U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Saturday that tests are being conducted on a cache of Iraqi mortar shells to confirm whether they contain blister agent (AFP photo/Sabah ARAR). Early Tests Show Chemical Shells Found in Iraq Danish and Icelandic troops in Iraq have unearthed 36 mortar shells that tested positive in preliminary tests for blister agent, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 9). The cache of 120 mm shells was found near the town of al-Quarnah in southern Iraq, according to AP. The shells are believed to have been left over from the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s, U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Saturday...Full Story

North Korea Reportedly Displays “Nuclear Deterrent Force” North Korea recently displayed weapon-grade plutonium to visiting U.S. nuclear and foreign policy experts, including two U.S. congressional aides, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Jan. 6)...Full Story

French Arrest of Chechen Sympathizers Foils Possible Biological Attack French authorities believe that a recent arrest of Islamic militants with ties to rebels in the disputed Russian region of Chechnya helped to prevent a possible biological attack in France, the London Guardian reported today (see GSN, Jan. 6)...Full Story

	Monday, January 12, 2004

Early Tests Show Chemical Shells Found in Iraq Danish and Icelandic troops in Iraq have unearthed 36 mortar shells that tested positive in preliminary tests for blister agent, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 9). The cache of 120 mm shells was found near the town of al-Quarnah in southern Iraq, according to AP. The shells are believed to have been left over from the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s, U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Saturday. According to the Danish Army Operational Command, the shells were found wrapped in plastic and damaged, and appeared to have been buried for at least a decade. The command also said that British experts conducted a preliminary test on the shells, which detected “blister gas.” “We’re doing some preliminary tests to ensure that if they do contain any kind of blister agent that we can dispose of them properly,” Kimmitt said. More definitive test results were expected this week (Robert Reid, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Jan. 11). Bush Targeted Iraq Before 9/11, Ex-White House Official Says Meanwhile, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill has said that U.S. President George W. Bush began planning the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein soon after Bush took office. “From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” O’Neill said in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, aired yesterday, to promote a new book. According to O’Neill, who was dismissed from the White House more than a year ago, Iraq was discussed at the first National Security Council meeting of the Bush administration (Richard Stevenson, New York Times, Jan.12). Describing early NSC meetings, O’Neill said, “It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this’” (Associated Press/CBSNews.com, Jan. 12). “For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap,” he said. In an interview with Time, O’Neill said that he never saw any evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. “In the 23 months I was there, I never saw anything that I would characterize as evidence of weapons of mass destruction,” O’Neill said. “There were allegations and assertions by people. But I’ve been around a hell of a long time, and I know the difference between evidence and assertions and illusions or allusions and conclusions that one could draw from a set of assumptions,” he added. A White House spokesman refused to comment on O’Neill’s comments, saying that the Bush administration “simply is not in the business of doing book reviews” (Stevenson, New York Times). Back to top       Russia Slow to Join Proliferation Security Initiative Russian officials are hesitant to join the Proliferation Security Initiative, senior U.S. officials said Friday (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2003). The 11-nation effort is intended to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction by intercepting illicit international cargo, but Russia was not originally invited to join, the Washington Times reported Saturday. “They are not ready to join the process,” said a senior U.S. State Department official. “They are interested but are raising a lot of questions,” he added. Russia would be an “important player” and “would add political weight” but Moscow is concerned about the legality and effectiveness of the initiative, the State Department official said (Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times, Jan. 10). Back to top       Uzbekistan to Receive CTR Funding Despite Poor Human Rights Record The United States will continue to provide funding to Uzbekistan through the Cooperative Threat Reduction program despite the former Soviet republic’s poor human rights performance, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 8, 2003). A human rights evaluation is required as part of the CTR program, according to the Post. While many former Soviet republics have a history of poor human rights performances, no country had ever formally failed the test until Uzbekistan, U.S. State Department officials said Friday. Even so, U.S. President George W. Bush waived the human rights certification requirement on the grounds of national interests, the Post reported. The U.S. decision to not certify Uzbekistan’s human rights performance, while mainly symbolic, sends Uzbekistan a message “that its relationship with the United States may tangibly suffer because of political repression,” said Human Rights Watch advocate Tom Malinowski (Peter Slevin, Washington Post, Jan. 11). Back to top

North Korea Reportedly Displays “Nuclear Deterrent Force” North Korea recently displayed weapon-grade plutonium to visiting U.S. nuclear and foreign policy experts, including two U.S. congressional aides, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Jan. 6). The visiting groups were shown North Korea’s “nuclear deterrent force,” according to a spokesman from Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry. The group “spent about a day at Yongbyon, obtaining the perspective from North Korea on its nuclear program,” said Keith Luse, an aide to Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Victor Cha, a North Korea expert at Georgetown University, said the display could have been used to gain leverage at future talks. Pyongyang might also be attempting “a grand strategy of taking incremental steps to get the world to accept that they are a nuclear weapons state,” he added (Fairclough/Hutzler, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 12). Stanford University professor John Lewis and former Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory Director Siegfried Hecker led the nongovernmental portion of the visit. According to a U.S. official, North Korean officials told the group that the plutonium was recently reprocessed but had not yet been placed in a nuclear device. North Korea said it was willing to “freeze” the process to resolve the current nuclear crisis. “If the visit of Lewis and the nuclear specialist and their party helped the U.S. even a bit to drop its ambiguous view on (North Korea’s) nuclear activities, it would serve as a substantial foundation for a peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue between (North Korea) and the U.S. in the future,” according to the North Korean Foreign Ministry (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Jan. 11). “If the Bush administration … [would] have a willingness to agree on ‘compensating for the D.P.R.K.’s freeze of nuclear activities’ as the first-phase measure, it [North Korea] is willing to freeze its nuclear activities based on the graphite-moderated reactors as a starting point for the denuclearization of the country,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Jan. 12). U.S. officials said they are hoping Hecker can shed light on the amount of reprocessed fissile material in North Korea. Previous intelligence estimates have said that Pyongyang most likely has built one or two nuclear weapons and has enough fuel to make two or three more. “This was all about saying, ‘See, we’ve got it, so treat us with some respect,” said an official familiar with the visit to Yongbyon (David Sanger, New York Times, Jan. 11). Back to top       United States, China Agree to Increased Nuclear Nonproliferation Cooperation The United States and China today signed a “statement of intent” designed to further cooperation in the field of nuclear nonproliferation (see GSN, Dec. 29, 2003). The statement of intent was signed in Beijing by U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and China Atomic Energy Authority Chairman Zhang Huazhu, according to a U.S. Energy Department press release. The preliminary agreement establishes a process for increased cooperation between the United States and China and between the two countries and the International Atomic Energy Agency on several issues, including efforts to strengthen export controls, international nuclear safeguards and physical protection of nuclear materials and facilities, the Energy Department said. Abraham said that the agreement “is an important step toward accelerating the global effort to reduce the threat posed by the proliferation weapons of mass destruction” (U.S. Energy Department release, Jan. 12). Back to top       Solana Visits Iran Seeking Nuclear Dialogue European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived in Iran last night for a two-day visit intended to boost nuclear dialogue between Europe and Tehran, the Financial Times reported (see GSN, Jan. 9). “Relations with an important country like Iran are based on mutual respect,” Solana said. “We try to solve problems thought the mechanism of dialogue and not through any other way,” he added. After meeting with European foreign ministers, Iran agreed last year to sign the Additional Protocol to its nuclear safeguards agreement and allow U.N. nuclear inspectors greater access to Iranian nuclear facilities. “The challenge (for the EU) is to make it clear that it takes Iran’s security concerns seriously, while showing that nuclear weapons are not the answer,” said Steven Everts, a senior researcher at the Center for European Reform in London. Tehran Asserts Nuclear Rights Meanwhile, Iranian leaders lashed out at the United States recently — shortly after some observers had seen signs of diminished animosity between the two longtime rivals. There is “no sign of U.S. animosity towards Iran decreasing,” said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran (Gareth Smyth, Financial Times, Jan. 11). “They have wrongly accused us of having nuclear weapons,” said Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. “We have signed the Additional Protocol and if the Americans have goodwill now they should take back their words and also accept our legal right to have peaceful nuclear technology under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” he added (Reuters/Gulf News, Jan. 11). Back to top

French Arrest of Chechen Sympathizers Foils Possible Biological Attack French authorities believe that a recent arrest of Islamic militants with ties to rebels in the disputed Russian region of Chechnya helped to prevent a possible biological attack in France, the London Guardian reported today (see GSN, Jan. 6). Last week, eight suspects were arrested near the French city of Lyon, according to the Guardian. The eight suspects are connected to Menad Benchellali, who has been in jail since December after being arrested during an investigation into efforts by French Islamic militant groups to send recruits to fight in Chechnya. Evidence gathered during last week’s arrest made it “very plain” that an attack involving botulism or ricin was being prepared, said a French interior ministry official. The eight suspects have said that Benchellali was a chemical expert who had been trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and that he had been working to produce botulism and ricin toxins, the ministry official said. The suspects also said that Benchellali had tested his chemicals on animals, the Guardian reported (Jon Henley, London Guardian, Jan. 12). Back to top

Missile Defense Agency Tests Long-Delayed Lockheed Booster The U.S. Missile Defense Agency completed a successful test launch Friday of the booster rocket that defense contractor Lockheed Martin is developing for Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, the Lompoc Record reported today (see GSN, Jan. 8). The launch took place Friday at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. “It was a lovely launch,” said Vandenberg spokeswoman Staff Sgt. Rebecca Dant. Agency officials have delayed the test of Lockheed’s booster after numerous technological setbacks and accidents. On Friday the missile traveled 2,600 miles and landed in the Pacific Ocean. “The test today was really another step forward,” MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said. The Pentagon will conduct a test with the GMD’s other booster — developed by Orbital Sciences — at the end of January or the beginning of February, the Lompoc Record reported. That launch will involve a simulated target. The Orbital booster was initially test launched last summer and is expected to be used in the initial fielding of the missile defense shield (Janene Scully, Lompoc Record, Jan. 12). Back to top       Pentagon Wants to Test Miniature Kill Vehicle By 2008 U.S. Missile Defense Agency officials are hoping to hold the first missile intercept test for the Miniature Kill Vehicle system in 2007 or 2008, Aerospace Daily reported today (see GSN, Jan. 8). The MKV would feature multiple interceptors loaded onto a single booster rocket and is intended to defeat ballistic missiles armed with multiple warheads or decoys. The intercept test would follow a design review, expected for the end of 2004, and series of other tests. Agency officials are looking toward 2005 for an indoor test of a single miniature kill vehicle interceptor. Agency officials hope to field the system as early as 2010. The system is “not a real far reach technologically,” said Gary Payton, the agency’s deputy for advanced systems. He said also that the Pentagon must use all available technology to distinguish decoys from enemy warheads. “We need every single kind of sensor that we can have because we might not know what a bad guy’s warhead looks like until a war starts,” Payton said (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, Jan. 12). Back to top

British “Dirty Bomb” Suspect Pleads Not Guilty As expected, a British man pleaded not guilty Friday in a U.S. court on charges of having attempted to sell a wide variety of weapons, including “dirty bombs” to undercover agents posing as terrorists, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Jan. 9).  Hemant Lakhani, 69, has been held without bail in the United States following his arrest in August (Associated Press/Washington Post, Jan. 10). A U.S. federal judge in Newark, N.J, scheduled pretrial oral arguments for the case on April 26, according to The Hindu (The Hindu, Jan. 10). Back to top       Germany Purchases Potassium Iodide Tablets The German environment ministry has said that Germany has purchased 137 million potassium iodide tablets to protect nearby residents of nuclear power plants from radiation exposure, the Australian newspaper The Age reported today (see GSN, Dec. 9, 2003). The purchase of 137 million potassium iodide tablets was based on recommendations by radiation authorities and was not due to terrorism concerns, a ministry spokesman said. Potassium iodide helps prevent thyroid cancer in the event of radiation exposure (The Age, Jan. 12).           Back to top

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