Bush Calls for U.N. Resolution Against WMD Proliferation

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

U.S. President George W. Bush today called on the United Nations to pass an “anti-proliferation resolution” urging nations to adopt more stringent measures to curb the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

“The resolution should call on all members of the U.N. to criminalize the proliferation of weapons, weapons of mass destruction; to enact strict export controls consistent with international standards; and to secure any and all sensitive materials within their own borders,” Bush told the U.N. General Assembly in New York.  The United States is prepared to help countries draft such new laws and to aid in their enforcement, Bush said.

Bush also highlighted several international efforts already underway to reduce WMD proliferation, including the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, an 11-nation effort to interdict shipments of WMD-related cargo (see GSN, Sept. 17).  Bush also called on countries to join a nonproliferation partnership created last year by the Group of Eight — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.  Under the partnership, G-8 members agreed to provide $20 billion over 10 years to combat WMD proliferation (see GSN, June 5).  Since the partnership began, several additional countries outside the G-8 have joined. 

“The deadly combination of outlaw regimes, and terror networks and weapons of mass murder is a peril that cannot be ignored or wished away,” Bush told the assembly.

“If such a danger is allowed to fully materialize, all words, all protests, will come too late.  Nations of the world must have the wisdom and the will to stop grave threats before they arrive,” Bush said.

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Iraq Strategies Debated by Bush, Chirac

By Jim Wurst
Global Security Newswire

UNITED NATIONS — In diplomatic but pointed language, U.S. President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac this morning laid out their competing visions of the role of the United Nations in rebuilding Iraq.  In addresses on the opening day of the General Assembly’s annual debate, both leaders said the United Nations should be more involved in Iraq, but Bush outlined a limited role while Chirac spoke of more comprehensive U.N. responsibilities.

Bush said the United States is working with other members of the Security Council on a new resolution “which will expand the U.N.’s role in Iraq.  As in the aftermath of other conflicts, the United Nations should assist in developing a constitution, in training civil servants and in conducting free and fair elections.”  He made no mention of an administrative role for the United Nations, something many members of the council say they want to see.

In an obvious reference to Chirac’s proposal for a rapid turnover of responsibility to Iraqis, Bush said, “The primary goal of our coalition in Iraq is self-government for the people of Iraq. … This process must unfold according to the needs of Iraqis, neither hurried nor delayed by the wishes of other parties.”

Speaking less than 30 minutes after Bush, Chirac said, “In Iraq, the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis, who must have sole responsibility for their future, is essential for stability and reconstruction.  It is up to the United Nations to give legitimacy to this process.   It is also up to the United Nations to assist with the gradual transfer of administrative and economic responsibilities to the present Iraqi institutions according to a realistic timetable and to help the Iraqis draft a constitution and hold elections.”

Iraq’s seat in the General Assembly Hall is being held by members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, including Ahmad Chalabi, who hold the rotating presidency of the council, and Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister.

Iraq “needs and deserves our aid and all nations of good will should step forward and provide that support,” Bush said.  The United Nations in Iraq is “carrying out vital and effective work everyday,” in health care and medical aid, he said, while the “coalition is meeting its responsibilities.  We are conducting precision raids against terrorists and holdouts of the former regime. … They have made Iraq the central front in the war on terror and they will be defeated.”

Success, Bush added, “will be watched and noted throughout the region.”

In the debate leading up to the war, the United States made much of its case for preventive action on Saddam Hussein’s links to the al-Qaeda terror network and his possession of weapons of mass destruction.  Bush’s references to those issues today were less emphatic than earlier this year.  He said the Hussein government “cultivated ties to terror,” without specifying al-Qaeda and said the United States was conducting investigations “to reveal the full extent of its weapons programs and its long campaign of deception.” Chirac did not address these issues.

This difference of interpretation extended into how Bush and Chirac framed the divisive Security Council debate leading up to the war.  Bush said the council “was right to be alarmed” about Hussein’s behavior and “right to demand that Iraq destroy its illegal weapons.”  He added, “Because a coalition of nations acted to defend the peace and the credibility of the United Nations, Iraq is free.”

On the other hand, Chirac said, “The United Nations has just weathered one of the gravest trials in its history.  The debate turned on respect for the Charter and the use of force.  The war, embarked on without Security Council approval, has undermined the multilateral system.  Having taken stock of this crisis, our organization can now resume its onward march.”

Secretary General Kofi Annan said the United Nations “is prepared to play its full part in working for a satisfactory outcome in Iraq … pulling together on the basis of a sound and viable policy,” but did not say what he thought the U.N. role should be.  “If it takes extra time and patience to forge a policy that is collective, coherent and workable, then I for one would regard that time as well spent.”

In a solemn address opening the debate, Annan said, “The last 12 months have been painful for those of us who believe in collective answers to our common problems and challenges.”  Without specifying the United States, he said some believe they may act unilaterally in self-defense even if they are not attacked.

“Rather than wait for that to happen, they argue, states have the right and obligation to use force pre-emptively, even on the territory of other states, and even while weapons systems that might be used to attack them are still being developed.”

“This logic represents a fundamental challenge to the principles on which, however imperfectly, world peace and stability have rested for the last 58 years,” Annan added.  “My concern is that, if it were to be adopted, it could set precedents that resulted in a proliferation of the unilateral and lawless use of force, with or without credible justification.”

Annan also said he will appoint a new high-level panel which will report back to him before the 2004 General Assembly on four issues: challenges to peace and security; the contribution of collective action in addressing those challenges; the functioning of the major U.N. organs and the relationship between them; and ways to strengthen the United Nations through reform of its institutions and processes.

Other heads of state speaking on this opening day include President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva of Brazil, President Alejandro Toledo of Peru, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada.

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U.S. Senator Calls for Worldwide WMD Accountability System

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) yesterday called for an international accountability system for weapons of mass destruction (see GSN, Aug. 5).

Lugar represented the United States yesterday at a conference on terrorism in New York hosted by Norway, Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel and the International Peace Academy.  U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan also addressed the meeting.

In his remarks, Lugar called for a system that would require every country to account for and safely secure its WMD stockpiles and related materials.  The international community should provide financial assistance to those countries lacking the resources to join such a system, Lugar said.

“This process will be expensive and painstaking, but international security and prosperity hang in the balance.  We must commit the resources and political will required to preserve modern society and the futures of our children and grandchildren,” Lugar said.

Lugar said all peaceful means available should be used to persuade countries to account for WMD stockpiles.  The U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which seeks to secure and dispose of Soviet-era WMD stockpiles in Russia, could be used a model for similar relationships with other countries, he said (see GSN, Aug. 18).  Lugar’s statement also warned, however, that the United States and other countries “must not rule out the use of military force” if countries refuse to account for weapons of mass destruction.

Lugar also warned of the consequences of terrorists obtaining weapons of mass destruction — both in terms of lives lost and economic damages.

“Weapons of mass destruction have made it possible for a small nation, or even a subnational group, to kill as many people in a day as national armies killed in months of fighting during World War II,” Lugar said.

Yesterday’s conference was attended by leaders and senior officials from more than 20 countries, according to reports.  In opening remarks before the conference, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan told the conference that the international war on terrorism must not infringe on human rights.

“I believe that there is no trade-off to be made between human rights and terrorism,” Annan said.  “Upholding human rights is not at odds with battling terrorism:  On the contrary, the moral vision of human rights — the deep respect for the dignity of each person — is among our most powerful weapons against it,” he said.

Annan also said that military force alone would not defeat terrorism.

“We must articulate a powerful and compelling global vision that can defeat the vivid, if extreme, visions of some terrorist groups.  We must make clear, by word and deed, not only that we are fighting terrorists, but also that we are standing, indeed fighting, for something – for peace, for resolution of conflict, for human rights and development,” Annan said.

The Washington Post reported today that Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told the conference yesterday that the U.S. war on terrorism has led to a perception among Muslims worldwide that “Islam, as a religion, is being targeted and pilloried.”

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

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Former U.N. Inspector Says Iraq Did Not Store Banned Weapons

Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus has said that prewar Iraq had wanted the ability to produce weapons of mass destruction, but did not develop stockpiles of such weapons, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Sept. 19).

Coalition forces operating in Iraq have been unable so far to find evidence of alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction because there is no evidence, Ekeus said during an interview with PBS’s Newshour With Jim Lehrer.  Ekeus said he based his assessment on several factors, such as the presence of U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War and the rate at which biological and chemical weapons break down, which Iraq learned of during its war with Iran from 1980-1988.

“My feeling is very clearly that the Iraqi policy long before the war was to build capabilities to produce weapons ... for the conflict situation, not to produce for storage and create a problem or storage management,” Ekeus said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 23).

Hoon Allowed WMD Misimpression

Meanwhile, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said yesterday that he made no attempt to correct the false impression created by a claim included in a British September 2002 dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that Iraq could launch a biological or chemical weapons attack within 45 minutes, according to the Financial Times (see GSN, Sept. 16).

Hoon told a parliamentary inquiry that the media had “exaggerated” the 45-minute claim, which had only referred to tactical weapons and not long-range weapons.  Hoon also said that the government had not been obligated to correct media reports that suggested that the 45-minute claim referred to long-range weapons.

“I’m certainly suggesting that it was an exaggeration but it’s not unusual for newspapers to exaggerate,” Hoon said (Jean Eaglesham, Financial Times, Sept. 22).

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Iran Set to Receive IAEA Friday, Will Offer Required Cooperation Only

The International Atomic Energy Agency announced today that it would send a team of nuclear experts to Iran Friday to discuss the current standoff over Tehran’s nuclear activities (see GSN, Sept. 22).

“We have a detailed list of requirements covering all of the areas outlined in our reports (on Iran) — including uranium conversion and uranium enrichment,” said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.  “October will be a period of very intensive inspections and talks in Iran,” she added (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Sept. 23).

The agency set an Oct. 31 deadline for Tehran to prove it has only civilian nuclear intentions.  In response to that ultimatum, however, Iran’s IAEA representative said yesterday that Tehran would scale back its cooperation with the agency.

Ali Akbar Salehi said U.N. inspectors have been taken to visit non-nuclear sites and allowed to collect environmental samples.

“This has been beyond our obligations, but from now on we will act according to the current regulations,” he added (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 22).

Iranian leaders are still debating, however, on how to ultimately respond to the IAEA deadline, according to the BBC (BBC News, Sept. 23).

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U.S., Russia Advance Joint Nonproliferation Efforts

The United States and Russia are “on the brink” of a new agreement to provide U.S. funding to transfer Russian-origin, highly enriched uranium fuel from research reactors worldwide back to Russia, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Friday (see GSN, Sept. 22).

The first operation under the new program, the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return Initiative, occurred Sunday when a joint U.S.-Russian operation recovered stockpiles of highly enriched uranium from a Romanian research reactor facility.  The new program is intended to complement a U.S.-effort to recover highly enriched uranium provided by the United States to foreign research reactors, Energy Daily reported (George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, Sept. 23).

Abraham also announced U.S. funding for a new project to construct a $9 million nuclear imaging center in the closed Russian city of Snezhinsk as part of the Nuclear Cities Initiative (see GSN, Sept. 22).

“I am proud of NCI’s accomplishments and recognize that it serves a vital nonproliferation goal by assisting in the transition of Russian nuclear scientists and engineers to nondefense, commercial efforts,” Abraham said.

The NCI program has expired because of U.S. concerns over a lack of liability protections for U.S. officials and workers involved in activities conducted through the initiative.  U.S. and Russian energy officials last week, however, signed an agreement to continue 69 NCI projects until completion (U.S. Energy Department release, Sept. 19).

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Bush, Putin to Discuss Nonproliferation During Camp David Summit

U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to discuss nuclear nonproliferation and the threat of terrorists obtaining weapons of mass destruction during a two-day summit scheduled to begin Friday at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, according to ITAR-Tass (see GSN, Sept. 19).

“The mounting threat that WMD may get into the hands of terrorists and the growing number of countries that seek to possess them require further joint moves by Russia and the U.S. to increase interaction in efforts to combat proliferation of the WMD,” said Putin deputy Sergei Prikhodko.  He added that such nonproliferation efforts include the need “to raise the effectiveness of the existing multilateral mechanisms.”

During their meeting, Bush and Putin are also expected to discuss Russian nuclear assistance to Iran, which centers on the Bushehr nuclear reactor that Moscow is constructing for Tehran, ITAR-Tass reported.  Putin said Russian intelligence has information that “very many West European and American companies maintain cooperation with Iran, including that on dual-purpose technologies.”  Putin also said he did not want suspicions that Russian may be aiding Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program to be used as a pretext for unfair competition in international markets (ITAR-Tass, Sept. 23).

Putin said Sunday that he believes the United States and Russia “are becoming strategic partners and allies” on some issues, including nuclear nonproliferation (Dina Pyanykh, ITAR-Tass, Sept. 22).

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow said last week that he has seen “considerable convergence” between the United States and Russia on a number of issues.

“I think we have very few conflicts of interest today,” Vershbow said.  “We both have an interest in strengthening democracy, in combating global threats such as (weapons) proliferation and the spread of narcotics. … When we have differences, it’s more over tactics than over strategic interests,” he said.

U.S. officials have said that Russia has begun to agree more with the U.S. position on Iran’s nuclear program and has joined the United States in pressuring Tehran to meet an Oct. 31 deadline set by the International Atomic Energy Agency to explain its nuclear program (David Sands, Washington Times, Sept. 23).

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North Korean Rejects IAEA Resolution

North Korea today dismissed an International Atomic Energy Agency appeal to halt its nuclear development, accusing the U.N. nuclear watchdog of acting on behalf of the United States (see GSN, Sept. 19).

The IAEA passed a resolution Friday calling on North Korea “to promptly accept comprehensive IAEA safeguards and cooperate with the agency in their full and effective implementation.”

The state-run Korean Central News Agency released a statement today, however, saying that “we don’t accept such an unjust resolution and declare it null and void.”

The “IAEA has manifested itself as the stooge of the United States,” KCNA added (Agence France-Presse, Sept. 23).

Pyongyang also referred to the IAEA as a “political maid for the United States” (CNN.com, Sept. 23).

The United States, meanwhile, will begin flying unmanned aerial vehicles near the border of North and South Korea this week, the Associated Press reported.

Military officials plan to put the Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in service to monitor North Korean military activity (Associated Press, Sept. 23).

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Pentagon Needs More Chemical Protection Suits, GAO Says

By David McGlinchey
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department has too few chemical protection suits to equip its personnel and the deficiency is growing larger, according to a classified report by General Accounting Office, which released a public summary yesterday (see GSN, April 29).

Although the rate of suit production has increased recently, the demand for suits is outpacing the supply, the report concluded.  Current production must replace suits used in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and older suits as they expire, the report says, all while overall demand is increasing simultaneously.  Currently, defense officials have about five million suits but the Pentagon estimates that it would need about seven million suits on hand to conduct two major wars at the same time — a standard measure of readiness.

“This requirement will likely increase to include counterterrorism, force protection and homeland defense contingencies,” the report says.

Last year, the GAO said that U.S. officials must focus more attention to chemical and biological defenses.

There is a “serious gap between the priority given to chemical and biological defense and the actual implementation of the program,” according to the 2002 report.

Today’s report encouraged the Pentagon to maintain a stockpile of essential suit components in case of conflict.  The GAO has also criticized inconsistent funding for chemical protection suits, which has led to an irregular and unreliable production pattern.

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United States Amends Export Controls Based on MTCR Changes

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security has amended U.S. export control regulations to take into account changes made last year to the Missile Technology Control Regime annex, according to a notice published last week in the Federal Register (see GSN, Oct. 28, 2002).

The MTCR seeks to restrict the export of critical missile technologies by establishing common export controls among the regime’s 33 members.  Under the MTCR, the export of missile systems with a range of more than 300 kilometers and capable of carrying a payload of more than 500 kilograms are subject to a strong presumption of denial. 

At last year’s plenary meeting in Warsaw, MTCR members agreed to revise definitions of the terms “range” and “payload.”  Regime members agreed that range would be the distance a missile is capable of traveling when flying at “range-maximizing” capability.  Experts have said that the revised definition would help prevent cruise missile exporters from circumventing the MTCR by expressing a missile’s range as the distance capable when flying at sea level for stealth purposes.  Regime members also agreed to a more explicit definition of payload, expanding the term to cover support structures and countermeasures as well as the actual warhead.

According to last week’s notice, the BIS has amended the U.S. Export Administration Regulations to reflect the new definitions of range and payload.  In addition, the bureau has also amended the Commerce Control List to reflect changes made last to the MTCR annex, the notice says.  The new CCL entries include mixed oxides of nitrogen, integrated navigation systems and flight control servo valves. 

MTCR members are scheduled to meet this week in Buenos Aires for the regime’s 2004 plenary meeting.

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India Introduces Agni Missiles Into Service

India has decided to introduce two variants of its Agni ballistic missile into service, the Economic Times reported today (see GSN, Jan. 2).

The Indian Army has created two new missile units  — the 334 Missile Group, which will be armed with the short-range Agni 1 missile and the 335 Missile Group, which will be armed with the medium-range Agni 2, according to the Times. 

India has also decided to create two new missile units — the 444 and 555 Missile Groups — that will be armed with the Prithvi missile, according to the Times (see GSN, March 26).  The Indian military currently deploys two Prithvi-armed units (Press Trust of India/Economic Times, Sept. 23).

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MDA Does Not Plan to Test Missile Defense Radar Before Deployment

The U.S. Defense Department is on track to field its national missile defense system next year with an untested radar, according to an unreleased General Accounting Office report (see GSN, Aug. 21).

Defense officials have said they do not have enough money to integrate the radar into two missile intercept tests set to take place before the overall system is fielded (see GSN, April 18).  Some lawmakers are concerned, however, that an untested radar could render the system useless.

“If the radar does not work, the system will not be able to intercept incoming missiles,” said Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), who requested the report.

Raytheon produced the Cobra Dane radar, which is currently based in Alaska to gather data on Russian missiles.  The Pentagon is adding software to enhance the radar’s ability to track missiles for the new defense system, but the GAO said that capability should first be tested (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2002).

The Missile Defense Agency “does not plan to demonstrate through integrated flight tests whether the radar’s software can process and communicate data on the location of enemy missiles in ‘real time,’” the report says.

The Cobra Dane radar is set to be assisted by a less advanced early warning radar in California, sea-based radar on Navy vessels, ground-based Army missile radars and the current fleet of U.S. early warning satellites, according to MDA spokesman Rick Lehner (Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg.com, Sept. 22).

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