Iraq:  IAEA Begins Survey of Tuwaitha Nuclear Complex

An International Atomic Energy Agency team yesterday began inspecting parts of the Tuwaitha complex, the main site in Iraq’s former nuclear program, to determine the extent of looting of radioactive materials there (see GSN, June 6).

The seven-member team surveyed a three-building storage center at the complex known as Site C, according to Reuters.  The IAEA team was accompanied by U.S. troops (Reuters/Business Recorder, June 9).

Area residents said that looters emptied barrels taken from the complex and then sold them to people who knew nothing about Iraq’s former nuclear efforts.  The barrels were then used to store food and water, and were also washed in the nearby Tigris River, all of which has raised health concerns, according to Agence France-Presse.

A U.S. military spokesman said, however, that the Tuwaitha site posed minimal health risks.

“Our initial assessment is that the risk for health effects is not large,” the spokesman said.  “We have had folks there at the site, my deputy went there and his teeth are still there, and his hair is still in,” the spokesman added (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 7).

Weapons Programs

Meanwhile, a former senior Iraqi intelligence officer has said the Iraqi intelligence services established a network of small laboratories after 1996 with a goal of someday resuming full biological and chemical weapons production.

Each weapons team consisted of up to four scientists who were unknown to U.N. inspectors, the officer said.  The teams worked on computers and conducted experiments in bunkers and safe houses around Baghdad, the officer said.

The former intelligence officer said he worked mainly “on the money side” of the effort since the 1980s, which helped to fund a network of local trading companies that were covertly operated by Iraqi intelligence operatives to obtain materials for weapons programs.  The officer said he made several trips between the mid-1990s and 2001 to help oversee the clandestine acquisition network.  He also said he obtained money for the effort from secret bank accounts in Egypt, Jordan, Switzerland and other countries.

The small weapons laboratories did not produce any actual weapons, nor do any weapons now exist in Iraq, the officer said.  The teams did, however, create plans to quickly begin WMD production if U.N. sanctions were lifted, the officer said.

“We could start again anytime.  It’s very easy.  Especially biological,” the officer said.  “The point was, the Iraqis kept the knowledge,” he said.

U.S. troops, however, “will never find anything here.  Only oil,” the officer said (Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, June 8).

Mobile Laboratories Questioned

Some U.S. and British intelligence analysts are skeptical of the Bush administration’s claims that two trailers discovered in Iraq were mobile biological facilities, according to the New York Times.  Instead, they said the White House claims were marked by a rush to judgment (see GSN, May 29).

“Everyone has wanted to find the ‘smoking gun’ so much that they may have wanted to have reached this conclusion,” said one intelligence expert who has seen the trailers.  “I am very upset with the process,” the expert said.

The trailers lacked equipment for steam sterilization, normally required for any type of biological agent production, analysts said.  The lack of such a piece of equipment would increase the risk of contamination, thereby producing failed weapons agents, according to the Times.  The trailers also only had the ability to produce small amounts of biological agents in liquid form, which would then have to be furthered processed at another facility, according to analysts.  In addition, the trailers lacked equipment to easily remove germ fluids from the processing tanks onboard.

The CIA stands by its assessment, made in a white paper released last week, that the trailers were most likely for use to produce biological weapons agents, according to an agency spokesman.

Skeptics “are entitled to their opinion, of course, but we stand behind the assertions in the white paper,” CIA spokesman Bill Harlow said (Miller/Broad, New York Times, June 7).

U.S. Intelligence

A number of top Bush administration officials have recently defended the U.S. intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction prior to the war, according to reports.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice yesterday said the White House had made the best judgment on Iraq’s suspected WMD efforts as it could with the information it had, and that previous CIA directors had made the same assessments since 1996.

“Successive CIA directors, successive administrations, have known that we had every reason to judge that he had weapons of mass destruction,” Rice said on NBC’s Meet the Press, referring to ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Both Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday denied that the Bush administration had exaggerated Iraq-related intelligence in order to increase support for war.  They both said more time is needed to find evidence of Iraq’s WMD programs, according to the New York Times.

“The fact is this was a program that was built for concealment,” Rice said.  “We’ve always known that.  We have always known that it would take some time to put together a full picture of his weapons of mass destruction programs,” she said (David Sanger, New York Times, June 9).

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week also defended U.S. intelligence on Iraq, saying the current weapons search in Iraq will validate a presentation made by Powell in February to the U.N. Security Council.

“(The intelligence has) been enriched as they’ve gone through this past period of years, and that I believe that the presentation made by Secretary Powell was accurate and will be proved to be accurate,” Rumsfeld said, adding that the Pentagon would cooperate if the U.S. Congress began an inquiry into Iraq-related intelligence (U.S. Defense Department release, June 6).

Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) yesterday criticized the U.S. intelligence on Iraq’s WMD efforts, saying U.S. credibility was at stake if such weapons were not found.

The likely presence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction “was turned into a certainty over and over and over again by the administration,” Levin said.  If such weapons are not found, “the credibility and reliability of our intelligence is going to be challenged in the future, and it’s going to be much more difficult for us to lead the world,” he said (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, June 9).

British Intelligence

Meanwhile, British intelligence officers have said they have a “smoking gun” that proves that British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s staff pressured them on Iraqi WMD-related intelligence, according to the London Independent.

“A smoking gun may well exist over WMDs, but it may not be to the government’s liking,” a senior source said.  “Minuted details will show exactly what went on.  Because of the frequency and, at times, unusual nature of the demands from Downing Street, people have made sure records were kept.  There is a certain amount of self-preservation in this, of course,” the source added (Sengupta/McSmith, London Independent, June 8).

In addition, British Home Secretary David Blunkett said yesterday that a dossier on Iraq’s efforts to conceal WMD programs should not have been published (see GSN, Feb. 7).

The dossier, which included information taken from a graduate student’s thesis that had been published online, was prepared by Alastair Campbell, Blair’s communications director, Blunkett said.  Campbell had previously written the chief of the Secret Intelligence Service to apologize for discrediting the service by releasing the dossier, according to the London Telegraph.

Campbell promised the British intelligence services that the government would take “far greater care” in using material prepared by them in the future (George Jones, London Telegraph, June 9).

Al-Qaeda Operatives Deny Iraqi Connection

Two high-ranking al-Qaeda operatives in U.S. custody have separately denied that their organization worked with Hussein, according to several intelligence officials.

Abu Zubaydah, captured in March 2002, said during interrogations that the idea of working with Hussein had been discussed among al-Qaeda leaders, but terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden rejected the proposal because he did not want to be beholden to Hussein, according to an official who has read the CIA classified report on the interrogation (see GSN, Nov. 18, 2002).  Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in March of this year, also has said during interrogations that al-Qaeda had no desire to work with Iraq, according to the New York Times (see GSN, May 12).

The CIA has refused to comment on what the two men might have said during interrogations.  A senior intelligence official played down the reports, saying that statements made by captured al-Qaeda operatives must be taken with a high degree of skepticism (James Risen, New York Times, June 9).

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South Africa:  “Dr. Death” Seeks Reinstatement in Military

Wouter Basson, the former head of apartheid-era South Africa’s “Project Coast” biological and chemical weapons program, has begun seeking reinstatement in the South African military, the South African Press Association reported last week (see GSN, April 12, 2002).

Basson — dubbed “Dr. Death” by the media — said his reinstatement would make him the highest-ranking general in terms of experience and academic qualifications.  He is currently employed as a cardiologist at a private Cape Town hospital, according to the Press Association.

Basson was acquitted last year of 46 criminal charges, including murder and attempted murder, stemming from his involvement with Project Coast.  Last week, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal refused to grant the state an opportunity to retry Basson (South African Press Association, June 5 in FBIS-AFR, June 5).

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U.S. Response:  Russia Complains of Continuing Aid Restrictions

Russia’s Foreign Ministry expressed frustration Friday with restrictions placed on U.S. nonproliferation aid to Moscow (see GSN, Jan 14).

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko began by praising $450 million in U.S. aid recently approved by each house of Congress, in particular the congressional authorization to fund a chemical weapons destruction plant in Shchuchye.  Yakovenko disagreed with some regulations, however, including a U.S. requirement that $100 million in funds for Shchuchye be matched with a $50 million donation from Russia or a third party.

“We could not but take note of the fact that the American side continues the policy of setting forth additional unjustified conditions pertaining to the expansion of its assistance to the Russian projects.  Particularly disquieting is the fact that the list of these conditions is not decreasing, but on the contrary increasing,” he said.

Yakovenko said the restrictions were in place despite a “considerable buildup” in Russian funding.

“The American decisions are creating some additional difficulties for us,” he added (Russian Foreign Ministry release, June 6).

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Iran:  Tehran Admits Secret Uranium Imports

Iran has admitted that it secretly imported uranium from China more than a decade ago, an action that failed to comply with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, according to a recently released document from the International Atomic Energy Agency (see GSN, June 6).  The report was distributed to diplomats prior to a June 16 IAEA meeting (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, June 6).

“Iran has failed to meet its obligations under its safeguards agreement with respect to the reporting of nuclear material, the subsequent processing and use of that material and the declaration of facilities where the material was stored and processed,” the document says.

Specifically, the report says Iran imported 1.8 metric tons of natural uranium, an amount that is “not insignificant in terms of a state’s ability to conduct nuclear research and development activities,” according to the report.

The report says, “Iran has acknowledged the production of uranium metal, uranyl nitrate, ammonium uranyl carbonates, UO2 [uranium dioxide] pellets and uranium wastes”

Summarizing, the report says, “the number of failures by Iran to report the material, facilities and activities in question in a timely manner as it is obliged to do pursuant to its safeguards agreement is a matter of concern” (Reuters/Planet Ark, June 9). 

On Friday, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, “the report and Iran’s programs themselves are deeply troubling” (State Department transcript, June 6).

Iranian officials admitted that they did not report the uranium imports but they said Iran did not violate any international nuclear agreements.

“There is no mention of the word ‘violation,’” said Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.  “The report only mentions ‘failure,’ which is still a legal debate between us.  And these are normal differences,” he added (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Raleigh News and Observer, June 8).

Aghazadeh maintained that the 1991 incident does not reflect on Iran’s current compliance.

“The report goes back to 12 years ago and has nothing to do with the organization’s current activities in the nuclear sector,” he added (Reuters/Moscow Times, June 9).

Iranian officials said that the report actually shows Tehran is cooperating with the international atomic agency.

“This report, like other reports by the agency’s chief, bears legal points and indicates Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization’s transparent interaction with the IAEA,” said organization spokesman Khalil Moosavi.  “America is repeating its claims against Iran … repeating such claims does not mean being able to prove them,” he added (Parinoosh Arami, Reuters, June 7).

Nuclear experts said the report might force Iran to act.

“It puts Iran on notice,” said David Albright, a former IAEA inspector and president of the Institute for Science and International Security.  “There’s a clock ticking, and Iran cannot delay answering to the IAEA much longer,” he added (Warrick, Washington Post).

Spent Fuel Agreement Close

Iran is prepared to sign an agreement to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia, according to the Iranian ambassador to Moscow.  Russia has said it will not supply nuclear fuel to Iran until Tehran formally agrees to return it after it is exhausted.

“Iran is willing, even now, to sign this protocol, and all we are waiting for in this respect is the elimination of the problems of an environmental nature connected with this implementation of this document on the Russian side,” said Gholamreza Shafe’i.  The agreement “has already been agreed by the two sides and the relevant ministers are to sign it,” he added (Interfax, June 6 in FBIS-SOV, June 5).

The ambassador was less decisive about Iran’s accession to the Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement, designed to give U.N. nuclear inspectors the right to conduct more stringent inspections.

“The protocol stipulates certain commitments on our part, but we must have some rights as well,” he said (Interfax II, June 6 in FBIS-SOV, June 5).

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North Korea:  Pyongyang Publicly Admits Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons

In a state-run news agency commentary, North Korea has for the first time publicly admitted that it is seeking nuclear weapons, Reuters reported today (see GSN, June 6).

“We are not trying to possess a nuclear deterrent in order to blackmail others, but we are trying to reduce conventional weapons and divert our human and monetary resources to economic development and improve the living standards of the people,” said a statement from the state-run Korean Central News Agency (Martin Nesirky, Reuters, June 9).

The statement is the first public acknowledgment of what is commonly accepted by many, said Yu Suk-ryul of the South Korean Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, which is connected to the Foreign Ministry.

“Reading between the lines, it looks as though they see that Washington has not been as scared as they had hoped by their threats of the past eight months,” Yu said.

Former South Korean Ambassador Park Soo-gil said the announcement is a “joke.”  He doubted that North Korea sought nuclear weapons to lower conventional forces, instead calling the move an attention-grabbing stunt.

“North Korea began to strip its clothes off a while ago and nobody is paying as much attention to the strip show anymore,” Park said (Charles Whelan, Agence France-Presse, June 9).

Security Causes North Korea to Suspend Ferry

Pyongyang today cut off ferry service to Japan after Tokyo began increasing inspections of North Korean boats and freighters, the New York Times reported.

The ferry arrived in the Japanese port of Niigata Monday and was met by 1,900 Japanese law enforcement officials.  The Japanese group included police officers and officials from the Transport, Health, Justice and Finance ministries.

This summer, the extensive inspections will be applied to North Korean cargo ships, according to the New York Times.

“We are going to keep a really severe eye on the North Korean ships,” said Taro Kono, a governing party member of Japan’s Parliament.  “We are not going to allow narcotics to come into Japan.  We are not going to allow missile parts to go back to North Korea,” he added (James Brooke, New York Times, June 9).

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Georgia:  Country Ratifies IAEA Safeguards Agreement, Additional Protocol

Georgia has ratified a safeguards agreement reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations announced last week (see GSN, Oct. 28, 2002).  In addition, Georgia has also ratified an Additional Protocol to its safeguards agreement, giving the agency even greater authority to monitor nuclear activity.

So far, 46 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty members have failed to complete safeguards agreements with the IAEA, the United Nations said in a press release.  In addition, 77 countries that have such agreements have not yet ratified Additional Protocols, including 21 countries known to have significant nuclear programs.

“There has been incremental progress, but the number of safeguards agreements and Additional Protocols actually in force continues to be well below expectations,” IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in a statement.  “I reiterate my call on all states that have not done so to conclude these instruments and bring them into force,” he said (U.N. release, June 6).

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Anthrax:  FBI Begins Draining Maryland Pond in Anthrax Attack Investigation

The FBI announced today that it has begun to drain a pond near Frederick, Md., as part of the bureau’s investigation into the 2001 anthrax mail attacks (see GSN, May 30).

“The FBI and the U.S. Postal Service are conducting forensic searches on public land located near the city of Frederick, Maryland,” the FBI said in a press release.  “To facilitate the search activity, one pond will be drained,” it added (FBI release, June 9).

The area surrounding the 1-acre, 50,000-gallon pond will remain classified and restricted during the investigation, the city of Frederick said in a press statement today.  This stage of the bureau’s investigation is set to last up to four weeks, after which the FBI will fully restore the pond and surrounding area, according to the Frederick release.

The FBI is unsure as to how long it will take to drain the pond, bureau spokeswoman Debbie Weierman told Global Security Newswire today. 

A set of ponds located in the Maryland forest has been a focus of the FBI’s investigation into the attacks since late last year when the bureau first searched the ponds using divers.  The Washington Post reported last month that those pond searches uncovered several pieces of laboratory equipment, including what could be a box that would allow someone to manipulate material inside it while wearing gloves (Mike Nartker, GSN, June 9).

The searches also discovered a piece of rope, which investigators initially believed could have been used to anchor the box in the pond, USA Today reported last week.  Initial tests indictating traces of anthrax on the rope were later reversed, according to USA Today (Toni Locy, USA Today, May 28).

The stretch of forest where the pond being drained is located is near the former home of Steven Hatfill, a former U.S. Army biologist who has been the public focus of the FBI’s investigation into the anthrax attacks.  Hatfill has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attacks (Nartker, GSN).

Postal Service Delays Detection Equipment Tests

Meanwhile, the Postal Service has decided to delay tests in 14 cities of new anthrax-detection equipment, CNN.com reported May 30 (see GSN, May 27). 

The tests were originally scheduled to begin June 2.  More time is needed, however, to work with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local authorities in the test cities to develop guidelines for responding to test results, postal Vice President Azeezaly Jaffer said.  No new date for the tests has been announced (CNN.com, May 30).

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Belgium:  Authorities Describe Suspect Groups in Tainted Letter Investigation

Belgian authorities believe that a set of 10 tainted letters mailed last week to various targets were sent either by Muslim fundamentalists or opponents to the recent war in Iraq, De Standaard reported last week (see GSN, June 6).

“At first sight and following analysis of the letters’ addressees, we seem to have to seek the perpetrators in Muslim fundamentalist circles or those of people who were opposed to the U.S. arms transports from our country to Iraq,” said Lieve Pellens, spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office.

The 10 letters each contained a cardboard container that held a mixture of small amounts of phenarsazine and hydrazine, according to De Standaard.  Two of the containers were marked with the legend Islamic International Society, which is not known to be connected to terrorist activities.

Judicial sources said that at least one cardboard container included the message “Set our brothers free.  Bastards.”  This message could refer to a trial of 23 Islamic extremists currently being held in Brussels, De Standaard reported.  One of the defendants in that trial, Nizar Trabelsi, is believed to have sought hydrazine for use in producing a bomb (Mark Eeckhaut, De Standaard, June 5 in FBIS-WEU, June 5).

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U.S.-Russia:  Congress to Decide Implementation of Joint Program

The U.S. Congress is expected to hold a conference committee this summer to decide how to implement the Russian-American Observation Satellite (RAMOS) program, Defense Week reported today (see GSN, Nov. 6, 2002).

The joint RAMOS program is intended to design, build and launch two observation satellites for civilian and military use.  No formal U.S.-Russian agreement on the program exists, even though talks began in 1992, according to Defense Week.

The Senate version of the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill funds the $29.6 million request made by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency for the program, but it also delays $5 million of those funds until a formal government-to-government agreement is reached, Defense Week reported.

“The committee intends this restriction to provide an appropriate incentive to the Russian Federation to reach an agreement,” the Senate Armed Services Committee said in a report on the bill.

The House version of the defense authorization bill does not contain a similar restriction on funds for the RAMOS program (Ann Roosevelt, Defense Week, June 9).

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U.S. Plans:  Congress Might Combine Patriot, MEADS Programs

The U.S. Congress might combine two prominent missile defense efforts and move a large chunk of Army funding to the Missile Defense Agency, Space & Missile reported today.

The House and Senate conference committee will decide this summer whether to merge the developing, multinational Medium Extended Air Defense program with the existing Patriot missile defense system.

Germany and Italy, which are developing the MEADS program with the United States, withheld reaction until a decision is made.

“It appears to us that the discussion in the U.S. has not really come to a close yet, so there is no official reaction as of now, but we do follow the debates very closely,” said Alexander Lambsdorff, a spokesman for the German embassy in Washington.

Under Pentagon plans, MEADS would begin replacing Patriot batteries in fiscal 2012.  The Senate Armed Services Committee, however, wants Patriot to continue service and the panel is pushing for technology developed under MEADS to be shifted into the Patriot program.  The committee also wants $276 million moved from MEADS to the Patriot effort.

“The committee is concerned that the parallel pursuit of PAC-3 spiral development and the MEADS development program does not represent a coherent approach to the further development of terminal phase ballistic missile defense,” the Senate panel said.

In its fiscal 2004 authorization, the committee cut $276 million from the Army’s MEADS development and $175 million from the Army’s Patriot development, and put $415 million into the MDA’s coffers for Patriot development.

The Bush administration opposed the move.

The transfer “would detract from MDA’s primary responsibility of ballistic missile defense and would impede progress in PAC-3 and MEADS, particularly for their roles in air defense,” the White House’s Office of Management and Budget said in a statement (Ann Roosevelt, Space & Missile, June 9).

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