Drawings for two planned light-water nuclear reactors will remain just those after the program was suspended yesterday (KEDO). North Korean Nuclear Power Plant Development Shelved As expected, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization has suspended — and effectively killed — a project to build two nuclear reactors in North Korea, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Nov. 4)...Full Story

United States Will Not Comply With IAEA Requests on Iraq The United States will not provide the International Atomic Energy Agency with a classified report from chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq David Kay on the search for evidence of alleged Iraqi WMD efforts, a senior Bush administration official said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 3)...Full Story

WHO Officials Say U.S. Bioterrorist Defenses Are Misguided Several World Health Organization officials have criticized U.S. plans to respond to possible bioterrorist attacks, saying that Washington is seeking domestic solutions to an international problem and is underfunding the international organization, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 23)...Full Story

	Wednesday, November 5, 2003

FBI To Get New Guidelines to Improve Information Sharing U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is expected to issue new FBI guidelines today that would allow the bureau to share more of the information gathered in national security investigations with state and local law enforcement agencies, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, Sept. 17). The new guidelines contain provisions permitting the FBI to share certain information with state and local officials when it is “for the purpose of preventing or responding to a threat to national security or public safety,” the Post reported. FBI agents involved in national security investigations would also be able to conduct “proactive collection” of publicly available information on groups or individuals of interest. Agents were previously barred from collecting such information without specific cause to begin an investigation, according to the Post. The new guidelines “move the investigative capabilities into the 21st century but keep the safeguards,” said FBI Deputy General Counsel M.E. “Spike” Bowman. Bowman also said that he expects civil libertarians to be concerned with the new guidelines. “Anytime the FBI finds it easier to investigate, they are going to get exercised,” he said (Susan Schmidt, Washington Post, Nov. 5). Meanwhile, the FBI has been slow to implement its new Trilogy counterterrorism computer system because a contractor has missed a deadline to deliver software and equipment, the General Services Administration said yesterday. Computer Sciences Corp.’s failure to meet a deadline to deliver upgraded capabilities will delay the bureau’s efforts to make the Trilogy program fully operational, the GSA said. The program is designed to allow FBI agents to receive case files at their desks and to link the FBI with various law enforcement databases, according to the Washington Times (Jerry Seper, Washington Times, Nov. 5). Back to top

United States Will Not Comply With IAEA Requests on Iraq The United States will not provide the International Atomic Energy Agency with a classified report from chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq David Kay on the search for evidence of alleged Iraqi WMD efforts, a senior Bush administration official said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 3). IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has requested a copy of Kay’s report, but has so far not received a response from Washington, according to ITAR-Tass. “There’s zero chance he’s going [to] get that,” the senior Bush administration official said. “At some point we may brief him (ElBaradei) on what we’ve found relative to the Iraqi nuclear programs. But I really see no possibility he will get Kay’s report, because it’s highly classified and it’s intended for internal U.S. government consumption and it’s not for him or [the] IAEA,” the official added (Dmitry Kirsanov, ITAR-Tass, Nov. 5). The United States is also not likely to soon approve another of ElBaradei’s requests — the return of U.N. inspectors to Iraq, a senior U.S. State Department official said yesterday. “We don’t think it’s needed at this time,” the official said. “There might be a role for U.N. inspectors at some point in the future, but that debate is way down the road,” the official said (Agence France-Presse, Nov. 5). Prewar Intelligence Inquiry Meanwhile, the White House has agreed to provide the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence with CIA memos from October 2002 that warned against publicizing claims that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium from Africa, a White House official said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 3). The committee, which is currently conducting an inquiry into prewar U.S. intelligence on Iraq, has requested two CIA memos dated Oct. 5 and Oct. 6 of last year, according to the Washington Post. The memos called for changes in a draft of a speech to be given Oct. 7 that said Iraq had been “caught attempting to purchase up to 500 metric tons of uranium oxide from sources in Africa” — a claim that has become heavily disputed. White House lawyers still need to work out an agreement with the committee to make the memos available, the White House official said.  “When you are dealing with the White House, they want to make sure they are not getting into a precedent in regard to various documents used by the executive,” committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said yesterday. The White House official also said that only the committee’s request to interview “individuals involved in briefing senior administration officials” still needed to be considered. Due to a number of outstanding requests with the CIA and the U.S. Defense Department, the committee will probably not hold public hearings on prewar Iraq intelligence or release a report on its inquiry until next year, Roberts said. “There are hundreds of pages to review, more than we ever expected” from recent requests, a senior congressional aide said yesterday. “And more is still coming in,” the aide said (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, Nov. 5). Roberts yesterday also criticized a leaked memo prepared by the staff of Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, that discussed ways Democrats could use the intelligence inquiry to criticize the Bush administration, according to the Los Angeles Times. The memo indicates that Democrats plan to conduct a separate inquiry into the White House’s use of intelligence on Iraq next year as the 2004 presidential campaign begins, the Times reported. “Intelligence issues are clearly secondary to the public’s concern regarding the insurgency in Iraq,” the memo says. “Yet we have an important role to play in revealing the misleading, if not flagrantly dishonest, methods and motives of senior administration officials who made the case for unilateral pre-emptive war,” it adds. Roberts said in a statement that the memo “exposes politics in its most raw form. … It’s a purely partisan document that appears to be a road map for how the Democrats intend to politicize what should be a bipartisan objective review of prewar intelligence.” Rockefeller said that while his staff did prepare the memo, it had not been approved “nor was it shared with any member of the Senate Intelligence Committee or anyone else.” “Having said that … the memo clearly reflects staff frustration with the conduct of the … investigation and the difficulties of obtaining information from the administration,” Rockefeller said in a statement (Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 5). Back to top       White House Nominee for Syria Ambassador Offers Strong Support for Sanctions Bill By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The White House nominee for U.S. ambassador to Syria yesterday praised legislation that would impose economic sanctions against Damascus if it failed to end its WMD programs and support for terrorism (see GSN, Oct. 31). The U.S. Senate is currently considering the Syrian Accountability Act, which would require the president to impose a variety of sanctions against Syria until it can be certified that Damascus has ended its support for terrorism, withdrawn from Lebanon and ended its efforts to develop biological and chemical weapons. The president would also have the authority to waive some of the sanctions included in the legislation for national security reasons. Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the bill and the Senate is expected to vote on the measure today, according to a spokesman for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). As the bill has moved through Congress, the Bush administration has shifted its stance from opposing the bill, because of concerns it could jeopardize Syrian cooperation in the war on terrorism, to saying that that it would not oppose the bill’s passage. During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing yesterday, White House nominee Margaret Scobey appeared to go even farther and indicated strong support for the bill, saying it would help advance U.S. policy goals regarding Syria. “The Syrian Accountability Act, if passed, sets clear standards for Syrian behavior. I will do my utmost to encourage Syria to recognize that it is in its interest to respond to the concerns expressed both by the Congress and by the president and Secretary [of State Colin] Powell,” Scobey said. Scobey, who currently serves as deputy chief of the U.S. mission in Riyadh, yesterday reiterated White House complaints that Syria has failed to address U.S. concerns.  “Unfortunately, Syria has not taken positive steps to address other areas of concern to the United States; notably, support for terrorism, pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, and continuing occupation of Lebanon,” she said. Scobey also said, however, that she would work if confirmed to encourage Syrian officials to conduct needed political and economic reforms and would seek to develop greater U.S. engagement with the Syrian people. She added that her confirmation would help send a positive signal to Damascus. “If I am confirmed, it will signal that despite the deep differences between the U.S. and Syria, the U.S. remains committed to the level of engagement needed to resolve differences and establish a more stable relationship that serves our respective national interests,” Scobey said. The Lugar spokesman told Global Security Newswire today that Scobey is likely to be confirmed. Back to top

North Korean Nuclear Power Plant Development Shelved As expected, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization has suspended — and effectively killed — a project to build two nuclear reactors in North Korea, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Nov. 4). The organization announced that “the executive board decided to refer this to the capitals,” but officials who were present at the meeting said the suspension decision has been made. The United States has indicated that it would not allow the suspension to be lifted and the U.S. State Department said yesterday that it wants to program terminated. “Our view is that we want an end to the program,” said State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli. The suspension marks the end of the 1994 U.S.-North Korean Agreed Framework, which was brokered by U.S. officials to defuse a nuclear crisis similar to the one facing Northeast Asia today, the Times reported (David Sanger, New York Times, Nov. 5). Despite the KEDO decision, North Korea would probably not pull out of multilateral nuclear negotiations, according to analysts. “North Korea, which may have foreseen it, is unlikely to break its commitment to participating in the second round of six-nation talks. It would instead use it as a good bargaining chip at the talks,” said Chon Hyun-joon, a North Korea expert at the Korea Institute of National Unification. North Korea has previously accused Washington of delaying the project and Pyongyang has demanded compensation for the schedule slips (Jun Kwanwoo, Agence France-Presse, Nov. 5). Nuclear Progress Less Than Previously Thought Meanwhile, Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons development might not be as advanced as intelligence experts had feared, USA Today reported today. A U.S. intelligence official said the CIA is “not even certain” there is a uranium enrichment plant in North Korea. Pyongyang might have exaggerated its capability as part of “bluff and bluster to extract concessions from the United States,” the official added. Outside experts agreed. “Whatever they are doing appears constrained,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security. Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) said that if accurate, he “would find this report encouraging” (Slavin/Diamond, USA Today, Nov. 5). Back to top       ElBaradei: IAEA Will Cite Iran for Further Violations The International Atomic Energy Agency is expected this month to cite Iran for additional violations of its nuclear safeguards agreement, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Nov. 4). “We reported breaches in the past and there will be new ones in this upcoming report,” said IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said, according to his spokesman Mark Gwozdecky. The agency’s Board of Governors is scheduled to meet later this month. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Akbar Salehi, said last week that Tehran’s recent report to the agency would reveal “what could be considered failures” to adhere to safeguards required by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. These would be “in the same line” as earlier failures cited by agency officials, Salehi said (Agence France-Presse/Dawn, Nov. 5). Back to top       North Korea Lashes Out as U.N. Passes IAEA Resolution By Jim Wurst Global Security Newswire UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly yesterday voted 129-1 to pass a resolution approving the annual report of the International Atomic Energy Agency. North Korea, which was cited by the report as being noncompliant with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, cast the only negative vote (see GSN, Nov. 4). North Korean Deputy Ambassador Kim Chang Guk said the IAEA’s conclusion on Pyongyang’s noncompliance was “totally irrelevant” because his country had withdrawn from the NPT (see GSN, Jan. 10). Speaking in the assembly, he said the treaty withdrawal meant that Pyongyang also “flatly rejected” the safeguards agreement it had made with the IAEA to monitor the country’s nuclear activities. On Monday, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei presented the agency’s annual report to the assembly. In his speech, he said the agency has not been in North Korea since December 2002 thus “cannot provide any level of assurance about the nondiversion of nuclear material” since Pyongyang demanded inspectors leave the country. On Iran, ElBaradei said the IAEA is studying Iran’s declarations on its nuclear activities and will report to the agency’s Board of Governors later this month. The United States says Iran is developing nuclear weapons under the guise of a nuclear power program; Iran says the program is for peaceful purposes only. U.S. representative Ann Corkery said yesterday that North Korea’s “contravention” of the NPT “has led to one of the most serious threats to international security that we face today.” She said “the world has become increasingly alarmed” about Iran’s “illicit nuclear-related … activities. … Iran must completely and verifiably abandon its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.” She said the important lesson from North Korea, Iran and Iraq is “the world community must confront promptly and firmly any activities that raise questions about an NPT party’s obligation not to manufacture or acquire nuclear weapons.” Corkery added, “Any state tempted to violate its nuclear nonproliferation commitments needs to know it will be quickly detected and firmly confronted. Failure to do so affects us all.” ElBaradei also called for limiting the processing and production of the radioactive materials that can be used for bombs and placing facilities under international control as a way to control proliferation, and said it would be “prudent” for the United Nations and the IAEA to return to Iraq to “bring the weapons file to a closure.” The resolution accepting the IAEA’s report acknowledges the agency’s report and “takes note” of various resolutions of the IAEA Board of Governors, including on the application of safeguards and of the dealings with North Korea. Kim said the United States was to blame for Northeast Asian tensions. “The nuclear issue on Korean peninsula is the product of the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK,” he said, adding the IAEA “connives” with the United States and “puts pressure on the victim because it is a small country.” Kim also blamed Japan for increasing hostilities in the region. Japan “is not in a position to contribute positively” to the issue because Japanese officials were “abusing it for their political and military purposes,” he said. Several times, Kim referred to the Japanese as “Japs.” Kim said, “The Japs are now turning the whole society to … resurrect militarism and fascism with a view to reinvade Korea.” Japanese Deputy Ambassador Yoshiyuki Motomura called the comments “derogatory and we would like to ask the North Korean delegate to change this derogatory comment.” He said, “We have no animosity toward the North Korean state. … We are prepared to talk about all sorts of issues.” In an unusual rebuke from the podium, Assembly President Julian Hunte said, “I have really been alarmed at the level of the debate in terms of calling names” and he said he hoped North Korea “would desist from using this kind of language in this honorable house.” The North Korean delegation had already left the hall. Back to top       United States, Russia Near Agreement on Recovery of Spent Research Reactor Fuel The United States and Russia are set to sign an agreement under which U.S. funding will be provided to help return spent nuclear fuel from research reactors in former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe to Russia, ITAR-Tass reported today (see GSN, Sept. 23). The agreement is almost completed, said Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev, who is currently visiting the United States. The first project to be conducted under the agreement is the recovery of spent fuel from a reactor in Uzbekistan (see GSN, Jan. 3; Ivan Lebedev, ITAR-Tass, Nov. 5). Back to top       China, Pakistan Do Not Sign Expected Agreement on Nuclear Reactor China and Pakistan did not sign a new nuclear cooperation agreement during a visit to Beijing by Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, as had been expected, BBC News reported today (see GSN, Nov. 3). Reports that an agreement on Chinese aid to construct a nuclear power plant in Pakistan was to be finalized during Musharraf’s visit, which ended today, were “just speculation,” said a spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Beijing. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said there is now “consensus” between China and Pakistan on the planned nuclear facility (BBC News, Nov. 5). Back to top

WHO Officials Say U.S. Bioterrorist Defenses Are Misguided Several World Health Organization officials have criticized U.S. plans to respond to possible bioterrorist attacks, saying that Washington is seeking domestic solutions to an international problem and is underfunding the international organization, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 23). “It’s understandable for them to say we’ll do it ourselves instead of relying on a bunch of U.N. pinkos,” said Patrick Drury, project manager of the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, suggesting that a better strategy would be to bolster an international system that can identify and stop epidemics where they begin. “We’d like to see the United States engage in this as a multilateral effort,” Drury said. “They seem to be unilateral or bilateral in what they are doing,” he added. Although the United States is a major funder of WHO activities, the organization has not yet received $10 million that was promised this year to improve its disease detection capability, according to the Post. “The U.S. has not made an investment in global public health and the World Health Organization that anywhere matches the magnitude of the global health threat,” said public health specialist Margaret Hamburg of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. “We cannot address this problem by going it alone or by developing relationships on a one-on-one and ad-hoc basis,” she said. U.S. health officials refuted the charge, saying the United States was trying to balance domestic and international strategies. “This is a hollow complaint,” said Health and Human Services Department spokesman Bill Pierce. “I don’t know why they are complaining. Maybe they are covering up for some of their shortcomings,” he added. Difficulties in coordinating the international response to a bioterrorist attack were highlighted in a recent multilateral exercise called “Global Mercury,” the Post reported (see GSN, Oct. 23). In that simulation, terrorists infected themselves with smallpox and boarded commercial aircraft to several nations. Exercise participants in eight nations had problems working together, Drury said, and WHO officials were called in to mediate even though they were originally slated only to observe the simulated attack. “The practicality of ongoing teleconferences with eight different countries and different cultural backgrounds and different languages and different priorities” was extremely difficult, Drury said. “If you have problems between democratic countries, you can imagine what will happen if you put Iran and North Korea in the picture,” said Diego Buriot, director of the WHO’s Department of Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response in Lyon, France. Other WHO officials complained that although they might be asked to respond to an international smallpox outbreak, there is no program in place to vaccinate them against the disease. In addition, they said international disease surveillance systems need improvement, considering that more than 100 nations have no system at all to detect outbreaks (Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post, Nov. 5). [EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nuclear Threat Initiative is the sole sponsor of Global Security Newswire, which is published independently by National Journal Group.] Back to top       U.S. Officials Restrict Import of African Rodents to Stem Monkeypox The United States finalized animal import regulations this week to prevent a monkeypox outbreak in the United States, Reuters reported (see GSN, June 12). In June, officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an interim ban on the import and transport of prairie dogs and a number of rodents from Africa. “Today’s actions will minimize the likelihood of additional problems related to monkeypox,” FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan said (Reuters/Planet Ark, Nov. 5). In June, pet prairie dogs sparked a monkeypox outbreak in several U.S. states. The prairie dogs were reportedly infected by a Giant Gambian rat while they were housed in a pet store. Health officials have questioned why the rat was allowed into the United States. “Why in Sam Hill we let a fat, infected Gambian rat into America I’ll never know,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said earlier this year (David McGlinchey, Global Security Newswire, Nov. 5). Back to top

Lawmakers Allocate $88 Million for Pueblo Chemical Disposal Following a congressional conference committee, U.S. lawmakers allocated $88.3 million to a Colorado chemical weapons destruction facility now under development, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Sept. 12). The facility, near Pueblo, is slated to cost $1.5 billion and will be used to destroy 780,000 munitions filled with mustard agent, according to AP. The plant will use a neutralization process and is expected to be up and running by 2009, Pueblo Chemical Depot spokeswoman Marilyn Thompson said (Associated Press, Nov. 5). Back to top

South Korea Set to Deploy U.S.-Built Missiles Next Month South Korea is set to begin deploying next month U.S.-built missiles capable of hitting targets within North Korea, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said today (see GSN, Sept. 16). Seoul will deploy the Army Tactical Missile System Block 1A missiles near the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea, according to the Associated Press. South Korea plans to purchase 111 of the 300-kilometer-range missiles by next year (Soo-jeong Lee, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 5). Back to top       Iran Says It Will Not Develop Longer Range Missiles Iran does not intend to develop a missile with a longer range than the Shahab-3, which can fly more than 1,500 kilometers, Iran’s Defense Ministry announced today (see GSN, Sept. 22). “As we have said on several occasions and contrary to certain statements, Iran has no program to build a Shahab-4 missile,” the announcement said (see GSN, Jan. 28). It was not clear what prompted the Defense Ministry to release the statement (Agence France-Presse/IranMania.com, Nov. 5). Back to top

IAEA Calls on Countries to Join Nuclear Waste Treaty The International Atomic Energy Agency has called on countries to join an international treaty on the safe and secure handling of nuclear waste, Reuters reported today (see GSN, April 4). So far, 33 countries have ratified the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, which entered into force two years ago. Most of the ratifiers, however, are European countries that are not considered to be proliferation threats, according to Reuters. “It is ... disappointing that more countries have not ratified the convention,” said Tomihiro Taniguchi, head of the IAEA nuclear safety and security department, during a conference on the convention this week (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters/Environmental News Network, Nov. 5).   Back to top

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