Iraq:  British Intelligence Official Says Iraqi Dossier Reworked

A senior British intelligence official has said a government dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs was reworked to make it “sexier” prior to its release in September, BBC News reported today (see GSN, May 28).

The British dossier’s claims included that the Iraqi military had the ability to deploy biological and chemical weapons within 45 minutes of receiving an order (see GSN, Sept. 24, 2002).  The British intelligence official said, however, that claim was not in the original draft of the dossier because it was considered to be unreliable.

“Most things in the dossier were double-source, but that was single-source, and we believe that the source was wrong,” the intelligence official said.

British Defense Minister Adam Ingram denied that the government had demanded changes to the dossier, saying it was “not concocted by Number 10 or under pressure from Number 10 to produce it in a particular way.”

“(It came from) their best knowledge and their best assessment of what they could declare into the public domain, based upon the knowledge of what was out there,” Ingram said (BBC News, May 29).

Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has accused the government of basing its justification for the war on Iraq on false information.

“It is plain he [ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein] did not have that capacity to threaten us, possibly did not have the capacity to threaten even his neighbors, and that is profoundly important,” Cook said.  “We were, after all, told that those who opposed the resolution that would provide the basis for military action were in the wrong.  Perhaps we should now admit they were in the right,” he said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that he had “absolutely no doubt at all about the existence of weapons of mass destruction.”

“Rather than speculating, let’s just wait until we get the full report back from our people who are interviewing the Iraqi scientists,” Blair said (Russell/McSmith, London Independent, May 29).

Iraqi WMD Was Singled Out for “Bureaucratic Reasons,” Wolfowitz Says

Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has said the United States focused on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as a reason for war because of “bureaucratic reasons,” adding that there were several other motives.

“For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on,” Wolfowitz was quoted as saying in the July issue of Vanity Fair (Reuters, May 28).

United States Limits IAEA’s Return Role

While the United States has reached an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency for the organization to send its experts back to Iraq to help secure the Tuwaitha complex, the main site in Iraq’s former nuclear program, the agreement sharply limits the agency’s role, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, May 27).

Under the agreement, IAEA experts are limited to a small area within the complex and are specifically blocked from investigating reports that radioactive material from the site may have been removed, the Post reported.  After labeling the effort made by U.N. inspectors prior to the war as insufficient, the Bush administration was not going to allow them to return to look for weapons now, a senior Bush administration official said.

“Make no mistake, the IAEA wanted to get back in and do its former inspection role,” the senior Bush administration official said.  “And they were told, in no uncertain terms, no,” the official added (DeYoung/Pincus, Washington Post, May 29).

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Threat Assessment:  Al-Qaeda May Still Strike U.S. Interests, FBI Says

More than a week after raising the U.S. terror threat level to “orange,” the FBI has warned that al-Qaeda could still strike U.S. interests at home or abroad using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, May 21).

In its weekly bulletin to state and local law enforcement and government agencies, the FBI said the terrorist group continues “to enhance their capabilities to conduct effective mass casualty attacks” (Washington Post, May 29).

In an interview published Sunday in the London-based al-Majallah magazine, al-Qaeda spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj said the group plans to poison the U.S. water supply, according to a United Press International report.

“Al-Qaeda (does not rule out) using sarin gas and poisoning drinking water in U.S. and Western cities,” al-Ablaj said.  “We will talk about (these weapons) then and the infidels will know what harms them.  They spared no effort in their war on us in Afghanistan. … They should not therefore rule out the possibility that we will present them with our capabilities,” he added.

U.S. officials, however, have played down al-Ablaj’s claims, noting that it is extremely difficult to contaminate an entire water supply, UPI reported.

“It would take many truckloads of poison, which would make it difficult to do secretly,” a U.S. intelligence official said.  “That is not really a viable threat” (Shaun Waterman, UPI/Washington Times,  May 29).

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British Response:  Decontamination Units To Aid Terror Attack Victims

Mobile decontamination units that will serve to aid victims in the event of a chemical, biological or nuclear terror attack have been purchased by British authorities and will be delivered within days, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Nov. 8).

The units — which have the capability to decontaminate up to 200 people per hour and contain large tents that house walk-through showers and dressing areas — are similar to those stationed at airports and major cities within in the United States, according to AFP.

Eighty of the vehicles have been purchased at a cost of $92 million and will be stationed across England and Wales (Agence France-Presse, May 29).

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North Korea:  U.S. Recruits Foreign Scientist Who Worked in Pyongyang’s Nuclear Program

The CIA has been able to recruit, in the last month, a foreign scientist who had worked in North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, Time reported yesterday (see GSN, May 28).

The scientist, who has been relocated to the United States, has provided information on several aspects of North Korea’s nuclear effort, including “location, degree of development in capabilities, where they are [and] how far along they are in developing multiple-weapons capability,” a U.S. official said.

The scientist has also described North Korea’s program as being further advanced than an earlier assessment by the CIA, which had concluded that Pyongyang had developed at least two nuclear weapons.

“It’s one thing to make one or two,” the U.S. official said.  “It’s another thing to have a process in place to make hundreds.  They’re on their way to be able to make hundreds within the next couple of years,” the official said (Burger/Bacon, Time, May 27).

Japan to Tighten Control on North Korean Ferry

Tokyo plans to tighten controls on a ferry that has been accused of helping to smuggle missile components from Japan to North Korea, Japanese officials said today (see GSN, May 21).

Japanese authorities plan to double the number of onboard inspections conducted on the ferry, the Man Gyong Bong-92, when it arrives in the Japanese port of Niigata June 9, according to Agence France-Presse.  “We should have done it much earlier as it is possible under our country’s laws,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said (Agence France-Presse, May 29).

South Korea Should be Proud of “Deterrent,” North Korea Says

North Korea has said that South Korea should be “highly proud” of Pyongyang’s “military deterrent force,” Agence France-Presse reported today.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said South Koreans should recognize the North as their protector and urged them to stand with Pyongyang against the United States.

“Our military deterrent force serves as a merciless sledge hammer to the aggressors but an iron shield for the South Korean people, a shield that prevents a war crisis with compatriotic feelings,” the KCNA said.  “The compatriots in South Korea should be highly proud of our powerful military deterrent force,” it said.

Without North Korea’s deterrent force, the United States would have already attacked, which would have resulted in a war on the Korean Peninsula that would have destroyed South Korea, the KCNA said.  “It was thanks to the D.P.R.K.’s (North Korea’s) powerful war deterrent force that peace has so far been preserved on the Korean Peninsula,” it said (Charles Whelan, AFP/Yahoo!News, May 29).

U.S. Delegation to Head to Pyongyang

A delegation of six U.S. lawmakers, headed by Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), is reportedly set to arrive in Pyongyang tomorrow in an attempt to help reduce tensions.

“We are on a fact-finding mission to open doors for dialogue,” Weldon said before leaving yesterday (Chicago Tribune, May 29).

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United States:  Energy Criticizes Los Alamos For Management of Testing Facility Project

The U.S. Energy Department inspector general’s office has accused Los Alamos National Laboratory of management problems in a project to build a nuclear weapons testing facility, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Aug. 1, 2002).

An audit of the Los Alamos project to build the Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test Facility, released yesterday, found that the laboratory’s management of the project, as well as that of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, needed to be improved.

The construction of facility is behind schedule and over budget, Energy officials claim.  While the project is completed, the facility will not be operational for another year and is within budget “only because certain project elements were artificially absorbed by other programs,” according to Inspector General Gregory Friedman.

Once operational, the facility will be able to create images of the implosion of plutonium that initiates a nuclear reaction, AP reported.  The facility is set to be the primary experimental test facility for certifying the U.S. nuclear stockpile in the next 10 years, Los Alamos officials said.

Los Alamos Director Pete Nanos said yesterday, however, that delays in operation of the facility were resolved “more than two years ago.”

The project has received continuous oversight by both the NNSA and Congress, Nanos said.

“NNSA has tracked the status of the project in detail throughout and approved every planning change,” Nanos said.  “In fact, because of DARHT’s importance to the national stockpile stewardship program, this project has been monitored at the highest levels of government, including scrutiny from Congress,” he said (Leslie Hoffman, Associated Press, May 29).

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Iraq:  U.S. Intelligence Agencies Call Recovered Trailers “Strongest Evidence” of Biological Program

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Two trailers recently recovered by coalition forces in Iraq are “the strongest evidence to date” that Iraq had attempted to conceal a biological weapons program, the CIA and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said in a report yesterday (see GSN, May 21).

The trailers — one captured by Kurdish forces near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and turned over to U.S. troops in late April and a second discovered by U.S. troops at the al-Kindi Research, Testing, Development and Engineering site in Mosul early this month — have long been suspected of being mobile biological production plants.  In an address before the U.N. Security Council in February, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell cited the existence of such mobile plants as evidence that Iraq had continued to attempt to develop weapons of mass destruction (see GSN, Feb. 6).

In their report, the two intelligence agencies compared the layout and inventories of the trailer recovered last month with information provided by an Iraqi chemical engineer who had managed one of Iraq’s mobile plants.  The engineer was able to recognize pictures of the trailer as being similar to the mobile plant he had managed, including specific pieces of identical equipment, the report says. 

An analysis of the trailers has determined that they are likely to be a second- or third-generation design of the mobile facilities described by the Iraqi engineer, according to the report.  The equipment discovered within the trailers, such as fermenters and systems to capture exhaust gasses, were installed in such a way as to create an “ingeniously simple, self-contained bioprocessing system,” the report says. 

The trailers were likely meant to be components in a two- or three-trailer unit, with both recovered trailers likely intended to produce biological agents in liquid slurry, the report says.  It adds that the third trailer in such a unit would likely be equipped with equipment to prepare growth media and for post-harvest processing. 

According to the report, coalition experts have been unable to determine any legitimate uses for the recovered trailers that would justify the effort and cost of a mobile production capability.  “We … agree with the experts that BW agent production is the only consistent, logical purpose for these vehicles,” the report says.

Several theories, however, have been put forth as to possible alternative uses for the trailers, according to the report.  For example, a May 13 New York Times article reported that experts have suggested the trailers might have been used to produce biopesticides or to refurbish Iraqi anti-aircraft missiles.  The report dismissed such theories, however, saying the exhaust collection systems and the size of the equipment found in the trailers are unnecessary for biopesticide production.  In addition, U.S. missile experts have been unable to determine how the trailers could refurbish anti-aircraft missiles, the report says.

The report was less critical, but sill dismissive, of claims made by senior al-Kindi officials that the trailers were used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons.  While some of the equipment found in the trailers could be used to produce both biological agents and hydrogen, the trailers’ design would be “inefficient” for hydrogen production, the report says. 

The report’s assessment of the trailers helps to verify claims made by the United States concerning Iraq’s WMD efforts prior to the war, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday.

“It’s very important to recognize that programs that we had said existed do exist; that the kind of equipment that we had said existed does exist,” Boucher said.

Some independent experts, however, have criticized the CIA-DIA report’s findings.  In an issue brief released yesterday, the Institute for Science and International Security criticized the intelligence agencies for determining that the recovered trailers were used to produce biological agents by eliminating other possible uses.  The institute said the use of such a methodology was “controversial … under any circumstances.”

“Given the high stakes for the United States to prove the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, this methodology is particularly suspect,” the institute said.

The institute also criticized the report for relying so heavily on information gathered from the Iraqi chemical engineer, saying that much of the information recovered from human sources on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction has been “flawed.”  In addition, the institute raised the possibility that the report might have been written with “a preferred conclusion” in mind. 

In its brief, the institute called for an independent investigation of the trailers, adding that a “logical group” to conduct such an investigation would be the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission.  Such an investigation is needed to improve the credibility of the U.S. findings, the institute said.

“Because the United States has such a vested interest in proving the existence of WMD in Iraq, the report’s findings cannot be trusted without independent confirmation,” the institute said.

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Anthrax:  Hundreds In Military Disciplined For Refusing Vaccine in Past Five Years

In the five years since the U.S. military made anthrax vaccinations mandatory for all members of the armed forces, hundreds have faced disciplinary action or discharge for refusing to be inoculated, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, May 21).  Since 1998, at least 37 members of the armed forces have been court-martialed for refusing the vaccine

An Army reservist was found guilty by a military panel yesterday for disobeying an order to be vaccinated against anthrax, according to AP. Army Reserve Pvt. Kamila Iwanowska could be sentenced to up to 12 months in jail and receive a bad-conduct military discharge, reduction in rank and forfeiture of pay (Associated Press/New York Post, May 29).

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Moldova:  U.S. State Department Clarifies Sanctions

The United States has sanctioned three Moldovan entities for allegedly aiding Iran’s ballistic missile efforts through the transfer of items controlled under Category 2 of the Missile Technology Control Regime’s annex, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday (see GSN, May 28).

This corrects earlier erroneous reports that indicated the entities were sanctioned after they allegedly transferred MTCR Category 1 items to Iran.

The two-year sanctions against the Moldovan entities — two Moldovan companies and a Moldovan citizen — were announced yesterday in the Federal Register and went into effect earlier this month (U.S. State Department release, May 28).

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Conference on Disarmament:  Arab, Islamic Nations to Snub Israel-Led Talks

Several Arab and Islamic countries have decided to sit out U.N.-sponsored talks on disarmament because Israel has assumed the conference’s presidency, according to a report in today’s Washington Times (see GSN, May 21).

Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Alborzi, who serves as coordinator of delegates to the talks from member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, sent a letter to conference participants Friday noting that OIC nations would not participate as long as Israel chairs the meeting, the Times reported.  Israel, which is not a part of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, will hold the post for one month.

“It was a fairly low-key protest.  They could have made more noise,” said a Western ambassador who claimed the OIC’s action was merely symbolic (John Zarocostas, Washington Times, May 29).

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