Threat Assessment:  Al-Qaeda Poses the Most “Viable” Threat, FBI to Report

U.S. sources have said that an FBI report scheduled to be presented to Congress next week will say al-Qaeda still poses the most “viable” terrorist threat to the United States, USA Today reported today.

The FBI’s first National Threat Assessment will also include information on the capabilities of other terrorist organizations and identify the chemical and biological agents thought to be most likely to be used by terrorists, sources said.  It will also outline how al-Qaeda has changed since the war in Afghanistan and will contain information indicating that al-Qaeda operatives have discussed a new attack on the United States that would be more severe than the Sept. 11 attacks.  The bureau will present the report to House and Senate intelligence committee members in closed meetings set for Tuesday and Wednesday, USA Today reported.

“Al-Qaeda is still a viable threat” a source familiar with the report said.  “You cannot doubt that they are back and they are aggressive, and they are coming after us.  Are they as large as they were?  No.  Is the capability (to attack Americans) still there?  Absolutely,” the source added (Locy/Johnson, USA Today, Feb. 5).

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Iraq I:  Powell Lays Out U.S. Intelligence on Iraqi “Denial and Deception”

By Bryan Bender
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell today unveiled a significant amount of intelligence information to the U.N. Security Council that he said demonstrates illicit Iraqi weapons activities.  The presentation was intended to convince the world body that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is leading a concealing effort and is in material breach of council resolutions (see GSN, Feb. 4).

Powell made public intercepted communications between Iraqi officials, sequences of satellite photos depicting equipment being moved in advance of U.N. inspections, and information from multiple defectors pointing to mobile biological weapons labs.

Since U.N. weapons inspections resumed in Iraq in November — following unanimous passage of Security Council Resolution 1441 calling on Iraq to declare its prohibited weapons of mass destruction programs — Iraqi officials have done “all they possibly can to ensure inspectors succeed in finding absolutely nothing,” Powell told the 15 members of the council.

Powell’s presentation, titled “Denial and Deception,” covered the gamut of charges against Iraq, including efforts to conceal chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and development programs, as well as prohibited missile activities. 

In one accusation, Powell replayed several intercepted radio transmissions that allegedly record some Iraqi officials ordering others to sanitize weapons facilities and remove suspect materials prior to U.N. weapons inspections.

One intercept includes officials discussing the need to conceal what Powell termed a “modified vehicle,” while another highlights the need to cover up evidence of what he called “forbidden ammo.”  Two Iraqi commanders in the 2nd Republican Guard Corps — identified by Powell as a colonel and a captain — discuss instructions to remove “nerve agents.”

In addition, Powell presented satellite images taken Nov. 10 showing what U.S. analysts say were four active chemical weapons bunkers in Taji.  Decontamination trucks positioned close to the four sites were described as the best evidence that weapons were being kept there.  The same facilities were “clean when the U.N. got there” Dec. 22, Powell said.

In other images, cargo trucks carrying what are believed to be missile components are seen leaving a facility at al-Fatah Nov. 10, two days before inspectors arrived in the country.  Another truck was also shown leaving a vaccine and serum facility days later.

Powell said four defectors have told U.S. intelligence officials Iraq has been utilizing mobile biological weapons production and research units, the so-called “Winnebagos of Death.” 

These mobile laboratories, believed to have the ability to make “dry” agents that pose the most risk to humans, are thought to house anthrax, botulinum toxin and other deadly agents, Powell said.  In one month these laboratories could manufacture enough material to “kill thousands,” Powell said.

“There are 18 trucks that we know of,” Powell said.  “There may be more.”

As for chemical weapons production, Powell said Iraq has the ability to make up to 500 tons of chemical agents, many of them in so-called dual-use facilities that also manufacture civilian products.  These countless facilities can go “from clandestine to commercial and then back again,” Powell said, “on a dime.”

Powell showed photographs of another suspected chemical weapons facility, al-Musayyib, taken last May, similarly showing a series of bunkers and a nearby contamination truck.  By July, the entire sprawling base appears to have been bulldozed and the topsoil replaced, Powell said.

Powell also said that despite no evidence found by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, Iraq continues to pursue nuclear weapons.  Providing more detail, he repeated the earlier U.S. assertion that Iraq has sought aluminum tubes, with “refined specifications,” for possible use in enriching uranium.  Powell said Iraq sought these materials in at least 11 countries (see GSN, Jan. 24).

As for systems to deliver outlawed weapons, Powell presented images that depicted what he said was a flight test of a MiG-21 outfitted with spray tanks dispersing simulated biological agents.  He also revealed intelligence, including a satellite picture of a test stand, about ongoing development of a medium-range, liquid-fueled missile capable of traveling 1,200 kilometers.  That is eight times farther than Iraqi missiles are permitted under U.N. resolutions.

Powell said this missile could hit targets as far away as Russia, adding that the program “was left out” of Iraq’s 12,000-page weapons declaration provided to the United Nations Dec. 7.

Powell said U.S. intelligence believes a special committee that reports directly to Saddam Hussein — which includes his son Qusay and General Amir al-Saudi, the chief Iraqi liaison to the U.N. inspections teams — is responsible for covering up Iraq’s illegal weapons programs.

“Iraq is now in further material breach” of Resolution 1441, Powell said.  If it does not act swiftly and authoritatively, the United Nations is “in danger of irrelevance.”

He closed by outlining a variety of Iraq’s purported links with terrorist groups, including members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

Whether Powell’s presentation was effective remains to be seen, but one expert said Washington’s job of convincing the international body of the need to take military action against Saddam Hussein is incomplete.

“Powell’s presentation had to do two things,” said Jon Wolfsthal, deputy director of the Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“First it had to demonstrate that the Iraqis were in material breach of Resolution 1441, and he succeeded.  It was a home run.  But that case existed before the speech.

“But to convince countries like France and Germany and the broader public that military action is needed, he needed to demonstrate conclusively that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons,” he said.  “And on that I think he failed.  He makes a circumstantial case, but if he were in an American court of law, I don’t think he could get an indictment, let alone a conviction.”

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Iraq II:  No WMD “Whatsoever,” Hussein Says

Iraq neither possesses weapons of mass destruction nor has links to suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist organization, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said in an interview broadcast yesterday by British Channel 4 (see related GSN story, today).

“There is only one truth and therefore I tell you as I have said on many occasions before that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction whatsoever,” Hussein told British Labor Party politician Tony Benn, who traveled to Baghdad to meet with the Iraqi leader.  “We challenge anyone who claims that we have to bring forward any evidence and present it to public opinion,” Hussein said.

Hussein also denied that Iraq had any connections to al-Qaeda, which the United States has repeatedly claimed.

“If we had a relationship with al-Qaeda, and we believed in that relationship, we wouldn’t be ashamed to admit it,” Hussein said.  “Therefore I would like to tell you directly and also through you to anyone who is interested to know that we have no relationship with al-Qaeda,” he added.

Iraq has been cooperating with U.N. inspectors and working to fulfill U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, which established the current inspections regime, Hussein said.  While there have been instances where Iraqis have objected to the conduct of inspectors, this does not amount to noncompliance, as the United States has alleged, he said.

“When Iraq objects to the conduct of those implementing the Security Council resolutions, that doesn’t mean that Iraq wishes to push things to confrontation.  Iraq has no interest in war.  No Iraqi official or ordinary citizen has expressed a wish to go to war,” Hussein said.  “The question should be directed at the other side.  Are they looking for a pretext so they could justify war against Iraq?” he asked.

Iraq has no wish to hinder inspectors in carrying out their mission, who will only confirm that it does not possess weapons of mass destruction, Hussein said.  “It is in our interest to facilitate their mission to find the truth,” he said.

Hussein warned, however, that if the United States and its allies were to attack, Iraqi people are prepared to defend themselves and their country.

“The Iraqis don’t wish war but if war is imposed upon them — if they are attacked and insulted — they will defend themselves,” Hussein said.  “They will defend their country, their sovereignty and their security,” he added (Channel 4, Feb. 4).

Inspections

Meanwhile, U.N. weapons inspectors have visited at least nine suspect Iraqi sites today, according to Reuters.

Biological experts from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission visited several sites, including al-Nu’man, a state-operated irrigation company south of Baghdad; a food research center in Baghdad; a Baghdad University laser research center; and a dairy factory in Abu Ghraib north of Baghdad.  UNMOVIC missile teams visited the al-Mutasim missile plant, about 55 miles west of Baghdad; and a missile factory that belongs to the al-Karamah facility, Reuters reported.

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency inspected warehouses located at the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center — the key site in Iraq’s former nuclear weapons program.  They also visited the site of the Osirak nuclear reactor, which Israel destroyed in an airstrike in 1981.  Inspectors also visited an undisclosed site north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said (Hassan Hafidh, Reuters, Feb. 5).

Yesterday, inspectors visited at least 14 suspect Iraqi sites, according to an IAEA press release.  UNMOVIC biological inspectors visited the State Establishment for Heavy Engineering Enterprises plant in Doura.  Inspectors also visited a farm, a helicopter support facility and the al-Taji Ammunition Department, all located north of Baghdad.  While at the ammunition depot, inspectors found an empty Sakr-18 chemical warhead, similar to those discovered last month, the IAEA release said.  The warhead was tagged and secured.

Inspectors based in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul visited the Mosul Sugar and Yeast Factories to determine the present status of the site.  IAEA inspectors visited the al-Mamoun plant of the al-Qa Qaa State Establishment south of Baghdad (International Atomic Energy Agency release, Feb. 4).

For further information, see:

UNMOVIC

IAEA Iraq Action Team

U.N. Resolution 1441

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Bulgarian Response:  Sofia Prepares WMD Response Unit

Bulgaria has started to form a 150-member military unit to specialize in responding to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, according to Gen. Nikola Kolev, the chief of the General Staff of the Bulgarian military (see GSN, Nov. 19, 2002).

More than 400 volunteers have signed up to join the unit and a commission is selecting the successful candidates, Kolev said Saturday.

“The General Staff command has determined that, should all possible peaceful means be exhausted, resort to military force is highly probably for resolving the Iraq crisis.  We do not want a political decision on Bulgarian participation, if such a decision is made, to find the army unprepared, which is why we requested permission to go ahead with the formation of such contingent,” Kolev said.

The unit would also be available to respond to a terrorist attack using weapons of mass destruction in Bulgaria, he added (Sofia BTA, Feb. 1 in FBIS-EEU, Feb. 3).

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Iraq III:  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
Feb. 5	Al-Nu’man, a state-operated irrigation company south of Baghdad	See GSN, Feb. 5.
	Food research center in Baghdad
	Laser research center at Baghdad University
	Dairy factory in Abu Ghraib north of Baghdad
	Al-Mutasim missile plant, about 55 miles west of Baghdad
	Missile factory belonging to the al-Karamah facility
	Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center warehouses
	Former site of the Osirak nuclear reactor
	Undisclosed site north of Baghdad
Feb. 4	State Establishment for Heavy Engineering Enterprises plant in Doura	See GSN, Feb. 5.
	Farm north of Baghdad
	Helicopter support facility north of Baghdad
	Al-Taji Ammunition Dept, north of Baghdad	Inspectors discovered an empty Sakr-18 chemical warhead at the site, similar to empty chemical warheads discovered last month.  The Sakr-18 warhead was tagged and secured (see GSN, Feb.5).
	Mosul Sugar and Yeast Factories	Inspectors worked to determine the site’s present activities (see GSN, Feb. 5).
	Al-Mamoun plant of the al-Qa Qaa State Establishment, south of Baghdad	See GSN, Feb. 5.
	Al-Rafah liquid engine test facility, about 80 miles southwest of Baghdad	See GSN, Feb. 4.
	Al-Harith missile maintenance workshop in Taji, north of Baghdad
	Al-Mamoun factory of the al-Rasheed State Company, about 40 miles south of Baghdad
	Water purification station in Doura, just outside of Baghdad
	Agricultural supply company in Waziriya in Baghdad
	Nassr State Establishment, about 25 miles northwest of Baghdad
	Military compound near Baghdad
	Al-Salam compound at Salman Pak, south of Baghdad
Feb. 3	Applied Science Department of the University of Technology in Baghdad	IAEA release, Feb. 3.
	Tropical Diseases Unit of the Al Kindi Medical School in Baghdad
	Military training facility in Salman Pak area
	Al-Salam
	Al-Qudis
	Al-Saad Company
	Al-Qa Qaa
	Arab Company for Detergent Chemicals
	Ibn Al Hytham industrial manufacturing plant in Taji north of Baghdad
	Areas south of Baghdad	IAEA inspectors conducted a motorized radiation survey (IAEA release, Feb. 3).
	Al-Nidaa State Company	UNMOVIC missile inspectors discovered a ceramic missile mold and a damaged warhead for the Luna short-range missile.  Iraq has said the missile’s range is within U.N. limits (see GSN, Feb. 4).
Feb. 2	Chemistry laboratory in the College of Science at Salahaddin University in Erbil, the capital of Kurdish-controlled Iraq	See GSN, Feb. 3.
	Biology laboratory in the College of Science at Salahaddin University in Erbil, the capital of Kurdish-controlled Iraq
Feb. 1	Waziriyah Industrial Complex	UNMOVIC missile inspectors visited the site obtain clarifications on the present status of al-Samoud ballistic missile guidance and control activities and on the January semi-annual declaration for the site (see GSN, Feb. 3).
	Al-Mamoun Factory	UNMOVIC missile inspectors visited the site to obtain clarification on the latest declaration for the site (see GSN, Feb. 3).
	Headquarters of the al-Raya General Company	UNMOVIC missile inspectors visited the site to obtain clarification on the latest declaration for the site (see GSN, Feb. 3).
	Biotechnology Department of the College of Science at Saddam University in Baghdad	See GSN, Feb. 3.
	Biology Department of the College of Education at Saddam University in Baghdad
	Eastern Distillery Company in Baghdad
	Al-Shaheed State Company
	Tuz Airfield	Inspectors traveled to the site via helicopter to interview the senior officer present and to inspect the site’s ammunition storage areas and aircraft shelters (see GSN, Feb. 3).
	Tho al-Fiker industrial machining and manufacturing facility north of Baghdad	See GSN, Feb. 3.
	College of Science at Saddam University in Baghdad
	College of Engineering at Saddam University in Baghdad
	Area southeast of Baghdad	IAEA inspectors conducted a motorized radiation survey (see GSN, Feb. 3).
Jan. 31	Abu Ghraib Ammunition Factory	Inspectors visited the site’s production area, quality control, computer system and several warehouses (see GSN, Feb. 3).
	Fallujah 2	UNMOVIC biological inspectors conducted an aerial inspection of the site (see GSN, Feb. 3).
	Fallujah 3	UNMOVIC biological inspectors conducted an aerial inspection of the site (see GSN, Feb. 3).
	Agricultural and Biological Research Center	UNMOVIC biological inspectors conducted an aerial inspection of the site (see GSN, Feb. 3).
	Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center	UNMOVIC biological inspectors conducted an aerial inspection of the site (see GSN, Feb. 3).
	Former biological research facilities at Salman Pak	UNMOVIC biological inspectors conducted an aerial inspection of the site (see GSN, Feb. 3).
	Al-Yarmouk State Company	See GSN, Jan. 31.
	7 Nissan Company in Nahrawan, about 20 miles east of Baghdad
	Agricultural equipment company in Waziriya in Baghdad
Jan. 24- Jan. 30	See GSN, Jan. 31.

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North Korea:  Washington Says Talks With Pyongyang Will Happen

The United States said yesterday it intends to hold direct talks with Pyongyang, the Baltimore Sun reported (see GSN, Feb. 3).

“Of course, we’re going to have to have direct talks with the North Koreans.  There’s no question about it,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage during testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The White House is preparing for the talks by meeting with allies in the region and in Europe, said U.S. officials.  There is not, however, a timetable in place for the talks and Washington wants an international consensus before entering discussions so “this thing doesn’t rub entirely off on us to come up with a solution” (Mark Matthews, Baltimore Sun, Feb. 5).

Armitage said Washington is wary of North Korea selling its nuclear material.

“Our major fear is that North Korea would pass on fissile material,” he said (Barbara Slavin, USA Today, Feb. 5).  “I don’t think that, given the poverty of North Korea, that it would be too long after she got a good amount of fissile material … that she would be inclined to engage with somebody, a nonstate actor or a rogue state,” Armitage added.

He also told the committee that the difference between North Korea and Iraq is the intent of their leaders.

“We know, we think, what (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Il wants,” Armitage said.  “Some economic benefits and things of that nature,” he added.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, on the other hand, wants to “intimidate, dominate and attack,” Armitage said (Matthews, Baltimore Sun).

Japan said yesterday that international dialogue is needed in the wake of the Bush administration’s decision not to fund the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (see GSN, Feb. 4).

“We must talk with relevant countries,” said Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (The Japan Times, Feb. 5).

Pyongyang said, meanwhile, that it would not send a representative to a Feb. 12 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency that could forward the Korean nuclear crisis to the U.N. Security Council.

The burden in the crisis is on the United States to prove that it has no hostile intent, according to Park Eui Chun, the North Korean ambassador to Moscow (Seoul Yonhap, Feb. 1 in FBIS-EAS, Feb. 1).

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U.S.-Russia:  Senate Committee Recommends Approval of Moscow Treaty

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee today passed a resolution to approve the U.S.-Russian Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (see GSN, Dec. 16, 2002). 

Signed by President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin last May in Moscow, the treaty would remove several thousand nuclear warheads from front-line military service by 2012 (see GSN, May 24, 2002).

The committee passed the resolution with conditions requiring a single report studying how U.S. nuclear reductions and nonproliferation assistance can help Russia implement the treaty and an annual report on U.S. and Russian implementation of the treaty.

The next step is for the full Senate to agree to the treaty, needed for Bush to ratify the treaty.

The treaty has been criticized for not requiring destruction of any weapons and for lacking specificity (see GSN, Aug. 5, 2002).

“I want to reiterate my view that the goal of meaningful nuclear arms reduction can only be achieved by dismantling and destroying these weapons,” said Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who criticized the treaty, but voted for the resolution nevertheless.

“I hope that it will be the first step in a more comprehensive binding plan to reduce the number of nuclear weapons that are stored and deployed by our two countries,” Feingold said in a statement.

The treaty requires all but a maximum of 2,200 strategic warheads to be removed from each country’s respective bombers, submarines and missiles by the end of 2012.  The treaty then expires, technically allowing the two countries to return those warheads to service the following day, officials and experts have said.

The resolution recommended that the president continue strategic offensive nuclear reductions “to the lowest possible levels consistent with national security requirements and alliance obligations of the United States.”

Bush administration officials have said they would pursue no further strategic arms reduction treaties with Russia.

The resolution also urged the president work with Russia to improve Moscow’s accounting of its nonstrategic nuclear weapons and to ensure their security.  Estimates of the size of the Russian nonstrategic stockpile range up to 12,000 warheads, which experts say are easier to steal than strategic weapons and easier to provide illicitly to other states or groups.

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Indian Response:  Foreign Secretary Highlights Pakistani-North Korean Links

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The world must focus on the nuclear and ballistic missile proliferation links between Pakistan and North Korea, now being “ignored,” Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said here yesterday.

Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Sibal said that while the current conflict over North Korea’s relaunched nuclear program must be addressed, attention should also be paid to nuclear and missile transfers between North Korea and other countries.  The New Yorker reported last month that a June 2002 CIA report outlined Pakistan’s exchange of nuclear technologies for North Korean missile components (see GSN, Jan. 21).  The father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, A.Q. Khan, has also reportedly made a number of secret trips to North Korea (see GSN, Nov. 25, 2002). 

Pakistani Foreign Minister Mian Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri pledged last week, however, that his country would not aid North Korea, or any other country, in developing nuclear weapons (see GSN, Jan. 30).

India’s commitment to nonproliferation has been “unwavering and its record impeccable,” Sibal said, noting that India has strengthened its nuclear and missile-related export controls (see GSN, Nov. 15, 2002). 

Scientific Cooperation 

During his speech yesterday, Sibal noted India’s desire to increase scientific and technological cooperation with the United States, which has been constrained in the past because of India’s nuclear efforts (see GSN, Dec. 10, 2002).  U.S. law prohibits nuclear transfers to countries that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, such as India.  India also does not belong to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which is an informal export control regime that establishes guidelines for nuclear transfers  

Sibal criticized such nonproliferation regimes, saying they both act as an undue constraint on India and that they fail to combat clandestine proliferation.

“It is evident that international ad hoc proliferation control regimes, designed on different assumptions of proliferation and for a different era, are clearly ineffective in meeting the resulting threats to international peace and stability,” Sibal said.

“Developing countries, which exercise self-discipline and adhere to the rule of law and transparency, find themselves facing both the constraints of the ad hoc control regimes and a deteriorating security environment from unchecked clandestine proliferation,” he said.

India’s nuclear weapons are “purely a defensive approach” and act primarily as a deterrent, Sibal said.  He said India has demonstrated nuclear restraint in several ways, including its continued testing moratorium, its no-first-use policy and its policy of refusing to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states (see GSN, Jan. 10).  India, however, will never accept that there can be only five nuclear weapons states, Sibal said.

Increased U.S.-Indian scientific cooperation was a subject of Sibal’s recent meetings with several senior U.S. officials, including Commerce Undersecretary for Industry and Security Kenneth Juster.  India and the United States have made progress in understanding each other’s security and nonproliferation concerns, but more needs to be done to increase scientific and technological cooperation, which would have economic benefits for both countries, Sibal said.

“The dialogue that we have had ... demonstrates — at least from our perspective — that what separates us on these issues is not interest or approach but a historical point in time that put us on the opposite sides of a legal divide,” he said.

Kashmir

Sibal yesterday also made a number of veiled criticisms of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for supporting terrorism and for failing to end cross-border infiltration into the disputed province of Kashmir — long feared to be a potential flashpoint between the two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.

“The leader of a country whose right hand commits terrorist acts against India and the left hand cooperates against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, one part of whose discourse is a rallying call in favor of terrorism against India and the other rallies against those who target the West ... cannot be a reliable partner in the combat against terrorism,” Sibal said.  “You cannot with the one hand water poisonous weeds and with the other hand spray weed-killers,” he added.

The outside world, including the United States, needs to bring more pressure on Pakistan to abide by its commitments to end cross-border terrorism, Sibal said, adding that India was disappointed with such efforts so far.  He said the United States was able to pressure Pakistan into abandoning its support for the Taliban, which Pakistan’s intelligence services played an important role in creating. 

“In the global war against terrorism there is no room for double standards ... of terrorism directed against the West and that directed against the others, of the former being untarnished evil and the latter requiring resolution of its root causes,” Sibal said.

While India realizes the United States needs Pakistan’s support for its efforts to rebuild and stabilize Afghanistan, efforts to reduce Pakistani support for terrorism should not be seen “as a favor to India but as a part of the international combat against terrorism,” Sibal said, adding that terrorist infrastructures used against India could also be used against other countries.  An end to cross-border terrorism will also help pave the way for a dialogue to begin between India and Pakistan and a normalization of relations, he said.

“Pakistan represents everything that is in the forefront of U.S. concerns:  religious fundamentalism, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction in possession of a failing state, a military dictatorship masquerading behind a pale democratic facade,” Sibal said.  “A big challenge India and the U.S. face is to make Pakistan a genuinely moderate state,” he added.

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Smallpox I:  Millions of Personal Computers Might Find Smallpox Cure

The U.S. Defense Department, research universities and leading computer companies are launching a program today to develop a cure for smallpox using the power of millions of idle personal computers, the New York Times reported.

The computers, attached to a central grid, will test how a range of chemical compounds interact with an enzyme found in smallpox, called topoisomerase.  Researchers hope to find a compound that blocks the enzyme and stops the smallpox virus from spreading.

Volunteers can visit the project’s Web site, www.grid.org, and download a screen saver that will add that computer’s power to the smallpox effort when the machine is turned on but not in use (Steve Lohr, New York Times, Feb. 5).

The combined effort of 2 million personal computers is 30 times more powerful than the world’s fastest supercomputer, the Associated Press reported.

IBM servers are powering the effort and the results will be given to U.S. defense officials (Paul Elias, Associated Press/Washington Post, Feb. 5).

Oxford University and the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases will also be working on the project (Lohr, New York Times).

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Smallpox II:  Canada Reaffirms Pledge to Buy Vaccine for Entire Country

A Canadian health official yesterday said Canada would buy enough smallpox vaccine for everyone in the country, the Ottawa Citizen reported today.

Ron St. John, director general of Health Canada’s Center for Emergency Preparedness and Response, said last year that Canada would purchase enough vaccine for every Canadian and he reaffirmed those comments yesterday in Winnipeg (see GSN, June 12, 2002).

Canada is expected to receive 10 million doses of the vaccine by the end of 2003 but St. John did not say how long it would take to acquire the remaining 21 million doses.

Canadian officials plan to vaccinate 500 epidemiologists who would be sent to the scene of a smallpox outbreak (Maria Cook, Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 5).

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Iran:  Japanese Police Investigate Tokyo Company for Providing Training

Japanese police yesterday searched the headquarters and facilities of Seishin Enterprise Co. in Tokyo on suspicions the company trained Iranian experts on how to use a jet mill, which can be used to produce solid missile fuel, according to the Daily Yomiuri.

The search was conducted because of allegations the Japanese company had violated export regulations by training employees of the Iranian company to which it sold the jet mills, the Daily Yomiuri reported.  Police suspect Iran used the mills to improve missile propellants.

Seishin began working with the Iranian company 15 years ago and the company sent its employees to Seishin in order to learn how to safely use the mills, according to sources (Daily Yomiuri, Feb. 5).

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