it says.

The Bush administration also alleged that Iraq was continuing to hide information on its WMD programs, as well as WMD materials, throughout the country, citing the inspectors’ recent find at the house of an Iraqi scientist of a cache of documents related to Iraq’s uranium enrichment program.  Iraq’s security services conduct “well-organized” surveillance of inspectors and continue to restrict access to witnesses, scientists and requested documents, according to the report.

In the report, the White House also lashed out at the Iraqi WMD declaration, listing a number of concerns and discrepancies that the declaration failed to answer.  Iraq did not adequately account for several activities, including its attempts to obtain uranium abroad, 1.5 tons of VX nerve agent, which had not been accounted for during previous inspections, 550 mustard-filled shells, and about 30,000 empty chemical warheads, the report says.  Iraq also failed to adequately account for more than 2,100 kilograms of growth media, which could be used to produce more than 26,000 liters of anthrax, 1,200 liters of botulinum toxin and 2,200 liters of aflatoxin, a carcinogen, the report says.

The declaration does not provide accurate information related to Iraq’s ballistic missile programs, failing to explain the production of missile fuels for missiles Iraq claims not to have and recent tests of missiles that exceed the U.N.-mandated 150-kilometer range, the report says.  It also fails to adequately account for Iraq’s efforts to develop unmanned aerial vehicles for use in chemical and biological weapons attacks and for mobile Iraqi biological weapons facilities, the report says.

“When it addresses some of the missing items, such as some of the growth media for growing biological agents for weapons, it takes an almost mocking response: ‘We’ve lost it,’” the senior Bush administration official said.  “Well, I don’t believe that you lose weapons of mass destruction,” the official added.

Without credible information, such as what was supposed to be provided in the declaration, inspectors cannot verify that Iraq has disarmed itself of weapons of mass destruction, Wolfowitz said, noting that the burden of proof rested on Hussein.

“When an auditor discovers discrepancies in the books, it is not the auditor’s obligation to prove where the embezzler has stashed his money,” Wolfowitz said.  “It is up to the person or institution being audited to explain the discrepancy,” he added (Mike Nartker, GSN).

United States Confident of Support

Meanwhile, the Bush administration yesterday said that the United States would receive international support if it chose to conduct military action against Iraq.

“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about going it alone,” said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.  “If it can’t be solved peacefully and if the U.N. should fail to act — and I hope that is not the case — then the United States reserves the right to do what it thinks is appropriate to defend its interests, the interests of its friends and to protect the world.  And I am quite confident if it comes to that we will be joined by many nations,” he added.

A number of countries support the idea of using force against Iraq to compel it to disarm, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Spain and some East European NATO members, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said yesterday.  U.S. President George W. Bush is confident “Europe will heed the call,” Fleischer said, adding, “It’s entirely possible France will not be on the line” (CNN.com, Jan. 23).

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw moved his country closer into alignment with the United States yesterday, saying a second U.N. resolution authorizing an attack on Iraq was desirable, but not needed, according to the London Telegraph.

Speaking yesterday at a joint press conference with Powell, Straw added his own criticism of Hussein’s failures to comply with the inspections process, the Telegraph reported.

“He has, yes, ensured that traffic inspectors allow U.N. inspectors’ vehicles through on red but that is not compliance,” Straw said.   “And time is running out for him to comply fully with the terms of [U.N. Security Council Resolution] 1441,” he added (Toby Harnden, London Telegraph, Jan. 24).

Resistance to Military Action Increases

Joining France, which has long resisted the use of force against Iraq, Russia and China have recently expressed sentiments that the inspections process needs to be given more time, according to CNN.

China, one of the five permanent Security Council members, said yesterday that its position on military action against Iraq was “extremely close” to that of France.

Any assessment of the situation in Iraq should be based primarily on inspectors’ reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Bush yesterday.  Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said earlier this week that Russia would not support a unilateral attack on Iraq and that inspections should be given more time (CNN.com).

The United States and the United Kingdom might be willing to provide inspectors with a small amount of additional time if that would increase support for future military action, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

During talks yesterday, Straw and Powell discussed the idea of providing inspectors with more time to work in exchange for pledges from allies that the inspections will not become an indefinite process, according to U.S. and British officials. 

“You need space to show that the policy is working and to convince public opinion that you have let this process take its course,” a British official said.  “There’s no need to go to war in February, for example,” the official added.

Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have indicated that the White House is prepared to let inspections continue for “a little longer,” perhaps a month or so, U.S. Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.) said (Robin Wright, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 24).

Iraq’s Neighbors Urge Compliance

A conference of Middle Eastern foreign ministers issued a joint statement yesterday urging Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to comply with U.N. resolutions, but the conference did not call on the embattled leader to step down, the Associated Press reported.

Iraq should “confirm its commitment under relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions” and it should “embark on the policy that will unambiguously inspire confidence to Iraq’s neighbors,” said foreign ministers from Turkey, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.  Kuwait was not invited to attend the meetings despite the fact that it shares a border with Iraq (Scheherezade Faramarzi, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Jan. 24).

Meanwhile, U.N. and U.S. officials accused Iraq of reneging on its pledge to allow scientists to meet in private with weapons inspectors.

The continued inability of the inspectors to meet with scientists away from Iraqi monitoring officials is “a clear sign of noncooperation,” according to a U.N. official.  The failure will most likely be featured in chief inspector Hans Blix’s report to the Security Council Monday.

U.S. officials were also critical.

“Iraq has yet to make a single one of its scientists or technical experts available to be interviewed in confidential circumstances, free of intimidation, as required by the U.N. resolution,” said Wolfowitz (Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post, Jan. 24).

Wolfowitz also claimed that Iraq has threatened scientists who cooperate with inspectors.

“Today, we know from multiple sources that Saddam has ordered that any scientist who cooperates during interviews will be killed, as well as their families,” Wolfowitz said.  “Furthermore, we know that scientists are being tutored on what to say to the U.N. inspectors and that Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as scientists to be interviewed by the inspectors,” he added (Judith Miller, New York Times, Jan. 24).

Iraqi officials said they encouraged unsupervised meetings, but scientists insisted that a government official be present.

Iraqi officials “did our best to push the scientists” to take part in private meetings, said Gen. Hossam Mohamed Amin, the top ranking Iraqi that communicates with the inspectors (Chandrasekaran, Washington Post).

“They refused to make such interviews without the presence of a National Monitoring Directorate representative.  And some of them asked that in addition to that they wanted also some type of documentation of a videotape camera or recorder,” Amin said.  “No requests were received to make an interview outside Iraq, abroad,” he added.

“When they tell us about their desire to interview any of the scientists, we get in touch with the scientist and make sure — try to secure his presence.  But it’s up to the scientist himself if he wants to conduct this interview, and some of them do not want to conduct it alone, they want the presence of a representative from the national directorate.  We cannot force him to accept — or not to accept the conditions of the committee,” Amin said (Federal New Service Transcript, Jan. 23).

U.N. officials also believe that an important part of Monday’s briefing will involve Iraq’s refusal to guarantee the safety of U.S. spy planes that the inspectors want to use in their search.

Baghdad has refused to guarantee the safety of U-2 spy planes and has implied that it might attempt to shoot them down, U.N. officials said (Linda Fasulo, MSNBC.com, Jan. 24).

Amin said that Iraq had not “placed incapacitating conditions” on the work of the spy planes.

“We did not put any conditions, any difficult ones, but we required security and safety and providing assurances of the work of the air defenses, so that things will not be mixed up,” Amin said.  “There is every day hostilities from the American Air Force and the British Air Force in the north and south of Iraq.  And the flight of the U-2 in those areas would complicate the air defense process,” he added (Federal News Service Transcript, Jan. 23).

After meeting with the UNMOVIC overseers in New York yesterday, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said that Iraq had been accommodating in some areas and unhelpful in others.

“It’s a mixed bag,” Blix said.  “If Iraq showed the cooperation in all respects asked of them, then it could be a fast process,” he added.

The timetable for the inspections is completely in the hands of the Security Council, according to Blix (U.N. release, Jan. 24).

Iraqi Plans for War?

The Iraqi National Coalition, an opposition group, claims to have smuggled hand-written documents out of Iraq that show Baghdad’s preparations for a chemical war.

The documents refer to chemical warfare suits and the drug atropine, which can be used to counter the effects of nerve gas, the BBC reported (see GSN, Nov. 15, 2002).

The documents also contain instruction for attacking ships in the Persian Gulf, BBC reported (BBC Online, Jan. 24).

Officials Deny Mosque Inspection

After Iraqi complaints about an inspection of a mosque, U.N. officials yesterday denied there was an inspection, saying rather that some inspectors had visited the mosque as tourists.

“It was a private visit.  They just wanted to visit a mosque,” said U.N. spokesman Hiro Ueki.  “They had no intention to enter, but they were invited to see it.  They took pictures only after they asked,” Ueki said.

Sheikh Qutaiba Ammash, the imam of the al-Nidaa mosque in Baghdad, said the inspectors asked if there was an underground shelter and he claimed the visit was a “provocation for Muslims.”

“Everyone at the mosque was very cordial to them,” Ueki said of the inspectors’ visit (BBC Online, Jan. 23).

Bush Claim on Aluminum Tubes Falters

In an address to the United Nations last September, Bush claimed that Iraq attempted to obtain aluminum tubes that were “used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon” (see GSN, Sept. 19, 2002), an assertion repeated by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Research and investigation by U.N. inspectors in Iraq, however, has thrown the allegation into doubt, the Washington Post reported today.

A Jan. 8 preliminary report from the International Atomic Energy Agency said the tubes did not fit with plans for nuclear enrichment.  This information will likely be included in Blix’s report Monday, according to the Post (see GSN, Jan. 10).  The tubes do mesh with requirements for Iraq’s 81 mm conventional rocket program, the Post reported.

“It may be technically possible that the tubes could be used to enrich uranium,” said an expert familiar with the controversy.  “But you’d have to believe that Iraq deliberately ordered the wrong stock and intended to spend a great deal of time and money reworking each piece,” the expert added.

U.N. sanctions prohibit the import of the tubes because of their dual-use nature, according to White House spokesman Fleischer.

Iraq attempted to import 120,000 of the tubes although none made it through, the Post reported.  In 2001, however, more than 60,000 Chinese-made tubes reached Jordan before officials intercepted the shipment, officials said.

“If the U.S. government puts out bad information it runs a risk of undermining the good information it possesses,” said David Albright, a former weapons inspector.  “In this case, I fear that the information was put out there for a short-term political goal:  to convince people that Saddam Hussein is close to acquiring nuclear weapons,” he added (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, Jan. 24).

U.N. officials today inspected the al-Qa Qaa chemical company, 37 miles south of Baghdad.  Inspectors have been to the site numerous times since November, the Associated Press reported (Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Jan. 24).

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. 24	Al-Qa Qaa	See GSN, Jan. 24.
Jan. 23	Iraqi Ministry of Trade food stores in Tarmiya, about 20 miles north of Baghdad	See GSN, Jan. 23.
	Taji Fiberglass production plant, located a few miles north of Baghdad
	Al-Qa Qaa
	College of Science at the University of Mustansiriya in Baghdad
	College of Medicine at the University of Mustansiriya in Baghdad
Jan. 22	Qayyarah Petroleum Refinery, south of Mosul	See GSN, Jan. 23.
	Iraq Geological Survey Headquarters in Baghdad
	Area north of Baghdad	IAEA inspectors conducted a motorized radiation survey (see GSN, Jan. 23).
	Technology Institute in Baghdad	See GSN, Jan. 22.
	Al-Qa Qaa
	Al-Badr missile complex
	University of Basra
Jan. 21	Ukhaider Ammunition Storage Area	Inspectors examined and tagged empty chemical warheads discovered last week and sealed the bunker at the site that contained them (see GSN, Jan. 22).
	Al-Mutaseem	UNMOVIC missile inspectors observed a static test of a solid propellant al-Fatah motor (see GSN, Jan. 22).
	Shahiyat Test Facility	UNMOVIC missile inspectors verified that the site was still abandoned (see GSN, Jan. 22).
	Al-Qa Qaa	UNMOVIC chemical experts inspected chemical production units (see GSN, Jan. 22).
	College of Agriculture at Baghdad University in Abu Ghraib	UNMOVIC biological inspectors verified tagged equipment at the site (see GSN, Jan. 22).
	Agricultural Research Center in Abu Ghraib	See GSN, Jan. 22.
	Lime production facility in the northern city of Mosul
	Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center	IAEA inspectors conducted a motorized radiation survey, inspected buildings and checked sealed equipment (see GSN, Jan. 22).
Jan. 19	Department of engineering at Baghdad University	IAEA inspectors visited the faculty’s laboratories and asked about research the faculty was conducting (Baghdad Iraqi Satellite Channel Television, Jan. 19, in FBIS-NES, Jan. 19).
Jan. 18	Ukhaider Ammunition Storage Area	Inspectors conducted an additional analysis on a chemical warhead found at the site last week (U.N. release, Jan. 18).
	Al-Numan General Company	Inspectors assessed the site’s current activities (U.N. release, Jan. 18).
	Al-Qa Qaa	UNMOVIC chemical inspectors surveyed the site using multifrequency electromagnetic detectors (U.N. release, Jan. 18).
	Microbiology Department of Kufa University’s College of Medicine in Kufato	(U.N. release, Jan. 18).
	Kufa University’s College of Science in Kufato
	Biology Department of Kufa University’s College of Education for Women in Kufato
	State Company for Foodstuff Trading	UNMOVIC biological inspectors inspected quality control laboratories and two declared mobile laboratories at the site (U.N. release, Jan. 18).
	Textile factory in the northern city of Mosul	(U.N. release, Jan. 18).
	University of Baghdad’s College of Science
	University of Baghdad’s College of Education
	Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center	IAEA inspectors conducted a motorized survey (U.N. release, Jan. 18).
Jan. 17	General Establishment for Extractional Operations in the northern city of Mosul	See U.N. release, Jan. 18.
	Fallujah 1, northwest of Baghdad	See GSN, Jan. 17.
	Fallujah 2, northwest of Baghdad
	Al-Saweira, about 30 miles south of Baghdad
Jan. 10-16	See GSN, Jan. 17.

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North Korea:  IAEA Sets North Korea Meeting Feb. 3

The International Atomic Energy Agency has scheduled a Feb. 3 emergency board meeting that could potentially put the North Korean crisis in front of the U.N. Security Council, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Jan. 23).

“The board will consider a resolution which would inform the Security Council of the breach of the nuclear safeguards agreement with the IAEA,” according to a U.N. diplomat (Reuters/Yahoo.com, Jan. 24).

Talks between the two Koreas ended today without significant progress on the nuclear crisis, according to South Korean officials.

The discussions have “not produced a progressive position from the North over the nuclear issue,” South Korean officials said.

A joint predawn statement said that “the South and the North fully exchanged each other’s position regarding the nuclear issue and agreed to cooperate toward a peaceful resolution to this problem.”

Seoul said that it would continue to push North Korea to abide by earlier nuclear development agreements, the New York Times reported today.

During the talks South Korea “strongly demanded” that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear weapons program, but delegates from the North refused to make concessions, according to South Korean spokesman Rhee Bong-jo.

“North Korea kept contending that this nuclear issue should be resolved through dialogue with the United States,” Rhee said (James Brooke, New York Times, Jan. 24).

Only a Treaty Will Do

North Korean officials also said that only a formal nonaggression treaty with the United States would solve the nuclear standoff.

A presidential letter assuring Pyongyang of Washington’s peaceful intentions will not end the crisis, said Oh Song Chol, the director general of North Korea’s Foreign Ministry (Straits Times, Jan. 24).

Oh also said that Pyongyang never admitted to developing nuclear weapons when confronted by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly.

“We asked him to present evidence, but the special envoy did not present the so-called satellite photos,” Oh said.  “I clearly say that we denied from the start their allegations of a nuclear weapons program using enriched uranium,” he added (Jae-Suk Yoo, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Jan. 24).

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung announced today that he will send an envoy to Pyongyang to urge North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to give up his nuclear aspirations.

Lim Dong-won, a former unification minister and now an adviser to the president, will travel to Pyongyang with a personal letter from South Korea’s president to North Korean leader Kim, according to presidential spokeswoman Park Sun-sook (Korea Herald, Jan. 24).

An aide to South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun will accompany Lim.  Roh said that he wants to propose a summit between Kim Jong Il and himself.

“I will propose to meet with Chairman Kim Jong Il even if I lose face in the eyes of my people because I value dialogue and think dialogue is the key,” Roh said (CNN.com, Jan. 24).

Russian President Vladimir Putin briefed U.S. President George W. Bush on the recent visit of a Russian envoy to Pyongyang.

Yesterday Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov urged “direct dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang” (Brooke, New York Times).

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North Korea II:  United States Needs to Begin Formal Dialogue, Richardson Says

The United States needs to “sit down” and begin a formal dialogue with North Korea as a measure to help resolve the crisis surrounding Pyongyang’s relaunched nuclear program, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson wrote in a column in today’s Wall Street Journal (see related GSN story, today).

“My philosophy has always been that dialogue has value even if you know from the start that you are going to disagree,” wrote Richardson, who recently concluded talks in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with North Korean officials (see GSN, Jan. 13).

During those talks, one of the most important issues to the North Koreans was the sense that their country was being ignored by the Bush administration, Richardson wrote.  “Resumption of food aid to North Korea was hardly touched upon by my interlocutors, giving us a clear sense of their priorities,” he wrote.

During the talks, North Korea conducted several actions that threatened to escalate the conflict, such as withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (see GSN, Jan. 10).  Richardson wrote, however, that he believed these actions to be more of a negotiating tactic.

“I believed that Pyongyang’s statements were fairly typical of its approach:  taking an extreme position going into a negotiation in order to have more to give when it came to the table,” Richardson wrote.

Now that the Untied States has firmly established that it will not negotiate with North Korea to resolve the nuclear issue — a correct stance — more direct dialogue between the two countries is needed, according to Richardson.

“The administration needs to sit down with the North Koreans, hear the litany of complaints and impossible conditions, and ultimately win the concessions necessary to protect our allies and ourselves from further nuclear buildup,” Richardson wrote.  “The international community expects the U.S. talk to North Korea,” he added (Bill Richardson, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 24).

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U.S. Response:  Experts Criticize Pathogen Detection System Plan

Some experts are questioning a Bush administration plan to create a national network of air monitors to detect a biological or chemical weapons attack, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Jan. 22).

“I cannot imagine it would be of any useful purpose in a bioterrorism attack,” said Tara O’Toole, head of the Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies at Johns Hopkins University.  “The problem is that all of the technologies we now have have a very high false positive rate.  They go off when there is not a biological attack,” she added.

The air monitors, which would be created by adapting existing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air quality monitoring stations, would use filters that would need to be regularly examined at laboratories operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — an expensive and time-consuming process, O’Toole said. 

“The labs that would do this testing are public health laboratories,” she said.  “That system is already severely underresourced and overstretched,” O’Toole added.

Another potential flaw in the plan is that the monitors would only be able to sample a small amount of air in the immediate area, according to experts. 

“You have got to have them in the right place at the right time,” a U.S. Army expert said (Maggie Fox, Reuters/Planet Ark, Jan. 24).

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Polio:  United States Conducting Inventory of Laboratory Stocks

The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conducting an inventory of polio strains in U.S. health facilities and laboratories as a measure to prevent future outbreaks once the disease is eradicated in nature, Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA reported this week (see GSN, July 12, 2002).

All U.S. facilities that have polio stocks — about 31, 000 in total — had a Dec. 31, 2002, deadline to submit a report to the CDC.  About half have done so and many have requested additional time, according to Medical Letter.  The CDC has also asked facilities that no longer work with polio to destroy their samples (Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA, Jan. 26).

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Spain:  Authorities Arrest 16 Islamic Militants Suspected of Planning Chemical Attacks

Spain today arrested 16 Islamic militants suspected of planning to conduct chemical weapons attacks, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said (see related GSN story, today).

During predawn operations in the Catalonia region, police searched 12 houses and discovered explosives, bomb components, and radio equipment believed to be used to communicate with Islamic militants in Algeria and Chechnya, said Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes.  The police raids also disclosed containers of suspicious chemicals that are being analyzed, Acebes said.

“The network had connections with terrorists recently arrested in France and the United Kingdom, and they were preparing attacks with explosives and chemical materials,” Aznar said.

The suspects are believed to be connected with the Algerian Salafist group, a splinter organization of the Armed Islamic Group, which is believe to be itself connected to al-Qaeda, Aznar said.  The suspects might also be linked to an al-Qaeda explosives expert who was arrested in Paris last year with plans to attack several important French buildings, according to court sources.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Spain has arrested 35 people believed to be connected to al-Qaeda, Acebes said (Marta Ruiz-Castillo, Reuters/Yahoo.com, Jan. 24).

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Czech Response:  Five Soldiers Change Their Minds, Will Stay in Kuwait

Five Czech soldiers have decided to remain in Kuwait after initially accepting an offer from Defense Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik to return home (see GSN, Jan. 22).

Of the special Czech unit trained to respond to weapons of mass destruction, there are now 22 soldiers who have accepted Tvrdik’s offer to leave Kuwait if they were not comfortable with a potential war with Iraq.

The remaining soldiers, apparently displeased with media reports depicting their departing comrades as cowards, submitted a document of support to their commanding officer.

“The troops dislike the untrue and distorted reports in the news.  These are an insult to them and an injury to their families,” said the unit’s commander, Dusan Lupuljev.

The document reportedly indicated that the remaining soldiers would still be able to complete their mission and held no ill will towards fellow soldiers who left to reunite with their families.

“We have taken the decision of these members of our contingent into account and respect it,” the document says (Prague CTK, Jan. 22 in FBIS-EEU, Jan. 22).

Soldiers who said they would depart, but did not leave immediately with Tvrdik on Wednesday, are apparently reconsidering their decision, the London Telegraph reported.

“I don’t want to be called a coward, that’s why I’ve stayed,” said one soldier.

Czech officials have dispatched an additional 130 troops to Kuwait this weekend, the Telegraph reported (Jack Fairweather, London Telegraph, Jan. 24).

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United Kingdom:  Ricin Gang Might Have Targeted British Troops

Recently arrested North African terrorism suspects in the United Kingdom might have been planning to poison a British military base’s food supply using ricin made in a North London apartment laboratory, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Jan. 21).

“There are some investigators who believe the ricin was being developed to poison British troops,” a U.S. official said.  “But we still have found no direct evidence between the ricin discovery and that kind of plot,” the official added.

A suspect, arrested in a series of raids connected to the alleged ricin production, worked for a food preparation company and had been in contact with workers on at least one British defense facility, the Times reported.  U.S. officials said they do not know who the suspect is or what sites might have been targeted.  The food poisoning idea is only a theory that British law enforcement forces are investigating, U.S. officials said.

“It’s a very live theory,” said a U.S. official who is knowledgeable on information sent from the United Kingdom.

British police Wednesday arrested and held a 31-year-old North African man under British terrorism laws, officials said (Risen/Van Natta, New York Times, Jan. 24).

Police said that arrest was linked to the ricin case.  Officials have now charged three men and a 17-year-old boy in connection to the ricin production, the Mirror reported (London Mirror, Jan. 24).

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Russia:  Judge Rejects Civil Suits in Siege Case

A Moscow judge rejected several civil lawsuits brought against the city by victims’ relatives and survivors of last October’s theater siege, the Globe and Mail reported today (see GSN, Jan. 16).

Judge Marina Gorbachev ruled that almost all the victims’ evidence in the civil suit was inadmissible.  Russian commandos gassed Chechen militants and their hostages in a rescue attempt on the Moscow theater.  In a rescue raid, 41 militants were killed along with 129 hostages, nearly all of whom died as a result of the gas.

Gorbachev dismissed three of the 24 suits and is expected to throw the rest out soon.

The city has offered $1,500 to survivors and $3,000 to the relatives of those who died but lawsuits were seeking close to $1 million each, the Globe and Mail reported.  Igor Trunov, the pro-bono lawyer for the claimants, said his clients needed more money to defray continuing medical costs.

Gorbachev rejected defense efforts to use doctor’s testimony, a report on the siege crisis or a controversial videotape shot inside the theater during the siege.  Trunov found himself facing questions on how he obtained the videotape.

“This trial should be put into the Guinness Book of World Records for being so short,” Trunov said.  “It was clear what the outcome would be, because they didn’t allow us to bring any evidence — none at all,” he added.

Trunov said he would most likely appeal the decision to either Russia’s Supreme Court or the European Human Rights Court (Mark MacKinnon, Globe and Mail, Jan. 24).

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Japan:  Tokyo Plans to Watch Aum Shinrikyo Cult For Three More Years

Japan has decided to continue surveillance of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which conducted a sarin gas attack that killed 12 Tokyo subway riders in 1995, for an additional three years, the Daily Yomiuri reported today (see GSN, Oct. 11, 2002).

The Japanese Public Security Examination Commission yesterday informed the cult, now known as Aleph, and the Japanese Security Investigation Agency of its decision to continue the surveillance.  Aum Shinrikyo has said it would file a lawsuit seeking to end the surveillance, which had been scheduled to end this month.

The commission explained its decision by saying Aum Shinrikyo still reveres its former leader Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, who is currently on trial for the 1995 attack in the Tokyo subway (see GSN, May 23, 2002).  The group continues to ask its members to place their absolute trust in Matsumoto, the commission said.

“Although the cult insisted that it has changed its interpretation of its doctrine and become more open, we don’t believe the cult has transformed itself,” commission Chairman Kozo Fujita said (Daily Yomiuri, Jan. 24).

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Language:  British Columnist Deplores “Weapons of Mass Destruction”

A British newspaper columnist today called for the end of the use of the term “weapons of mass destruction” (see GSN, Jan. 7).

“May I implore our leaders, and the journalists who cover these matters, to give the glib WMD phrase a long, long holiday? It’s overused, overwrought and, worst of all, over here,” London Times columnist Richard Morrison wrote.  “Surely it isn’t beyond the combined wit of the geniuses in the White House and 10 Downing Street to think up a fresher cliche that disguises their real intentions just as effectively,” he added.

The phrase “weapons of mass destruction” was used 2,000 times during White House press briefings last year, Morrison wrote, citing a U.S. academic.  While the phrase was chosen by the American Dialect Society as “word of the year” for 2002, it also leads a list of phrases compiled by Lake Superior State University in Michigan that should cease to be used because of “misuse, overuse and general uselessness,” he added.

The expanding use of the phrase “weapons of mass destruction” might have a more sinister purpose, Morrison wrote.  Noting that most military experts only cite nuclear weapons as a true “weapon of mass destruction,” he suggested that the expansion of the term’s definition might be done to gain support for military action against Iraq.

“Like all the best political euphemisms, it is vague enough to cover anything that the speaker wishes it to mean at any time in the future,” Morrison wrote.  “Chemical and biological weapons may be vile, but they don’t destroy whole cities and their populations.  Yet by including them in the catchall WMD phrase, our leaders are much more likely to find a reason to go to war,” he said (Richard Morrison, London Times, Jan. 24).

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CD:  Ambassadors Seek to Break Five-Year U.N. Deadlock

Five former presidents of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament yesterday presented a program of work aimed at ending a five-year stalemate over such thorny issues as the prevention of an arms race in outer space and nuclear disarmament (see GSN, Jan. 22).

The “five ambassadors” are calling for ad hoc committees to be set up on four sticking issues:  guarantees not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states, nuclear disarmament, a ban on production of weapon-grade fissile materials and prevention of an arms race in space.  They are also proposing the appointment of three special coordinators to oversee work on the subjects of new types of weapons of mass destruction, a comprehensive disarmament program and transparency in armaments.

Belgian Ambassador Jean Lint introduced the plan on behalf of himself and the delegates from Algeria, Chile, Colombia and Sweden, all of whom have led the conference in the past.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed “any proposals aimed at fostering consensus on the program of work” in a message delivered Tuesday by U.N. Geneva Director General Sergei Ordzhonikidze.  “These efforts,” he said, “have given rise to new hopes for dealing with the issues of nuclear disarmament and the prevention of an arms race in outer space” (U.N. release, Jan. 23).

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