CWC: OPCW Lacks Funds for Inspections

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the lead international agency responsible for monitoring chemical weapons destruction, is unable to conduct even half its scheduled inspections this year because of lack of funds (see GSN, Oct. 2).  Jose Bustani, director general of the organization, said only 42 of the 98 planned inspections of military chemical weapons facilities have been carried out this year. 

The organization also planned 132 inspections of commercial chemical plants but has only inspected 61 facilities and has no money to continue. 

Bustani said the 143 states party to the Chemical Weapons Convention have failed to provide sufficient funding.  “We requested $70 million for this year, and $60 million was approved, but we received so far only $54 million,” he said. 

The organization also lacks funding to provide meaningful response to a chemical weapons attack.  A response team would need portable hospitals or buses, specialized medical staff and equipment, decontamination equipment, and access to cargo planes or other modes of transportation.  “At the moment, all this is still theoretical, all we have is a list of phone numbers and money that would last less than 48 hours,” Bustani said (Marlise Simons, New York Times, Oct. 5).

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United States: Stockpile Destruction Slowed by Increased

Efforts to destroy the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile will cost billions of dollars more and take years longer than previous estimates, according to government records and Defense Department officials, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday.

The cost of destroying the U.S. supply of chemical weapons has risen by $9 billion to an estimated $24 billion.  The revised schedule estimates the destruction of the weapons to be completed, at only some sites, between 2008 and 2012.  Earlier timetables had set the completion date at 2007, as mandated by the Chemical Weapons Convention ratified by the United States in 1997 (see GSN, Oct. 2). 

The new estimates are part of a Pentagon review of the weapons disposal program.  The review had confirmed that U.S. Army officials have known that the original time and cost estimates were too optimistic, according to defense officials.  “People have known for a long time this wasn’t going to happen,” said one Pentagon official (Miller/Levin, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 1).

Army officials did not mislead Congress or the public but had only provided official estimates as they became available, according to Marilyn Daughdrill, a spokeswoman for the program manager for chemical demolition.  “They’ve made every mistake in the book; poorly run, behind schedule and deceptive of it,” said U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).  The Pentagon “may need to clean that office out and start over again,” McConnell said.

A memo from Edward Aldrich, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, stated several reasons why the destruction will take longer and cost more than planned.  In particular, the rate chemical weapons can be burned at existing incinerators has been lower than was expected.  Other factors listed were delays in obtaining environmental permits and high costs of labor and equipment.  The $24 billion estimate does not include the additional costs in cleaning up more than 200 chemical weapons disposal sites, which are not covered under the treaty, but Army officials say they must be dealt with as well.

Incentives May Be Offered

The Defense Department is looking at a plan to offer incentives for contractors and Army officials to speed up the destruction of U.S. chemical weapons.  The plan is likely to come under intense scrutiny, however, by both the U.S. Congress and watchdog groups to make sure safety and environmental goals are protected, according to the Los Angeles Times.  Such an incentive program could lower the time and costs “while maintaining the paramount importance of the safety of the workforce, the surrounding citizens and the environment,” said the Aldrich memo, which outlined his support for the plan.  Details of the plan have yet to be worked out, according to officials, but the Army will submit a plan to Aldrich for his review that could be implemented by next fiscal year (Miller/Levin, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 3).

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CWC: OPCW Calls For Universal Application Of Treaty

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has called for all nations to join and comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention as a step toward reducing the risk of a terrorist chemical weapon attack. A universal treaty would mean that terrorists could find “no safe haven” to plan the use of chemical weapons, OPCW Director General Jose Bustani told the OPCW Executive Council meeting in the Hague, which ended Friday.

In a statement, the Executive Council said it was “convinced that the effective and comprehensive implementation of the CWC would contribute to the reduction of the threat of chemical terrorism, thus assisting global efforts to combat all forms of terrorism" (OPCW release, Sept. 28).

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United States:  Export Controls Adapted

The Bush administration released revisions to its export control policy on Friday that bring the United States into compliance with rules developed by the Australia Group and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).  The revisions apply to the Export Administrations Regulations.

The main Australia Group revisions include amending the regulations to allow exporting small quantities of certain Group-controlled chemicals to CWC parties without a license and adding Cyprus and Turkey to the list of Group members.

The CWC revisions updated export license requirements to reflect measures that took effect last year (U.S. Department of Commerce release, Sept. 28).

The Australia group was scheduled to hold its annual meeting in Paris on Oct.1-4 (BTA, Sept. 28 in FBIS-EEU, Sept. 28).

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U.S.: Army Secures Chemical Weapons Depots

The U.S. Army has tightened security around its eight chemical weapons in an effort to calm the fears of nearby residents worried over possible terrorist attacks.  “What’s important is that the stockpile is safe and secure,” said Miguel Morales, a spokesman for the Soldier and Biological Chemical Command at the Aberdeen Proving Ground.  “We have added troops to enhance our force protection, but it’s not because of an imminent terrorist attack or anything like that.  It’s just a general precaution in light of what’s happened, and it makes everyone on or near the post feel safer,” Morales said.

The Army has sent about 100 troops to guard the perimeters at each depot and placed no-fly zones over the facilities, which marks any plane as an intruder unless it has military clearance.  “There are some other measures being taken that I can’t discuss,” Morales said, refusing to comment on reports from residents around the depots of overhead military aircraft patrols. 

The results of a training scenario at the depot in Anniston, Alabama, showed that a falling airliner would hit only one storage container and release the chemical agents inside.  The depot has 1,300 containers, but only 155 contain any weapons, making it difficult for a terrorist to know where to strike, according to a depot spokesman.  The number of casualties would depend on what was released and the strength of the wind, the spokesperson said (David Firestone, New York Times, Oct. 2)

Lexington Is Ready

Lexington, Kentucky, has long been prepared for an accidental release of chemical weapons due to its close proximity to the Blue Grass Army Depot, only 30 miles away, according to Associated Press.  In the event of a chemical release, victims would be sent to the University of Kentucky’s hospital, which has a chemical decontamination chamber that could be set up in the emergency room, said Don Broughton, Madison County coordinator for the chemical response program.  Nearly all Lexington police and firefighters have protective equipment and the city can outfit 54 people with Hazmat suits and emergency personnel have been training to deal with biochemical weapons since the summer of 2000.

“We have a plan in place,” said Pat Dugger, director of Lexington’s Division of Environmental and Emergency Management.  “Can those plans be improved?  Definitely” (Associated Press, Oct. 1).  

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Afghanistan: Northern Alliance Says Taliban Has Chemical Weapons

Afghanistan’s Taliban may have stored chemical weapons in caves near Kandahar, said Sardar Ahmedia, a representative of the Northern Alliance, the primary opposition to the Taliban.  Ahmedia said the Taliban used “ordinary Afghans” to store the chemical weapons and gave them gas masks and protective suits.  “We don’t know their composition or the extent of the arsenal, but we know for sure they are stored there,” he said, adding that the weapons were stored in the caves about two years ago (Mohammed Ahmedullah, Defense Week, Oct. 1).

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Russia: Chemical Export Controls Strengthened

Russia imposed new limits on exports of dangerous chemicals yesterday in an attempt to keep them out of the hands of terrorists.  The new rules will cover substances, equipment and technology that could be used in manufacturing chemical weapons and will also block exports to some countries altogether. The decision was made after U.S. intelligence sources expressed fears of terrorists working with the Russian mafia to procure weapons of mass destruction (Express, Sept. 29).

Russia Unable To Destroy Chemical Weapons

Russia does not have the technology or adequate funding needed to destroy its chemical weapons, said Lev Fedorov, a former chemical weapons scientist, last week.  “Russia so far has no normal technologies for chemical weapons destruction,” Federov said (see GSN, Sept. 20).  The new chemical weapons program (see GSN, Sept. 26), adopted by Russia in July, includes plans to destroy chemical weapons and the plants that build them, according to Fedorov, but “no solution is offered to the third problem addressed by the [Chemical Weapons Convention], the problems of old weapons buried in Russia.” Over 200,000 tons of World War II-era chemical weapons are buried in unknown locations throughout Russia, said Fedorov (Interfax, Sept. 27, in FBIS-SOV, Sept. 27).

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