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Jan 3 2007 [T] The
Department of Homeland Security announces that in March it will
begin a new program to screen 750,000 U.S. port and maritime workers
for possible activities related to terrorism and crime. The program
will require worker to undergo extensive background checks to obtain
an identification card that will give them access to U.S. ports and
vessels.
Jan 3 2007 [M] The U.S. government
imposes economic sanctions on Chinese, Russian, and North Korean
companies for selling missiles to
Syria and other weapons systems to
Iran and Syria. The sanctions ban U.S. government support of the
listed companies for two years and blocks U.S. businesses from
selling them goods that require an export license. Later, Russia and
China denounce the sanctions as unreasonable and not supported by
evidence.
Jan 4 2007 [N]
The U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman dismisses the head of the
National Nuclear Security Agency, Linton Brooks, because of
continuing security lapses at U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories. For
example, during a drug raid, police in New Mexico found thousands of
classified documents related to nuclear weapons on a computer disk
at the home of a former worker.
Jan 4 2007 [B, W, M] The U.S.
government freezes the assets of three Syrian government entities
that is believes have helped to proliferate weapons of mass
destruction. The U.S. Treasury Department designates the Syrian
Higher Institute of Applied Science and Technology, the Electronics
Institute, and the National Standards and Calibration Laboratory as
proliferators under an executive order aimed at stopping WMD
proliferation. The three state-sponsored entities are subsidiaries
of Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center; in June 2005,
President Bush designated this Center as a weapons proliferator for
its activities focusing on the development of biological and
chemical weapons and missiles.
Jan 5 2007 [C] Responding to
citizen’s complaints, the DuPont Company decides not to participate
in the U.S. Army’s plan to dispose of up to four million gallons of
treated wastewater from the destruction of VX nerve agent in the
Delaware River in New Jersey. Plans had called for the treated,
watered-down VX to be shipped by truck or train through four states
from a chemical weapons stockpile in Indiana to DuPont's Chambers
Works in Deepwater, Salem County.
Jan 8 2007 [C] During a trial of
former Baath party officials for their roles in the 1988 Anfal,
campaign in northern
Iraq, tapes are played of Saddam Hussein and his cousin Ali
Hassan al-Majeed (known as “Chemical Ali”) discussing killing
thousands with chemical weapons. The Iraqi government used chemical
weapons against the Kurds in 1988 killing thousands.
Jan 8 2007 [N, T] The London
Telegraph reports that Scotland Yard detectives now suspect that
Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy, was poisoned twice
with radioactive polonium-210: once during lunch at a central London
hotel on November 1 and probably several days prior to that at the
Pine Bar in the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair. Detectives are looking
into two former Russian KGB officers, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri
Kovtun, who met with Litvinenko on the day he became sick.
Litvinenko died in December, and police in England and Russia are
hunting the rare and valuable isotope polonium-210 used to kill
him.
Jan 9 2007 [T] By a vote of
299-128, Democratic members of Congress pass a bill that strengthens
homeland security reforms as recommended by the September 11
commission. The bill opposed by the most Republicans would ask the
United Nations to strengthen the
Proliferation Security Initiative by forcing countries to agree
to searches and seizures of ships and aircraft suspected of
transporting WMD-related technology.
Jan 10 2007 [C] Undersecretary of
Defense Kenneth Krieg, who is responsible for the U.S. chemical
weapons disposal programs at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky
and at the storage facility in Pueblo, Colo., testifies to Congress
that the two programs are “essential to national security” and
should continue, particularly as the stored weapons have been
identified as a terrorist “threat target” as recently as June 2006.
The current estimated costs of weapons destruction is $7.9 billion.
Jan 11 2007 [N, T] The British
government is working with 48 countries to help them assess the risk
to some 450 people who may have been exposed to the polonium-210
that killed former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in
December. The British Health Protection Agency announces that tests
had identified 116 people in Britain who probably had contact with
the polonium-210 but only 13 of them required further monitoring.
Jan 11 2007 In a demonstration of
its growing military space capability, China successfully
tests an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon. China launches an ASAT
from or near the Xichang Space Center and destroys a Chinese Feng
Yun polar orbit satellite, flying at 530 miles altitude, launched in
1999.
Jan 13 2007
[T] The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries,
meeting at a Philippines summit, sign an anti-terrorism agreement.
The 10 ASEAN nations agree to track movements of suspicious money or
people throughout the region, to permit the extradition suspected
terrorists, and share intelligence and improve their responses to
WMD or other forms of terrorism.”
Jan 24 2007 [N, T] Authorities in
the former Soviet republic of Georgia reveal that in February of
2006, the Georgian secret service in a
sting operation arrested a Russian national Oleg Khinsagov and
three accomplices for trying to sell 100 grams of highly enriched
uranium.
Jan 25 2007
[B, T] To prevent BW terrorism, Britain mandates tighter controls on
an expanded list of deadly toxins and pathogens held in laboratories
and hospitals. The new regulations cover around 100 viruses and
bacteria — including diseases such as rabies, polio and influenza.
Commercial laboratories, universities, and hospitals must give the
police lists of their precise stocks of the agents and the names of
every person with access to them.
Jan 25 2007
[C] Chinese victims, who were injured in Qiqihar of northeastern
China's Heilongjiang Province in 2003 by leaking chemical weapons
abandoned by Japan in World War II, file a lawsuit in the Tokyo
District Court, seeking compensation from the Japanese government
totaling approximately $11.95 million. On August 4, 2003, one person
was killed and 43 were injured in Qiqihar when barrels of mustard
gas were unearthed at a construction site and began to leak. The
plaintiffs accuse the Japanese government of ignoring the
potentially dangerous chemical weapons and failing to prevent the
accident.
Jan 29 2007
[C, O] The
U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) announces that it has
destroyed 40 percent of the nation’s chemical blister and nerve
agents. The Chemical Weapons Convention requires the United States
to destroy 45 percent of its chemical weapons—measured by agent
weight—by December 2007. The CMA is currently destroying agent
stockpiles in Indiana, Oregon, Arkansas, Alabama and Utah. To date,
the CMA has destroyed chemical a range of CW munitions, including
bombs, projectiles, mortars, land mines, rockets, spray tanks and
bulk containers. The agents destroyed have included GB (Sarin) and
VX nerve agents and mustard blister agent.
Jan 31 2007 [N] The Department of
Energy's
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that
it will begin upgrading the ninth and final Russian nuclear warhead
site that it was assigned under the 2005 joint statement between
Presidents Bush and Putin in Bratislava. Under the 2005 statement,
the U.S. agreed to upgrade nine Russian nuclear warhead facilities
that needed improved security against the risk of theft or attack by
terrorists. At the nuclear warhead site, the NNSA will install
physical protection systems, such as intrusion detection sensors,
access controls and hardened defensive positions.
Feb 1 2007 [N, T] The UN
International Atomic Energy Agency reports that there were 149
confirmed incidents of illicit trafficking and other unauthorized
activities involving nuclear and radioactive materials in 2006. Of
these, 15 involved the seizure of nuclear and radioactive materials
from individuals who possessed them illegally.
Feb 1 2007 [N] The BBC News reports
that former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi, now in Russia, probably
poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in December
2006. Lugovoi met Litvinenko on the day he fell ill, and
radioactive Polonium-210 has been discovered in a string places he
had visited in London. However, Lugovoi claims he was only a witness
and victim, not a suspected murderer. If Lugovoi is the main
suspect, he is unlikely to be extradited to the United Kingdom, as
it violate Russia’s constitution.
Feb 2 2007 [N, T] In a key
cooperative effort to stop nuclear terrorism, Georgian Foreign
Minister Gela Bezhuashvili and U.S. Ambassador to Tbilisi John Tefft
sign an agreement to fight illicit trafficking in nuclear or
radioactive materials either through or within Georgia’s territory.
The agreement provides for several initiatives: strengthening
Georgia’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency; patrolling border areas between
established points of entry; reinforcing border police aviation and
maritime patrols; and increasing international cooperation on
nuclear forensics.
Feb 2 2007 [C,
O] The U.S. Army announces that
Organization for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inspectors just completed a week-long a
verification inspection of the chemical weapons stockpile maintained
by the Blue Grass Chemical Activity (BGCA) (located near Richmond,
KY) to ensure continuing compliance with the Chemical Weapons
Convention (CWC). The inspectors from six different countries
counted and verified every one of the chemical weapons stored at
Blue Grass Army Depot.
Feb 2 2007 [N,
T] The U.S. District Court in Tampa sentences Christopher Benbow to
life in federal prison for trying to set up the sale of radioactive,
bomb-making material to undercover agents. In 2003, Benbow met with
two men, who were government informants, in a Tampa hotel and
offered to set up a sale of three Strontium 90 canisters (which can
be used to make a “dirty bomb”) for $250 million each. Authorities
still don’t know if Benbow actually had Strontium-90, and if he did,
where it is now.
Feb 5 2007 [C]
William Matthews pleads guilty to federal charges of possessing the
deadly poison ricin along with firearms silencers and explosives
under a plea deal with prosecutors to spare the possibility of life
in prison. In May, police and federal agents searched Matthews’
property after a tip from his estranged wife, and found ricin in a
sealed baby food jar, two functional pipe bombs, five gun silencers,
three blasting caps, and bomb-making materials. Matthews never
explained what he planned to do with the ricin and weapons.
Feb 7 2007 [B, T] Homeland Security
Inspector General Richard Skinner releases a report citing a series
of problems in the BioWatch program, which costs $1 million a year
per each of the 30 cities participating in the program. Run by the
Homeland Security Department, BioWatch is an early-warning program
designed to detect biological weapons. Among the problems cited
were sloppy handling and storage of sensors designed to give early
warnings of a bioterrorism attack. The program has been revamped to
address problems.
Feb 9 2007 [N, T] The United States
and Panama sign a Declaration of Principles to help prevent
smuggling of nuclear and other radioactive material through the
Megaports Initiative of the Department of Energy’s
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). NNSA's
Megaports Initiative works with foreign governments to install
specialized radiation detection equipment and enhance capabilities
to deter, detect, and interdict illicit shipments of nuclear and
other radioactive materials at international ports.
Feb 8 2007 [N, T] The U.S.
Department of Defense Inspector General’s Office reports that a
special unit run by former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld’s
top policy aide, Douglas Feith, inappropriately produced
“alternative” intelligence studies that wrongly concluded that
Saddam Hussein's regime had cooperated with Al-Qaida. The Inspector
General found that found that former Undersecretary of Defense Feith
and his staff had done nothing illegal or unauthorized. However, the
Bush administration relied on Feith’s now discredited work to
justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Feith's department
inaccurately claimed that there were many areas of cooperation
between Iraq and Al-Qaida, and a shared interest in and pursuit of
WMD.
Feb 13 2007 [N, T] The second
international meeting on the
Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism concludes in
Ankara, Turkey. Thirteen countries, including the Group of Eight
industrialized nations, discussed how to keep terrorists from
acquiring nuclear weapons.
Feb 13 2007
[N] Four month after testing a nuclear device,
North Korea agrees to begin closing it nuclear facilities and to
allow international inspectors into the country in exchange for
approximately $400 million in fuel, food and other aid from the
United States, China, South Korea, and Russia. (Japan does not agree
to the aid package as it still has outstanding bilateral issues with
the DPRK.) In addition, the United States and Japan will discuss
normalizing relations with North Korea and lifting trade and
financial sanctions. The agreement gives North Korea 60 days to take
the first steps toward halting its nuclear program but it leaves to
a later negotiation the question of whether and how Pyongang will
dispose of its nuclear weapons and the fissile material used to
produce them.
Feb 14 2007
[C] Spain’s parliament rejects a proposal
to debate whether its army launched chemical weapon attacks in
Morocco in the 1920s. The Esquerra Republicana party proposed a
motion calling on Spain to admit the attacks and pay compensation to
victims. According to Spanish, Moroccan, and British historians,
Spanish planes dropped phosgene, chloropicrin, and mustard gas on
troops, towns and villages in the Rif region from 1923, often
choosing market days so that more people were killed. Morocco claims
that 80 percent of its larynx cancer cases are suffered by people in
the Rif area, and are thought to be linked to the Spanish chemical
attacks.
Feb 16 2007 [N, T] To help prevent
nuclear terrorism, China’s State Council enacts tighter controls on
export of nuclear technology that can be used for both military and
civil purposes (“dual use” technology).
The State Council Decree No. 484 forbids importers of dual-use
technology from reproducing Chinese nuclear goods or technology to
carry out nuclear explosions or for any other purpose not agreed
upon first. The recipient of the goods must also guarantee that it
will not reproduce the technology to use in a nuclear fuel cycle,
unless the nuclear facility is under the supervision of the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
Feb 19 2007
[N] Russia says that it will slow work on Iran s nearly completed
Bushehr nuclear power plant because Iran has failed to make all
payments under the contract for the plant.
Feb 19 2007
[B] Two members of a U.S. panel of scientists and experts announce
at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science preliminary criteria for identifying research that could
enable acts of biological terrorism, along with a code of conduct
for those performing such studies. The National Science Advisory
Board for Biosecurity was formed in 2004 to provide guidance to U.S.
agencies on reducing the opportunities for terrorists to benefit
from biological science while minimizing restrictions on beneficial
research.
Feb 22 2007 [N, O] The IAEA
Director General issues a report concluding that
Iran, instead of halting its uranium enrichment program as
required by UN Security Council Resolution 1737, has expanded its
enrichment program. According to the report, Iran has set up
hundreds of uranium-spinning centrifuges and gathered nearly 9 tons
of gaseous feedstock to use as fuel. In addition, Iran is building a
reactor that will use heavy water and a heavy water production
facility; such a reactor produces plutonium that could be processed
and used as fissile material in a nuclear weapon.
Feb 22 2007 [N] The U.S. Defense
Threat Reduction Agency cancels its plans for a non-nuclear bunker
buster test at the Nevada Test Site. The proposed test faced
opposition from downwinders, politicians, and environmentalists who
feared the blast would carry dust laced with radioactive particles
from the test site. The blast would have been the last and largest
in a series of bunker-buster experiments using conventional chemical
explosives designed to destroy underground facilities for WMD or
enemy command posts.
Feb 23 2007 [B, C, N, O] The
UN Security Council affirms it determination to strengthen
multilateral cooperation aimed at countering WMD proliferation and
to boost worldwide implementation of Resolution 1540, adopted in
2004.
Feb 27 2007 [B] Roberto Ortega, the
former chief of Cuba's military medical services, claims that the
Cuban government is creating an offensive biological warfare program
in a secret underground laboratory near Havana. Ortega has been
calling for international weapons inspections of the Cuban lab where
he says the government is creating BW agents like the plague,
botulism and yellow fever. Ortega, a former army colonel, ran the
Cuban’s military's medical services from 1984 to 1994, defected in
2003, and now lives in Florida. Ortega says that almost two years
ago he told the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency nearly the maximum
security lab, called “Labor One,” in Havana, which has an
above-ground civilian cover and employs dozens of scientists.
Feb 28 2007 [B, T] Sujithkumar
Venkatramolla, a 22-year-old graduate student at the University of
Missouri-Rolla, was charged with making terrorist threats and
assaulting a law enforcement officer. He had been arrested February
27, after walking into a civil engineering building on the
university campus armed with a knife and holding a paper bag, while
claiming he had a bomb and anthrax.
March 2 2007
[N] The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces that the Nuclear
Weapons Council selected the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California
to develop a new nuclear warhead under the
Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program. The group of DOE and
Defense Department officials picked Livermore’s design over the one
proposed by the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico because it had
been better validated by past testing. (Although the U.S. has not
ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, it abides by a voluntary
moratorium on nuclear testing.) The aim of the RRW program is to
design warheads that include significantly better safety and
security features while maintaining the explosive yield of current
warheads. The Los Alamos Lab will continue to work on warhead
designs.
March 5 2007 [C] The
U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency announce that half the
stockpile of U.S. chemical munitions—1.7 munitions—have been
destroyed.
March 7 2007 [C, O] Barbados
becomes the 182nd country to join the
Chemical Weapons Convention when it submits in instrument of
accession; the treaty will enter into force in that country on April
6, 2007.
March 7 2007 [C] The last VX-filled
M55 rocket stored at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility
in Alabama is destroyed. The Anniston facility has destroyed 35,662
rockets and rocket warheads that were stored in earth-covered igloos
there for 40 years; it also disposed of more than 40,300 gallons of
liquid VX
March 8 2007 [N, O] The
IAEA decides to cut approximately 40 percent of its technical
projects related to Iran’s nuclear program. UN Resolution 1737,
adopted in December 2006, bans transfers of technology or expertise
to Iran that could be used to produce nuclear fuel.
March 9 2007 [N, T] The Greek
Foreign Ministry announce that Greece has joined the
Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.
March 10 2007 [T, B] At a military
hearing, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described “military
operational commander” for all Al-Qaida’s foreign operations,
confesses to being the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001
attacks. He also admits full or partial responsibility for more
than 30 other terror attacks or plots, and claims to have directed
Al-Qaida’s attempt to develop biological weapons.
March 12 2007 [N] Russia announces
that it will not send nuclear fuel to Iran this month for Iran’s
first nuclear reactor scheduled to begin operating in September.
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani claims that Russia’s
decision will boost Iran’s determination to pursue uranium
enrichment, in defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 1737
(December 2006).
March 13 2007 [C] The Tokyo High
Court rules against a group of Chinese plaintiffs seeking $682,000
in damages for injuries caused by chemical weapons leaks left by the
Imperial Japanese Army at the end of World War II. The court affirms
a 2003 ruling by a Tokyo district court refusing to award damages.
The court did acknowledge that Japan illegally abandoned the weapons
in China, but found that it would have been impossible for Japan to
remove all of the weapons because they were left on Chinese soil.
March 14 2007 [N] By a vote of
409-161, Britain’s Parliament approves a $40 billion program to
replace Britain’s fleet of four nuclear-armed submarines.
March 15 2007 [B, T] Rodney Curtis
Hamrick pleads guilty to charges that in October 2005 he
mailed packages containing an explosive
device and a powdery substance labeled “Anthrax”’ to the 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, and is sentenced to life in prison without
the possibility of parole. Tests determined that the powder sent by
Hamrick was not anthrax.
March 16 2007
[C, T] In Falluja, Iraq, two suicide bombings using dump trucks with
chlorine tanks killed at least six people and sickened 350 people.
Chlorine bombs have become increasingly popular with insurgents
although because, although they don’t generally inflict mass
casualties, they do spread panic and fear.
March 21 2007 [N] The Knoxville
News Sentinel reports that nuclear specialists from Oak Ridge
National Laboratory are participating in a National Nuclear Security
Administration project to remove weapons-usable uranium from the
Dalat a reactor in Vietnam and to convert the research reactor so it
can operate on low-enriched uranium fuel. Russia supplied the Dalat
reactor, and the highly enriched uranium fuel at the reactor will be
sent back to Russia to be downblended.
March 22 2007 [M]
Pakistan successfully test-fires a nuclear-capable cruise
missile, the Hatf VII Babur, with a range of 700 kilometers. This is
the third time that Pakistan has tested this missile system.
March 24 2007 [N, O] The UN Security
Council unanimously approves
Resolution 1747 authorizing additional sanctions against Iran
for its continuing refusal to halt uranium enrichment. The new
resolution bans all Iranian arms exports, requests countries to
restrict loans and financial aids to Iran, and freezes the assets of
an additional 28 institutions and officials with ties to Iran’s
missile and nuclear programs. (UN Security Council Resolution 1737
[December 2006], which imposed the first round of sanctions on Iran,
levies financial and travel restrictions on 22 individuals and
business entities.) It gives Iran 60 days to comply with the UN
demands to halt sensitive nuclear activities or face additional
economic and other sanctions.
March 26 2007 [C] Britain’s
Ministry of Defense announces that it has destroyed the last of its
stockpiles of mustard and nerve-gas weapons that were left over from
World War II and the Cold War years. Britain eliminated a total of
3,812 bombs and artillery shells filled with lethal gases; it will
retain small quantities of various lethal nerve agents and toxins at
Porton Down, the government's secret research center, to allow
scientists to develop protective clothing and other medical
countermeasures.
March 28 2007 [C, T] In Iraq,
insurgents with two chlorine truck bombs attack a local government
building in Falluja. The U.S. military reports that 15 Iraqi and
U.S. soldiers were wounded in the blasts and many more suffered
chlorine poisoning. Numerous Iraqi soldiers and policemen are
treated for symptoms such as labored breathing, nausea, skin
irritation and vomiting that are signs of chlorine inhalation.
March 30 2007 [M] Japan deploys
its first ballistic missile interceptors at an air force base about
25 miles north of Tokyo; the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3)
launchers can shoot down incoming missiles in the final stage of
flight as they near a target. Japan is building a missile defense
shield to counter the threat from North Korea.
March 30 2007 [M]
India test fires an indigenously developed nuclear-capable
missile—the Dhanush—from a naval ship in the Bay of Bengal.
Developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization,
the Dhanush has a 250-kilometer range and can carry a single warhead
up to 750 kilograms. Versions of this missile have been tested five
times since 2000.
April 2 2007 [M] The U.S.
Department of Justice reveals an indictment that charges the
Singapore-based electronics firm, Cirrus Inc., worked as an agent of
the Indian government to purchase sensitive missile and weapons
technology between 2003 and 2006. The indictment charges four Cirrus
company officials with violating the U.S. Export Administration Act,
which prohibits the sale of dual-use technologies with Commerce
Department approval attesting that the technology will only be used
for non-military purposes. The Cirrus officials allegedly forged the
necessary Commerce Department approvals and the weapons-related
technologies were delivered to agencies that were part of the Indian
Ministry of Defense and the Department of Space.
April 2 2007
[C, T] The U.S. Homeland Security Department releases rules for
chemical plants at high risk of catastrophe, caused either by an
accident or terrorist attack. The new rules require facilities
designated high risk, estimated at about 7,000 plants nationwide, to
complete vulnerability assessments and security plans. Plants that
fail to comply face stiff fines or the possibility of being
shutdown. The Homeland Security Department has established standards
that include securing the perimeters of chemical plants and any
potential targets inside, controlling access to the facility,
deterring theft, and preventing sabotage.
April 2 2007 [C] Frans van Anratt,
64, a Dutch businessman, appeals his 15-year prison sentence for
selling tons of chemicals to the Iraqi government that were used to
make mustard and nerve agent gas. Saddam Hussein’s military used the
chemical weapons against Kurdish villages in northern Iraq in 1987 –
1988 and against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). Van
Anratt claimed that he did not know how the Iraqi government would
use the chemicals.
April 6 2007 [C, T] In Ramadi, Iraq, an
al-Qaida suicide bomber runs a truck
loaded with TNT and toxic chlorine gas into a police checkpoint,
killing at least 27 people.
April 6 2007 [C, B, N, T] The U.S.
Department of Defense certifies a special unit of the National
Guard, called the
Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team, to respond to
weapons of mass destruction threats in Washington, D.C. Congress
authorized 55 WMD Civil Support Teams to be established in every
U.S. state and territory; the Washington-based team is the 49th team
to be certified.
April 9 2007
[B, T] The Charles County Courthouse in Maryland receives a bomb
threat in an envelope that contains and unidentified white powder.
Initial testing of the powder shows it is not dangerous, but the
U.S. Postal Service will perform more extensive testing and pursue
any criminal prosecutions.
April 10 2007
[N] The Japanese Cabinet extends for six-months the trade sanctions
that it imposed on North Korea following its October 2006 nuclear
test. The sanctions include banning North Korean ships from Japanese
harbors and stopping imports of North Korean goods. The Cabinet
noted that North Korea had yet to comply with the February 2007
agreement to halt its nuclear program and allow IAEA inspections.
April 11 2007 [N] The U.S. National
Nuclear Security Agency and the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency
agree to a plan that calls for Russia to maintain the U.S.-funded
security upgrades at Russian nuclear material sites. Under U.S. law,
Russia must take over sole support of securing sites that contain
weapon-usable nuclear material or nuclear warheads by 2013; the new
plan covers material sites but not weapons sites.
April 12 2007 [M] India
successfully tests its longest range ballistic missile, the
Agni-III, which can strike targets up to 3,500 kilometers away.
The Agni-III, a two-stage, solid-propellant missile, is launched
from a rail-mobile platform. Experts say the Agni-III would be able
to carry a 300-kiloton nuclear warhead all the way to Beijing, or to
the Middle East.
April 16 2007 [N, T] To prevent a
terrorist attack with radioactive material, the U.S. Department of
Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration and Mexican
Customs sign a
Megaports agreement. The U.S. will donate radiation detection
equipment to be installed in Manzanillo, Lazaro Cardenas, Altamira
and Veracruz, ports that account for 92 percent of container traffic
in Mexico.
April 16 2007 [B] Kazakhstan’s
parliament ratifies the Biological Weapons Convention and sends it
to the president for signature.
April 17 2007 [C] Veolia
Environmental Services in Port Arthur, Texas receives sixteen
thousand gallons of wastewater from VX chemical weapons shipped from
a CW disposal site in Newport, Indiana. Veolia has a $49 million
contract with the U.S. Army to treat and incinerate the CW
wastewater under the supervision of the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
April 17 2007 [N, T] Armenia
officially joins the U.S.-Russian
Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (first announced
in July 2006).
April 17 2007 [C] A Federal Circuit
Court Judge in Oregon rules, in a case brought 10 years ago by
environmental groups, that Oregon’s Department of Environmental
Quality [DEQ] must reassess whether a chemical weapons incinerator
at Hermiston is good enough and safe enough to destroy 2,300 tons of
mustard gas stored at Umatilla Chemical Depot. The judge does not
halt incineration of the nerve agent, but he finds that DEQ must
consider changes in the plant's design and operations made since the
incinerator was approved in 1997 before it starts processing mustard
gas. Since 1997, tests have shown U.S. mustard gas to be
contaminated with mercury at higher levels than previously thought.
The environmental group plaintiffs would prefer that the mustard gas
be treated with a water neutralization process rather than the
current incineration, which releases mercury. ‘
April 18 2007 [B, C, N, T] The U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services releases for publication in
the Federal Register the Department’s new plan for developing and
purchasing medical countermeasures against a range of chemical,
biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats. The “Public
Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise (PHEMCE)
Implementation Plan for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and
Nuclear Threats” sets out the Department’s priorities for
acquisition of vaccines, drugs and medical diagnostic tests,
including purchases made under
Project BioShield.
April 19 2007 [B] The U.S. Air
Force approves a new Counter-Biological Warfare Concept of
Operations and Air Force Instruction to provide formal guidance for
Air Force installations on how to respond to biological threats.
April 19 2007 [C, B, N] The U.S. Department of Defense
issues a new directive on
DOD’s Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction Policy. The
directive assigns responsibility to government officials and
agencies for deterring and defeating the acquisition and use of WMD.
April 19 2007 [C] Russian officials
report that
Russia has destroyed 20 percent of its chemical weapons (8,456
metric tonnes) ahead of the deadline that it established with the
Organization to Prevent Chemical weapons. Russia plans to build
another four CW dismantlement facilities to dispose of the remaining
32,000 tonnes of chemical armaments. Russia’s next goal is the
disposal of 45 percent of the overall chemical weapons stock (18,000
tonnes) by December 31, 2009.
April 23 2007 [N] The European
Union (EU) agrees to impose additional sanctions on Iran because it
has refused to stop enriching uranium. The sanctions imposed by the
UN Security Council in Resolutions 1737 and 1747 require a partial
weapons embargo against Iran and a travel ban for a specified list
of persons and companies involved in Iran’s nuclear program. The EU
sanctions go further, imposing a total arms embargo on Iran, and
banning additional people from the EU and freezing their assets in
EU countries.
April 24 2007 [C, T] USA Today
reports that the
Department of Homeland Security had warned U.S. chemical plants
and bomb squads to be on the look out for chlorine truck bombs, and
the Chlorine Institute, a group that represents 200 companies that
make and distribute chlorine, recently notified the Federal Bureau
of Investigation of several thefts or attempted thefts of 150-pound
chlorine tanks from water treatment plants in California. These
warnings follow the use of several chlorine truck bombs in Iraq in
recent months.
April 24 2007 [N, T]
Hutchison Port Holdings, the world's leading port investor,
developer and operator, endorses the Global Initiative to Combat
Nuclear Terrorism The Initiative sponsored by the United States and
Russia aims to leverage public-private partnerships to deter the
shipment of nuclear materials and weapons.
April 25 2007 [N] EU foreign policy
chief Javier Solana meets with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali
Larijani in Turkey to discuss resolving the nuclear dispute.
April 26 2007 [N, T] Greece and
Palau become partner nations of the Global Initiative to Combat
Nuclear Terrorism.
April 27 2007 [N, T] Georgia joins
the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism first announced by
U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin
at the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg in July 2006.
April 27 2007 [C] Berea, Kentucky’s
Chemical Weapons Working Group files a federal lawsuit suing the
U.S. Army and the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency in an effort
to stop shipments of VX nerve agent waste from a disposal site in
Newport, Indiana to an incinerator in Port Arthur, Texas, to be
burned. Plaintiffs claim that shipments of the chemical waste from
Indiana to Texas violate the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, the
Resource, Conservation and Recovery Act and the Indiana
Environmental Protection Act, and pose a substantial danger to
public health and the environment.
April 29 2007 [C,O] On the 10th
anniversary of the
Chemical Weapons Convention, United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon calls on all countries that still possess chemical
weapons to abolish them and all governments that have not yet done
so to ratify and accede to the Convention. The Secretary-General
notes that the Convention now has 182 members, covering 98 percent
of the world’s population, and that more than 25 percent of declared
chemical weapons stockpiles have been destroyed.
April 30 2007 [C, T]
Following insurgents’ use of
chlorine truck bombs in Iraq, the New York Police
Department has started tracking chlorine shipments in the city and
requiring increased security at some storage areas. Police officers
have been stopping vehicles transporting chlorine to check if they
are properly licensed, and detectives regularly visit locations
around the city to reduce the risk of certain chemicals or materials
falling into the hands of terrorists.
May 1 2007
[M] Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Defense Minister
Fumio Kyuma, and their U.S. counterparts, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates agree to expand
cooperation on defense-related information between the two
countries, including that on a missile defense system. They agree to
the General Security of Military Information Agreement, designed to
protect classified military information.
May 2 2007 [N, M]
A House Armed Services’ strategic forces subcommittee votes to setup
a year-long, bipartisan commission to reconsider the U.S. strategy
on nuclear weapons. The subcommittee votes to pay for the review by
cutting $20 million from the Bush administration’s $88 million
request for the Reliable Replacement Warhead program to complete
design and cost studies for a new generation of nuclear warhead. The
new commission will review the nuclear strategy contained in the
Bush administration’s 2001
Nuclear Posture Review. The subcommittee also approves an
independent study of the controversial European missile defense
deployment.
May 2 2007 [N]
Seven key congressional supporters of the U.S.-India nuclear
cooperation agreement signed in 2005, write a letter to India’s
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warning that India’s military and
energy cooperation with Iran may prevent the U.S. from completing
the
necessary arrangements to implement the agreement. The letter,
signed by both Democratic and Republican leaders, lists a series of
recent meetings between Iranian and Indian officials as signs of
growing ties between the two countries. India’s Foreign Secretary
Shiyshankar Menon responds that India’s contacts with Iran do not
violate U.N. Resolutions 1737 and 1747, which sanction Iran for its
refusal to halt uranium enrichment and other sensitive nuclear
activities.
May 4 2007 [N, T]
During the trial at Woolwich Crown Court, England of Quaisar Shaffi
for conspiracy to commit murder, the court hears testimony about a
British terrorist cell plot to use a radioactive dirty bomb to close
down an area the size of Manhattan. Shaffi allegedly supported the
eight-member group led by Al-Qaida member Dhiren Barot, which had
drawn up plans for terrorist attacks in America and Britain that
would cause mass disruption and billions of dollars of damage.
May 7 2007 [N, T]
The U.S. Department of Energy’s
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces that
it has recovered and secured more than 15,000 radioactive sources,
some of which could be used in “dirty bombs,” from around the United
States. Through NNSA’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative, the
radioactive sources are recovered by NNSA’s Los Alamos National
Laboratory from commercial firms and academic institutions after the
sources are determined to be excess and unwanted, and when there is
no other disposal option.
May 7 2007
[N, T] A radiation detection system installed by the United
States at Port Qasim in Pakistan begins transmitting data to the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Port Qasim is one of the first
ports to receive the integrated cargo scanning system under the U.S.
Secure Freight Initiative.
May 7 2007 [C, T]
Citing procedural violations, a court in Jordan orders the retrial
of nine Al-Qaida-linked Islamists sentenced to death last year over
a foiled chemical attackciting procedural violations. The court
rules that the state security court violated procedure by allowing
the prosecutor to interrogate the suspects while he was himself
among the defendants' alleged targets. The defendants included then
Al-Qaida frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was slain in a
U.S. raid in June 2006. In February 2006, Jordan's state security
court sentenced Zarqawi, then a fugitive, and the eight others to
death for planning a chemical bomb attack on intelligence services.
May 8 2007
[N, O] The
first PrepCom of the 2010 NPT Review Conference, which
convened in Vienna on April 30, finally adopts an agenda when the
lone holdout Iran consents to revised language. Iran had objected to
language in the originally proposed agenda “reaffirming the need for
full compliance with the Treaty” because it believed this language
only targeted alleged noncompliance by Iran rather than the possible
noncompliance by any non-nuclear or nuclear weapons state. Iran
agrees to the agenda with the addition of a footnote stating that
the members understand “the reference in the agenda to ‘reaffirming
the need for full compliance with the Treaty’ to mean that it will
consider compliance with all the provisions of the Treaty.” The
delay caused by Iran means little work is done on preparing for the
2010 Review Conference.
May 8 2007 [N, T]
Canada pledges five million Canadian dollars to help upgrade
Ukraine's airport and border security to prevent nuclear terrorism,
with a gift of five million Canadian dollars. This contribution
represents part of Canada's commitment to the Global Partnership
against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction,
launched by the Group of Eight industrialized nations (G8) in 2002;
Canada has promised almost one billion Canadian dollars over 10
years to the partnership.
May 8 2007 [N, T]
The U.S. State Department reports that Cape Verde, Cyprus, the Czech
Republic, Denmark, Georgia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, and Spain
recently have joined the U.S.-Russian
Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (first announced
in July 2006). A total of 32 countries as well as the International
Atomic Energy Agency have joined the group.
May 9 2007
[C] A Dutch appeals court in The Hague
raises the prison sentence of Frans Van Anraat, a Dutch businessman,
to 17 years after confirming that he was guilty of complicity in war
crimes for selling chemicals to Iraq later used in deadly gas
attacks. In 2005, the trial court sentenced Van Anraat to 15 years
in prison for supplying chemicals that were used by Saddam Hussein’s
regime to make poison gas used in the 1980-1988 war with Iran, and
against Iraq's own Kurdish population, including an attack on the
town of Halabja in 1988 which killed an estimated 5,000 people. On
appeal, the court increases the jail sentence because Van Anraat
committed these crimes several times out of pure greed.
May 9 2007 [T]
President George W. Bush extends by a year U.S. sanctions against
Syria because of its suspected support for terrorism and continued
threat to U.S. security, foreign policy, and economy. The sanctions
ban weapons supplies to Syria, restrict U.S. trade with the country,
and freeze financial accounts of those suspected of helping Syria to
shelter terrorists or of being involved in the development of
nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
May 14 2007 [N, T]
Israel, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka announce they have joined the
Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.
May 15 2007 [N]
The head of the Russian Federal Nuclear Agency (RosAtom) and the
Minister of Science and Technology of Myanmar sign an agreement
under which
Russia will build a nuclear research center in Myanmar,
including a research reactor fueled with low-enriched uranium. The
deal draws international attention because of Myanmar’s poor human
rights record; the country has been ruled by a military junta since
1988.
May 17 2007 [C, O]
The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency announces that the United
States has destroyed the last of its chemical weapon production
facilities. Under the Chemical Weapons Convention signed in 1997,
the United States agreed to destroy its five chemical weapon
production facilities by the end of April 2007.
May 20 2007 [N, T]
Turkmenistan and Madagascar join the Global Initiative to Combat
Nuclear Terrorism.
May 21 2007 [N, T]
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security
Administration and the Administration of the State Border Guard
Service of Ukraine hold a ceremony to note the commissioning of a
radiation detection checkpoint at the Kuchurgan vehicle crossing in
Ukraine. The ceremony recognizes the ongoing U.S. and Ukrainian
cooperation to prevent the trafficking of nuclear and radioactive
material across Ukrainian borders.
May 22 2007 [N, T]
British prosecutor say they want to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, a
Russian businessman and former KGB agent, from Russia and prosecute
him for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London in
November 2006 of polonium poisoning. Lugovoi met Litvinenko on the
day he fell ill, but he has repeatedly claimed that he is innocent.
Russia refuses to hand Lugovoi over to Britain.
May 22 2007 [N, T]
South Korea joins the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism
by depositing its approval letters with the United States and
Russia, co-chairs of the initiative.
May 23 2007 [N, O]
The IAEA Director General submits a
report to the IAEA Board of Governors finding that Iran has not
suspended its uranium enrichment-related activities and is
continuing construction of a new reactor and heavy water related
projects. In addition Iran has refused to provide requested
information. Earlier IAEA inspectors noted that Iran was using
approximately 1,300 centrifuges and enriching nuclear fuel on a
large scale. Iran would have to further enrich the uranium to
transform it into bomb-grade material.
May 25 2007 [C]
The University of Hawaii announces that in August it will partner
with the U.S. Army on an underwater survey to locate nearly 600 tons
of chemical weapons believed to have been dumped five miles south of
Pearl Harbor. The Army believes that 16,000 M47A2 bombs holding
nearly 600 tons of mustard agent were dumped in the area around
October 1944. The chemical bombs weigh 100 pounds each and are about
32 inches long.
May 25 2007 [M]
North Korea test fires a barrage of short-range missiles into its
coastal waters. South Korea says that the missiles tests were
probably part of the DPRK’s annual military exercises, although they
also occur at the same time that South Korea launches a new
destroyer equipped with Aegis radar, enhancing its ability to shoot
down the DPRK’s missiles and aircraft.
May 28 2007 [B]
Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper reports that the Israel Defense
Forces will provide the Israeli Medical Association’s ethics panel
with the details of secret experimental anthrax vaccine trials they
carried out on over 800 soldiers since 1999. The panel will decide
whether the trials complied with the World Medical Association’s
ethical requirements relating to human clinical trials.
May 29 2007 [M]
Russia test-launches a
new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of
carrying multiple independent warheads from a mobile launcher at the
Plesetsk launch site in northwestern Russia. According to the
Russian Strategic Missile Forces, the test warhead hit its target
3,400 miles away. According to Russian officials, the new missiles
can overcome any existing missile defense systems.
May 31 2007 [C]
The Tokyo High Court upholds a lower courts decision to sentence to
death Seiichi Endo, the chemist who produced the sarin nerve gas
used in mass murders carried out by the Aum Shinrikyo cult. The
presiding judge states that Endo manufactured the sarin knowing that
the gas would be used to kill an unspecified number of people.
June 1 2007 [N, T]
U.S. officials announce that a program to
provide
Russia with radiation detectors will be accellerated. The joint
program intends to place automated detections systems at all Russian
border crossing points by 2011, six years ahead of schedule.
June 1 2007 [B, T]
Japan implements new biosecurity rules designed to reduce the
risk that terrorists could acquire biological agents from domestic
researchers. The additions to the Infectious Disease Law empower the
government to oversee the biological stockpiles at universities and
research labs.
June 6 2007 [B]
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
is criticized for failing detain a man known to have a potentially
deadly contagious disease as he entered the country. The man, who
successfully entered the United States by flying into Canada and
driving across the border, was believed to have a drug-resistant
form of tuberculousis.
June 7 2007 [B, T]
The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation releases
a report which estimates that the United States has spent or
allocated nearly $50 billion on biological weapons defense since
September 2001.
June 7 2007 [M]
North Korea flight-tests
short-range anti-ship cruise missiles
over coastal waters, the second such
demonstration by North Korea in as many weeks.
June 8 2007 [B, T]
A man is sentenced to three years in prison
for an
anthrax mail hoax on the Arkansas's governor's office in 2006.
June 8 2007 [C]
Libya announces that it intends to withdraw from a
2003 deal under which it promised to destroy its stockpile of
mustard gas. Although it has already eliminated a significant
portion of its chemical weapon stockpiles, Libya cites the costs of
continuing the destruction as one of its primary concerns.
June 11 2007 [N]
British newspapers report that British
intelligence services successfully disrupted a plot by
Iran to acquire smuggled nuclear material from
Russia in 2006. The plot, which involved Iran attempting to
acquire uranium from the Russian black market through a middleman in
Sudan, had been monitored for nearly two years before the British
government disrupted the acquisition before the uranium was
delivered.
June 11 2007 [N, T]
Pakistan joins the
Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, a U.S.-Russia-led
effort to secure nuclear materials, prosecute terrorists, and
eliminate illicit trafficking networks.
June 12 2007 [C, T]
A week after
a UN commission issued a warning regarding the use of chlorine
gas in Iraq,
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff warns
American companies to secure chlorine stocks from possible terrorist
theft.
June 12 2007 [M]
In response to American plans to construct a
missile defense system in Europe, Russian President Vladimir
Putin proposes a joint program between the two countries.
Instead of placing an early-warning radar in the Czech Republic and
interceptors in Poland,
Russia proposes using a radar station in
Azerbaijan and interceptors in
Iraq or Turkey. Putin and Bush schedule to discuss the proposal
further in July.
June 14 2007 [N, T]
The New York Police
Commissioner calls for additional funding to build a radiation
detection system in and around the city. The appeal follows a
proposed funding cut for the program in Congress. New York city
officials have stated publicly that the system would greatly enhance
the ability of local law enforcement to thwart a nuclear or
radiological attack.
June 15 2007 [B, O]
Revisions to the
International Health Regulations take effect, requiring members
of the
World Health Organization to notify the organization on all
health issues of "international concern." Furthermore, states are
now required to immediately report cases of smallpox, polio, new
strains of influenza, and SARS.
June 16 2007 [N]
Following the release of $25 million in
frozen North Korean funds several days earlier,
North Korea invites a delegation from the IAEA to return to the
country. The delegation will begin the process of inspections and
monitoring to ensure the disablement
of North Korea's plutonium-producing
Yongbyon reactor.
June 20 2007 [N, M]
Indian officials propose to limit India’s
missile arsenal to medium-ranged missiles in exchange for U.S.
nuclear material and technology. The proposal is intended to soothe
fears that a
pending U.S.-Indian trade agreement could spark a nuclear arms
race in Asia.
June 20 2007 [N, T]
After detecting a high level of
radiation at a border checkpoint,
Georgian customs officials discover a car attempting to smuggle
fissile material into the country. However, they allow
the car carrying the material—a mixture of
plutonium and beryllium—to return to
Azerbaijan.
June 21 2007 [C]
Months before a deadline set by the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the United
States meets its commitment to destroy 45 percent of the nation's
chemical weapons stockpiles. The destruction is part of an ongoing
effort by the United States to eliminate
completely its chemical weapon stockpiles as mandated by its
membership in the
Chemical Weapons Convention.
June 24 2007 [C]
Several high-ranking Iraqis receive death
sentences for their role in
Iraqi chemical weapon attacks against Kurds in the late 1980s
which left tens of thousands of civilians dead. Among those
sentenced to death is Ali Hassan "Chemical Ali" al-Majid, cousin to
former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
June 26 2007 [N, M]
Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov confirms that
Russia will begin mass production of previously
experimental missile systems. Among the systems are a strategic
ICBM and a mobile, short-range tactical ballistic missile. The
development, described by Ivanov as a major step toward
reinvigorating Russian strategic
nuclear forces, follows several weeks of heated controversy
surrounding American plans for a missile defense system in Europe.
June 27 2007 [N]
Days after U.S. envoy and Assistant Secretary of State Christopher
Hill visits
North Korea, a team from the
IAEA is allowed to visit North Korea's plutonium-producing
reactor at Yongbyon. The visit by Hill is the first such visit
by a senior U.S. official in nearly five years and comes following a
recent series of successful talks between North Korea and the United
States.
June 28 2007 [N]
Officials within the Bush administration continue
to push forward an initiative to modernize America's arsenal of
nuclear warheads. Secretary of Energy Clay Sell connects the
Reliable Replacement Warhead program with nonproliferation
goals, claiming that the initiative would allow the U.S. to cut the
size of its reserve arsenal and forego new
testing. The push accompanies debate within Congress whether to
include funding for the controversial program in the upcoming
budget.
June 28 2007 [M]
Russia successfully tests a new, sea-based ballistic missile
capable of breaching missile defense systems. The successful test of
the intercontiental Bulava missile, which is intended to play a
major role in
Russia's ICBM force of the future, was conducted from a nuclear
submarine and follows three earlier failures.
July 2 2007 [N]
American media sources report that Dr.
Abdul Qadeer Khan has been removed from house arrest in
Pakistan and has been granted more freedom to meet with friends
and family members. Khan, a Pakistani scientist considered to be the
founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, was orginally placed under
house arrest following his confession that he had provided nuclear
weapons technology to
Libya,
Iran, and
North Korea.
July 2 2007 [N, C, B]
The United Nations Security Council
votes to dismantle the
UN
Monitoring, Verification, and Inspections Commission (UNMOVIC).
Created in 1999 to verify that
Iraq eliminated any WMD programs,
UNMOVIC had failed to find any evidence of nuclear,
chemical, or biological
weapons during its inspections in the months prior to Operation
Iraqi Freedom – the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
July 2 2007 [N]
A plutonium core "pit" is delivered from Los
Alamos National Laboratory to a manufacturing site in Texas. The
pit, which will be used to create a nuclear warhead for a
submarine-launched missile, is the first produced in the United
States since 1989.
July 5 2007 [M, N]
In the ongoing controversy over U.S.
plans to place missile defenses in Europe, Russian Deputy Prime
Minister Sergei Ivanov warns that
Russia may deploy new missiles in western Russia if the United
States constructs such a missile defense system without first
addressing Russian concerns.
July 10
2007 [N] Brazilian President Inacio Lula
da Silva announces that
Brazil will provide additional funds over a five-year
period to the Navy’s nuclear program so that the country can master
the entire uranium enrichment process to produce fuel for civilian
nuclear power plants and to eventually build a
nuclear
submarine. Brazil had earlier announced plans to complete
Angra 3, its third nuclear power reactor.
July 12 2007 [C]
The verification body of the
Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) confirms that Albania has
destroyed is chemical weapons (CW) stockpiles. This makes Albania
the first member of the CWC to eliminate completely CW under the
agreement.
July 12 2007 [T]
In prepared testimony to Congress, a senior U.S. intelligence
official warns that terrorist groups such as al-Qaida
pose the largest threat to American security. According to the
testimony, al-Qaida has recovered to an
operational level approaching that which it possessed prior to the
attacks of September 11, 2001.
July 13 2007 [N]
The
Department of Energy announces it will seek $3.3 million in
fines against managers at
Los Alamos National Laboratory following a 2006 security lapse
in which a contract employee took thousands of pages of classified
documents from the laboratory to her New Mexico home.
July 14 2007 [N]
As part of the renewed negotiations regarding its nuclear program,
North Korea receives its first shipment of oil from South Korea.
In response, North Korea pledges to shut down its
Yongbyon nuclear facility and allow International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA)
inspectors to verify the move.
July 16 2007 [M]
In what is widely perceived to be a response
to U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe,
Russia suspends its participation in the
Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, which limits the number of
conventional military assets allowed to be deployed in Europe and
western Russia.
July 17 2007 [T]
An unclassified version of the latest National Intelligence Estimate
on terrorism threats is released which warns that terrorists present
the most serious danger to the United States. The report notes that
al-Qaeda will likely intensify efforts to strike the American
homeland and has a growing capability to do so.
July 17 2007 [B]
Revisions in the
International Health Regulations addressing the spread of
infectious diseases take effect in the United States.
July 18 2007 [T]
Days after
North Korea receives a shipment of oil from South Korea, the
IAEA confirms that North Korea has
shut down its
Yongbyon nuclear complex as previously agreed.
July 21 2007 [N, T]
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announces that nearly
all shipping containers entering the United States will be screened
for radiation by the end of 2007. The announcement comes days after
American lawmakers reach an agreement on legislation that would
require all cargo containers bound for the United States to be
scanned for radiation at the port of departure. According to the
legislation, infrastructure for scanning 100-percent of these
containers in foreign ports should be completed within five years.
July 23 2007 [N]
The
Government Accountability Office reveals that a team of its
investigators conducted a successful sting operation
in which it ordered enough equipment to create a
nuclear weapon through a phony license obtained from the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
July 24 2007 [C]
A Chilean judge orders the arrest of six people formerly associated
with Augusto Pinochet's regime who are accused of using
sarin gas to kill a man in 1977.
July 24 2007 [N]
A summary of a new national nuclear strategy given to Congress
advises that the United States modernize its nuclear arsenal and
invest in smaller, more reliable nuclear weapons. Among the
recommendations of the report is that the United States commit to
the Reliable Replacement Warhead program.
July 25 2007 [N]
Four years after
Libya renounced its WMD programs and renewed ties with the West,
France agrees to help Libya contruct a nuclear reactor for
water desalination.
July 27 2007 [N] The United States
announces that it has reached
agreement with India on the terms governing the U.S. supply of
nuclear equipment and technology. Under the agreement, which still
requires congressional approval, the United States would help India
to find a supply of nuclear fuel even if India were to test another
nuclear weapon. Critics charge that this gives India a better deal
than countries who have signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT); India has never signed the NPT.
July 30 2007 [N]
Following weeks of successful negotiations with
Iran, the
IAEA is permitted to inspect Iran's
Arak facility. The two parties also agree to continue negotiations
to resolve to ongoing dispute.
July 30 2007 [N]
The
Department of Energy announces that Hong Kong will join the U.S.
Secure Freight Initiative, a program which aims to expand the
radiation screening infrastructure at the port.
Oct 1 2007 [N] The United States and
Kyrgyzstan sign an agreement to aid in the prevention of nuclear smuggling. The
agreement, the fourth reached by the U.S.
Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative, outlines a number of measures to
improve Kyrgyzstan's ability to stop the transfer of nuclear technology and
material across its borders.
Oct 1 2007 [N] Canada reaches an agreement with Russia to provide
over $50 million for the removal of nuclear reactors from and dismantlement of
several Russian submarines.
Oct 3 2007 [N] The participants (the United States, North Korea,
South Korea, Japan, China and Russia) in the Six-Party Talks agree that North
Korea would take three steps toward denuclearization in accordance with the
parties "Joint Statement" of September 19, 2005. The steps include
the disablement of North Korea's 5 megawatt reactor, plutonium
reprocessing plant, and fuel fabrication plant in Yongbyon; the submission of a
detailed declaration of the North's nuclear program by December 31, 2007;
and promises by North Korea not to transfer nuclear materials or technologies to
others. In exchange, the United States and Japan agree to work on normalizing
their relationships with North Korea and the six parties agree to supply
Pyongyang with economic, energy, and humanitarian assistance.
Oct 7 2007 [B] The University of California is fined $450,000 for
improperly packaging vials of anthrax shipped across the
country in 2005. Although anthrax was released within the package, there were no
known cases of exposure.
Oct 11 2007 [N, C, B, T] The United States announces the National
Counter-Proliferation Initiative, a multi-agency program aimed at preventing
the export of sensitive U.S. technologies. The program outlines new
international task forces, improved training, and better coordination with
existing export licensing procedures. The Initiative aims to limit the supply of
U.S. military and dual-use goods to states and terrorist groups developing WMD
and missile programs throughout the world.
Oct 17 2007 [T] Amid criticism that large-scale terrorism training
exercises are ineffective and squander limited resources, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff defends the exercises as critical to national
preparedness. Days earlier, several U.S. cities hosted the fourth TOPOFF
terrorism exercise, a multi-agency event designed to provide training
for responders and gauge preparedness.
Oct 18 2007 [N] Investigators cite carelessness in the August 30
incident during which the U.S. Air Force inadvertently transported six
nuclear-armed cruise missiles across the country. Members of the six-week
investigation noted multiple oversights and errors by loading crews and members
of the flight for failing to follow formal safety and verification
procedures.
Oct 24 2007 [M, N] India announces a
successful test of its Agni-1 ballistic
missile. The missile, which can carry a nuclear payload, has a reported
range of 420 miles.
Oct 25 2007 [T] The United States announces a new package of
sanctions against Iran for supporting terrorism and developing weapons of mass
destruction. As part of the new sanctions, the United States labels Iran's
Al-Quds force a terrorist entity and accuses Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Corps of proliferating weapons of mass destruction. The sanctions are the latest
component of a larger strategy to isolate Iran for failing to answer questions
regarding its development of nuclear technology and its alleged ties to
terrorist groups.
Oct 26 2007 [T, C] Japan's highest court upholds a death
sentence for a former member of the Aum Shinrikyo
doomsday cult, which conducted terrorist attacks in 1994 and 1995 in Japan
using sarin nerve
agent.
Oct 29 2007 [N] The United States agrees to provide radiation
sensors at key border crossings in Slovakia. The equipment is the latest
provided under the National Nuclear Security
Administration's Second Line of
Defense program, a cooperative initiative intended to prevent the smuggling
of nuclear and radiological material. A week earlier, the Second Line of Defense
Program announced that it had reached a similar agreement to provide radiation
sensors for airports and border crossings in Mongolia.
Oct 29 2007 [M] Russia
conducts a test launch of its nuclear-capable RS-18 Stiletto ballistic
missile.
Oct 31 2007 [N] The United States announces that it has completed
security improvements at 25 nuclear sites in Russia. Targeted primarily at
missile bases in Russia, the U.S.-funded cooperative program is part of a larger
effort to secure nuclear weapons and materials in the former Soviet
Union.
Nov 2 2007 [C, T] The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
releases a final list of chemicals that could be used as weapons for terrorists.
The list, which outlines a number of potentially dual-use chemicals, requires
businesses to report the possession of listed chemicals beyond certain
thresholds.
Nov 3 2007 [N] Days after members of the Gulf Cooperation
Council reveal a proposal to provide Iran with enriched uranium, Iran announces
that it will not accept the compromise. The proposal is aimed at defusing
concerns regarding Iran's continued development of a uranium enrichment
capability by providing Iran an external source of fuel for its nuclear power
plants.
Nov 5 2007 [N] U.S. officials begin overseeing the disablement
of North
Korea's Yongbyon
nuclear complex. According to early estimates, the disablement
process—which involves removing thousands of spent fuel rods from the
facility— is expected to take at least six weeks to
complete.
Nov 5 -9 2007 [C] The Chemical Weapons Convention states
parties hold their annual meeting. The
parties urge countries to do more to implement the CWC through national
legislation; they also approve a 2008 budget for the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons of $11 million, the same amount that has been
allocated for three years. Iran's representative delays the
meeting's report by proposing that the states parties establish a
"Chemical Weapons Victim's International Funding and Assistance
Network."
Nov 6 2007 [N] Iran announces
that it is operating more than 3,000 centrifuges in its bid to enrich uranium.
Although some experts question the true extent of Iran's enrichment
capability, the United States points to the growing enrichment capability as a
precursor to nuclear weapons development.
Nov 8 2007 [C] Two American teenagers plead guilty to using homemade
bombs containing chlorine
gas. Although there were no fatalities, the incident highlights a growing
concern regarding chlorine gas as a preferred dual-use chemical weapon.
Nov 9 2007 [N] U.S. lawmakers approve $428 million in funding for
the Cooperative
Threat Reduction Program. Also known as the Nunn-Lugar initiative, the
15-year old program seeks to secure WMD and missile arsenals and facilities
primarily in the former Soviet republics, but in other countries such as Libya,
as well.
Nov 15 2007 [N, O] The International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issues a report in which it finds that Iran has
been generally accurate in disclosing its nuclear history. Encouraged by this
finding, the IAEA announces a new schedule for Iran to
resolve the remaining questions regarding its nuclear program. However, critics
of the report point to Iran's continued refusal to comply with U.N.
Security Council demands to halt uranium enrichment and Iran's general
lack of transparency.
Nov 27 2007 [N] Government officials in Taiwan file charges against
a Taiwanese company that allegedly sold sensitive nuclear and other WMD
technology to North
Korea.
Nov 29 2007 [N] Three Europeans are arrested for allegedly
attempting to sell one pound of weapon-grade uranium. The intended smugglers,
who were apprehended by authorities in Slovakia and Hungary following months of
investigation, were seeking $1 million for the highly enriched
uranium.
Dec 2 2007 [N] In a significant reversal from previous
estimates, the latest United States
National Intelligence Report on Iran concludes
that Iran's military nuclear program is no longer active and likely has
been suspended since 2003. In an unclassified summary of the
report, the National Intelligence
Council concludes that the program was suspended in the fall of 2003 as a
result of international scrutiny. However, the report also notes Iran's
continued uranium enrichment program and estimates that Iran could produce a
nuclear weapon between 2010 and 2015 if it were to choose to do so.
Dec 3 2007 [M] India
successfully intercepts a nuclear-capable missile in a test of a new interceptor
missile designed to be part of India's dual-layered ballistic missile
defense system.
Dec 4 2007 [M] The United States
conducts the first successful test of an air-to-air ballistic missile
interceptor as part of the Net-Centric Airborne Defense Element. Launched from a
fighter jet, the AIM-9X Sidewinder Missile is modified to target ballistic
missiles while in boost phase.
Dec 6 2007 [C] A Kentucky military storage depot reveals that over a
gallon of sarin
nerve agent leaked from a storage container. Army investigators announced that
although some of the agent vaporized, none was released into the
atmosphere.
Dec 10 2007 [N] The Czech Republic returns over 176 pounds of highly
enriched uranium to Russia. The
announcement is the latest success in the U.S.-Russian Glob | 
