Technicians offload a U.S. missile interceptor silo from a barge last year in Alaska. The system is set to become operational in 11 weeks (Missile Defense Agency photo). Rumsfeld Directs Missile Defense to Operate Oct. 1 By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has quietly ordered elements of a long-range missile defense system to begin operating on Oct. 1, four weeks before the 2004 presidential election, according to a U.S. military official (see GSN, July 2)...Full Story

Color-Coded Terrorism Warnings Confusing, GAO Finds The color-coded system for designating the risk level of a terrorist attack against the United States might actually block localities’ ability to respond effectively to potential incidents, according to a report issued yesterday by the General Accounting Office (see GSN, Dec. 29, 2003)...Full Story

Russia-Iran Nuclear Plant Deal Could Be Signed This Fall; Iran Says No Direct Talks With U.S. Russia and Iran are poised to sign an agreement later this year for the return of spent nuclear fuel from the planned Bushehr power plant, RIA Novosti reported Friday (see GSN, June 30)...Full Story

	Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Color-Coded Terrorism Warnings Confusing, GAO Finds The color-coded system for designating the risk level of a terrorist attack against the United States might actually block localities’ ability to respond effectively to potential incidents, according to a report issued yesterday by the General Accounting Office (see GSN, Dec. 29, 2003). A survey of 84 agencies, states and U.S. territories found that threat warnings were often vague and inadequate, and had “hindered their ability to determine whether they were at risk” and what measures to take in response, the agency said, according to the New York Times. The report prompted leading members of Congress to call for an overhaul of the color-coded system. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) said the officials overseeing the system ought to “make it work better or get rid of it.” Cox and committee member Jim Turner (D-Texas) said the public was at risk for “threat fatigue.” “I’m afraid if we don’t make improvements in the system, the public’s going to lose trust and confidence in that system and won’t pay any attention to it anymore,” Turner said. Domestic security officials said they have sought to offer more detailed guidance in recent months on the threat system, according to the Times. “The homeland security system is a good system,” said Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. “Over the past year, it has continued to evolve into more of a risk-based system because we are further along in our assessment of the nation’s critical infrastructure, allowing us to determine the impact an attack would have,” he added. Cox and Turner said they planned to press this week during consideration of an intelligence bill by the House to give the homeland security secretary authority to give limited advisories to particular states, regions or sectors. Issuing alerts “willy-nilly” when 90 percent of the country may not be affected is expensive and could be counterproductive, Turner said. However, domestic security officials had been announcing more specific, regional alerts — in the past 16 months the department has issued approximately 80 bulletins to specific regions, sectors or facilities that may be at particular risk, the officials said (Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, July 13). Back to top       9/11 Commission to Examine Congressional Failures The U.S. national commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is planning to wrap up its efforts by focusing on the failure of Congress to better confront the threat of terrorism, Knight Ridder reported today (see GSN, July 12). “Congress is not blameless in this,” said commission Chairman Tom Kean. “They held very few hearings on terrorism. You can’t just let Congress off the hook,” he said. Among the questions the commission is expected to investigate before releasing its final report, set to occur July 22, is why Congress failed to push U.S. intelligence to more aggressively pursue al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, as well as why terrorism was not the focus of more public hearings, according to Knight Ridder. Many members of Congress have indicated that they could have done a better job, Kean said. “Nobody who we have spoken to in Congress is satisfied,” he said (Chris Mondics, Knight Ridder/Monterey Herald, July 13). Back to top

U.S. Working to Develop Earth-Penetrating Missile The U.S. military is working to modify a conventionally armed missile system to make it capable of attacking deeply buried targets, such as WMD stockpiles, Defense News reported yesterday (see GSN, June 28). In March, the U.S. Defense Department successfully tested the Army Tactical Missile-System Penetrator (ATACMS-P), which combines an Army missile with a warhead designed to go underground before exploding, according to Defense News. While Pentagon officials refused to specify the possible target of such a system, analysts have said the weapon would be useful against North Korea, which is believed to have developed an extensive system of underground tunnels and caves. “Presumably a lot of (what the Pentagon would consider North Korean) high-value assets like nuclear and weapons of mass destruction are buried deep underground, where they wouldn’t be vulnerable to any sort of U.S. strike,” said Georgetown University professor and Korea security expert Victor Cha (Jason Sherman, Defense News, July 12). Back to top       CIA Ignored Warnings on Credibility of Iraqi Who Made Mobile BW Facility Claims, Senate Report Says The CIA ignored a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency official’s warning about the questionable reliability of the Iraqi defector known as “Curveball” — the main source for claims that prewar Iraq had mobile biological weapons facilities, according to the Senate report on prewar Iraq intelligence released last week (see GSN, July 12). The CIA described the defector as a “credible source” in the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq’s alleged WMD efforts, according to the Washington Post. However, a DIA official who met with the defector in May 2000 found him to have a “terrible hangover,” which led to questions over his reliability, according to the Senate report (see GSN, May 17). German intelligence officials initially debriefed Curveball. In late 2002, the DIA official pressed German officials for direct access to the defector, but was told that they were unsure of the defector’s reliability, according to the Post. While the DIA official told the CIA of both his suspicions and those of German intelligence before the 2002 NIE was prepared, the information seemed to have little effect on the document, the Senate report said (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, July 13). Meanwhile, the withheld sections of the declassified version of the Senate report include an assessment of the credibility of another Iraqi defector whose claims of prewar Iraq’s mobile biological facilities have been discredited, U.S. officials said. They said the assessment remains classified because the defector is still working for British intelligence. In the classified version of the report, a three-page section criticizes the credibility of a defector known as “Red River,” who was one of four sources on prewar Iraq’s alleged mobile biological facilities cited by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in a speech last year to the United Nations. The public version of the report, however, has all but one paragraph in the section redacted, the New York Times reported. U.S. officials said that Red River failed a polygraph examination. (Douglas Jehl, New York Times, July 13). Back to top

Russia-Iran Nuclear Plant Deal Could Be Signed This Fall; Iran Says No Direct Talks With U.S. Russia and Iran are poised to sign an agreement later this year for the return of spent nuclear fuel from the planned Bushehr power plant, RIA Novosti reported Friday (see GSN, June 30). “The agreement may be signed during [my] visit in October-November,” said Russian Federal Nuclear Energy Agency head Alexander Rumyantsev. “I’ll hardly go there in summer,” he added. He added that technical issues and costs for the fuel’s return and storage have yet to be resolved. “Nothing has actually changed here but differences remain,” he said. “The procedure for the return of the fuel has not yet been fixed and special containers still have to be developed,” he added. The light-water reactor is expected to begin operating in December 2005 and should supply electricity by early 2006, Rumyantsev said. Rumyantsev said experts are studying the potential for a second reactor at Bushehr. “Of course, Russia can begin another project in Iran,” he said. “But the matter still has to be discussed at a high intergovernmental level,” he added (RIA Novosti, July 12). Meanwhile, Iran yesterday ruled out holding bilateral nuclear talks with the United States, Reuters reported. “There is no justification for accepting suggestions to hold negotiations with a country which adopts a bullying attitude towards others,” said Hassan Rohani, secretary general of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei told U.S. officials in March that Iran could be open to a negotiated solution to the standoff and suggested direct contact between the adversaries, U.S. officials said. Rohani also dismissed the value of talks with Germany, France and the United Kingdom. “The other party to the negotiations for us is the International Atomic Energy Agency and we have nothing to do with any other country,” he said. “If we are talking with the Europeans countries, it is because we have normal relations with them and they took the initiative to do so,” he added (Reuters, July 12). Back to top       U.S. Offer to North Korea Detailed The United States offered to remove North Korea from its list of terrorist states as part of a package of nuclear-freeze incentives offered during last month’s six-party talks in Beijing, the Korea Times reported (see GSN, July 12). The “five corresponding measures” in the U.S. proposal included: supplying heavy fuel oil; issuing a provisional security guarantee; providing longer-term energy aid; holding direct talks about the lifting of economic sanctions and removing North Korea from the U.S. list of terrorist states; and retraining North Korean nuclear scientists during a three-month “preparatory period” of dismantlement, according to a press release posted yesterday on the South Korean Foreign Ministry’s official Web site. The United States also said it would give a “permanent” guarantee not to invade North Korea or seek “regime change” if Pyongyang froze its nuclear programs on the way toward complete denuclearization, the Times reported. An outline of the incentives, based on a South Korean proposal, was released during the Beijing talks. However, this is the first time any of the countries involved in the talks officially confirmed the details of the proposal, according to the Times (Ryu Jin, Korea Times, July 13). Back to top       Russian Tu-22M Strategic Bomber Crashes A Russian Tu-22M Backfire strategic bomber crashed last week, killing all on board and prompting a grounding of all Tu-22Ms until the cause of the crash is determined (see GSN, Feb. 10). The incident occurred Thursday night as the bomber attempted to land at the Saltsy airfield in the Novgorod region, according to ITAR-Tass. All four crewmembers on board the aircraft were killed, a Russian Air Force spokesman said, adding that the bomber was unarmed at the time of the crash. A source at the Russian Federal Aviation and Space Search-and-Rescue Directorate said Friday that the crash was probably caused by “an error in piloting” (ITAR-Tass, July 9). Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, however, said that “a technical malfunction” was more likely to blame (RIA Novosti, July 12). Russia decided to suspend all Tu-22M flights until the cause of the crash is known, a Russian air force spokesman said Friday (Interfax, July 9). Back to top       Kerry Criticizes Bush’s Claims on Nonproliferation By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2004 presidential election, yesterday criticized President George W. Bush’s claims of success in preventing nuclear proliferation (see GSN, July 12). During a stop at a U.S. Energy Department facility in Tennessee yesterday to view equipment recovered from Libya’s nuclear weapons program, Bush praised the work done since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction. As examples, Bush cited Libya’s decision to end its WMD efforts, the dismantlement of the international nuclear network headed by top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Kerry criticized Bush’s assertions in a brief statement yesterday, citing as examples of White House failures the inability to resolve the crises surrounding suspected nuclear weapons efforts in Iran and North Korea. Kerry also criticized the administration’s lack of progress in securing stockpiles of nuclear materials around the world, which experts fear might be sought by terrorists seeking to develop crude nuclear or radiological weapons. “It’s not enough to give speeches — America will only be safer when we achieve results,” Kerry said. Kerry also reiterated his pledge that if elected, he would make preventing terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction his “No. 1 security goal.” During a speech last month in Florida, Kerry outlined several nonproliferation proposals, which included increased and accelerated efforts to secure nuclear material stockpiles, increased funding for U.S. efforts to secure and dispose of former Soviet WMD stockpiles, and the appointment of a coordinator for nuclear terrorism and counterproliferation to oversee nonproliferation efforts. Kerry also said that he would seek bilateral talks with North Korea and would try to build an international coalition to provide nuclear fuel to Iran’s civilian nuclear plants to test Tehran’s claims that it seeks nuclear power for peaceful purposes (see GSN, June 2). White House supporters have accused Kerry of copying proposals that have already been implemented by the Bush administration and of being willing to provide too many concessions to rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. During a nonproliferation conference held last month in Washington, though, Harvard University Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Director Graham Allison said that he believed that Kerry would do a better job than Bush in preventing WMD proliferation. He offered several reasons, including the sense of urgency that Kerry would bring to the issue and the senator’s plans to seek increased international cooperation. In his remarks yesterday, Kerry also addressed the debate over intelligence reform, which has been heightened by the release last week of a Senate report criticizing the U.S. intelligence community for overstating the available information on prewar Iraq’s WMD efforts. Kerry said that if elected, he would appoint a national director of intelligence to oversee the U.S. intelligence community. Back to top       Russia Plans Security Exercises at Nuclear Sites Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has invited foreign observers to watch security exercises planned for next month at Russian nuclear facilities, RIA Novosti reported yesterday (see GSN, July 8). “We pay particular attention to this issue and are ready to show that the existing myths about Russia’s problems on this direction are really myths,” Ivanov said during a press conference in London. “I am speaking at least about military facilities,” he added (RIA Novosti, July 12). Back to top

Florida Building Free of Anthrax The site of the first in a series of anthrax attacks in 2001 was declared clear of spores yesterday, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 12). “We have no viable spores in the building,” said Karen Cavanagh, chief operating officer of BioONE and Sabre Technical Services, the two companies heading up the decontamination in Boca Raton, Fla. The cleanup crew began pumping chlorine dioxide into the American Media Inc. building on Sunday and finished the decontamination process at 7:30 a.m. yesterday. Follow-up tests could take up to eight weeks and are required before a quarantine is lifted, the Associated Press reported. BioONE plans to transform the building into a headquarters for its new crisis management venture by year’s end, according to the Associated Press (Associated Press/CNN, July 12). Back to top

Umatilla Chemical Incinerator Ready to Burn The U.S. Army’s Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon is expected to be ready as early as August to begin incinerating the first of more than 220,000 munitions containing nerve and mustard agent, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 17). On Aug. 13, the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission is set to render a final verdict on the project when it considers the results of three years of testing. “It’s time,” said Frank Harkenrider, mayor of nearby Hermiston from 1990 to 2000. “It’s time to say yes to the incinerator,” he added. Destroying the Umatilla stockpile and is expected to take six years — three years past the initial 2007 deadline set by the Chemical Weapons Convention — and cost $24 billion (Jeff Barnard, Associated Press/Albuquerque Tribune, July 12). Back to top       French Aid Discussed for Russian CW Destruction French and Russian officials have recently discussed accelerating French cooperation in disposing of Russian chemical weapons, Interfax reported Friday (see GSN, June 11). During the meeting, the French and Russian delegations discussed a proposal to have France provide chemical weapons destruction aid through an existing Swiss-Russian agreement, according to Interfax (see GSN, Jan. 28). The two countries also discussed French support in establishing an environmental monitoring agency in 2006 at a chemical weapons disposal plant under construction near the town of Shchuchye, Interfax reported (Interfax, July 9). Back to top

Proposed Indian Defense Budget Contains Increases for Ballistic Missile Funding India’s proposed defense budget for fiscal 2005 would increase defense spending by almost 30 percent over current levels, with some of the extra money designated for developing Agni ballistic missile units, according to reports (see GSN, July 6). India last week announced plans to spend $16.8 billion on defense in fiscal 2005, an increase of 27 percent over present defense spending, the Associated Press reported. Overall, India’s planned defense budget represents 16 percent of its total $105 billion budget for fiscal 2005 (Matthew Pennington, Associated Press, July 12). The increased defense spending, intended to help modernize India’s armed forces, includes more than $7 billion to purchase weapons systems and to implement Agni ballistic missile units, according to the New Delhi Pioneer (Rahul Atta, The Pioneer, July 9 in FBIS-NES, July 12). Pakistan warned yesterday that India’s increased defense spending is a “cause for concern.” “This would wittingly or unwittingly accelerate the arms race between the two countries which we could have avoided because both India and Pakistan need massive resources for poverty alleviation, education, health and for the social sector and creating new jobs,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said. Khan also said that Pakistan has increased its own defense spending, though at a smaller rate than India, and would seek to maintain the “competitive edge of our strategic and conventional capabilities” (Pennington, Associated Press). This year, Pakistan increased its defense spending by 21.7 percent, from $2.8 billion to $3.4 billion (Asia Pulse, July 12). Meanwhile, former Pakistani intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Hameed Gul said that Pakistan should end its self-imposed nuclear test moratorium and conduct a test of a hydrogen bomb, the Pakistani newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt reported Friday (Nawa-i-Waqt, July 9 in FBIS-NES, July 12). Back to top

Rumsfeld Directs Missile Defense to Operate Oct. 1 By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has quietly ordered elements of a long-range missile defense system to begin operating on Oct. 1, four weeks before the 2004 presidential election, according to a U.S. military official (see GSN, July 2). Rumsfeld’s order appears to be a closely held secret. Representatives from the Office of Secretary of Defense, the Missile Defense Agency, and the Strategic Command contacted by Global Security Newswire either insisted that no such order exists, said they were unaware of one, or referred questions to other sections of the Defense Department. Rumsfeld issued the directive, called a “warning order,” on an undisclosed date following a determination by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the system’s readiness and need for activation, according to the official, who requested anonymity. “A message has been sent out into the field to commence initial defensive operations on 1 October of this year,” the official said July 2. The order schedules initial operation of ground-based interceptors, radar and other equipment a month and a day before the Nov. 2 Election Day, when voters will decide whether to give President George W. Bush a second term. It implements Bush’s less-specific December 2002 classified directive to “begin deployment of a set of missile defense capabilities in 2004.” In March, U.S. Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) accused the administration of timing the initial operations of the system, still under development and missing key technologies, for political purposes. Then-Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen Ronald Kadish disputed that, saying the Sept. 30 goal for preparing the system for initial operations was set for “internal management purposes” and was not politically motivated (see GSN, March 26). Another agency official said recently that “vulnerability,” not politics is driving the deployment. “A lot of people think we have missile defense capability now. We don’t.  What this will allow us to do is having a system that we are still testing that we know has some capability — some is better than nothing at this point — to defend ourselves if somebody shoots at us,” said the agency’s Deputy for Test and Assessment Brig. Gen. Mark Shackelford in a June 18 presentation. No Confirmation from Spokespeople Office of Secretary of Defense spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin last month said in an e-mail that operation of the system would begin this year but that “There is no ‘date specific.’”  Yesterday, she refused to comment on the matter and referred additional questions to Missile Defense Agency spokesman Richard Lehner. Lehner in a July 2 e-mail said there was “No determination yet from combatant commands on when alert status would begin.” Yesterday, he again denied knowledge of the warning order.  “I can honestly tell you that I haven’t seen or heard anything regarding any type of direction or “warning order” regarding IDO [initial defensive operations] beginning on 1 October or any other date,” he said. Lehner said further in an e-mail that questions about the system’s operation are outside the purview of his agency and rest with “U.S. Strategic Command, U.S. Northern Command, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others.” A spokesperson at U.S. Strategic Command, which will be responsible for overall operation of the system, referred Global Security Newswire to Irwin. The source for this story said the Office of Secretary of Defense should be able to provide detail on the order, “since a decision has been made.” Schedules Lehner said that the Missile Defense Agency is not rushing to meet any particular deadline to have the system ready for operation. “MDA is proceeding in a very orderly and disciplined manner to provide to the combatant commanders what is necessary for having an initial defensive capability starting this year, and I’ve not seen any indication of any ‘rush’ or increased tempo for beginning operations in order to meet a specific calendar date,” he said by e-mail.  The agency, which is managing development and production of the missile defense system, aims to have in place five ground-based interceptor missiles at Fort Greely, Alaska, by the end of September, Lehner said, along with command and control, battle management and communications infrastructure, and land- and ship-based radar. “We are on track to do that,” he said. Critics have argued the system is not ready for deployment because key technologies will be missing, and the Pentagon’s top testing official has said the system is not sufficiently developed for testing under operationally realistic conditions (see GSN, June 8). Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumed Democratic nominee for president, in a June 3 speech said the deployment would be a costly waste of money. “We cannot afford to spend billions to deploy an unproven missile defense system.  Not only is it not ready, but it’s the wrong priority for a war on terror,” he said. The Missile Defense Agency’s Shackelford, however, said the agency believes the system would be capable of handling a North Korean missile attack. “The analysis that we’ve done, the testing we’ve done to date leads us to believe that our system is effective against the sophistication of the threat that we would expect to come from North Korea,” he said. Back to top       Canada Risks Air Defenses If It Fails to Join U.S. Missile Defense Effort, U.S. Ambassador Says Canada could lose some emergency decision-making authority in the event of a terrorist attack or other catastrophic event in North America by not participating in the U.S. missile defense program, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci said yesterday (see GSN, April 30). Canadians had automatic input on military decisions during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Cellucci said. “On (9/11), there was a Canadian general on duty at North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) and if a (suspect) passenger jet was flying over Canada, the prime minister would be consulted about shooting it down,” Cellucci said. “It’s very much in Canada’s security interests to be at the table making those security decisions,” he added (Bill Kaufmann, Calgary Sun, July 13). Canada should join to program, said the country’s top official at NORAD. “It just makes sense to me to be part of missile defense, when you’re part of all the other defense functions,” said Lt. Gen. Rick Findley, NORAD’s deputy commander. “Why wouldn’t you want to be part of that last chunk? We already do missile warning,” he added. Findley’s assessment is the strongest indication yet that Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is prepared to sign on to the plan, according to the Ottawa Citizen. Both U.S. and Canadian officials have questioned whether Canada could continue to be a full partner in NORAD without participating in the program, according to the Citizen. Canada contributes 30 percent of the system’s personnel and permanently staffs the deputy commander’s chair. Findley was NORAD duty commander the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and ordered fighter jets into North American skies during the attacks on New York and Washington. While U.S. officers at NORAD have already begun training to operate the missile shield, Canadian personnel are waiting for their country’s decision to see if they will be involved, Findley said. Findley said Ottawa’s hesitation has strained military relations with Washington, but that he did not see any damage as serious. “It’s a little bit like a marriage proposal. Someone’s asked us to get married and we’ve kind of said we won’t give you a yes or a no answer yet,” Findley said.   “So it’s that impatience of the bridegroom waiting for that answer. It’ll come.  They’ll accept a yes or no answer,” he added (Mike Blanchfield, Ottawa Citizen, July 13). Martin discussed Canada’s potential participation in the program shortly after the country’s June 28 election, according to Cellucci. “When I talked to the prime minister last week he did say this was an issue that the government would address,” Cellucci said, CBC News reported. The cabinet is poised to make a decision before October, when the first U.S. interceptors are expected to be installed in Alaska, according to Martin’s office (see related GSN story, today; CBC News, July 12). Back to top       Poland Wants to House U.S. Missile Interceptors Polish leaders are looking to bring more than U.S. radar stations to their country as the United States continues talks on installing missile defense facilities with several Central and Eastern European nations, the Guardian reported today (see GSN, June 28). Polish officials said negotiations with Washington have been proceeding for eight months. “We’re very interested in becoming a concrete part of the arrangement,” said Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Boguslaw Majewski. “We have been debating this with the Americans since the end of last year,” Majewski added. U.S. Defense Department officials have been surveying the southern Polish mountains, seeking sites for two or three radar stations for tracking missiles, other Warsaw sources said, according to the Guardian. Poland also hopes to host a missile interceptor site, reinforced underground launching silos, from which long-range missiles would be sent to destroy enemy missiles. That would be the first such site outside the United States. “An interceptor site would be more attractive,” said former Polish Defense Minister Janusz Onyszkiewicz. “It wouldn’t be a hard sell in Poland,” he added. The U.S. Defense Department has already requested modest funding to begin studying the possibility of a missile interceptor site in Europe, according to the Arms Control Association in Washington. Two sites are now being built in the United States, one in Alaska and the second in California. “This is a serious runner,” said a Western European diplomat in Warsaw. “It’s pretty substantial.  The Poles are very keen to have an interceptor site. They want a physical American presence on their territory. They wouldn’t be paying anything.  It would be a totally American facility,” the diplomat added. Negotiations over stationing of advanced U.S. radar systems are also under way with the Czech Republic, senior officials in Prague confirmed. Talks are also being held with officials in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, according to the Arms Control Association and sources in Warsaw. The potential European facility is seen primarily by the United States as a defense against missiles from the Middle East, particularly Syria or Iran, according to the Guardian. Polish officials said their involvement in the project would have to be discussed with Russia in order to head off regional tension. “The Americans are working quite hard on this,” Majewski said. “They need to clear the path with the Russians and reach a consensus before we will move ahead,” he added (Ian Traynor, The Guardian, July 13). Back to top       U.S.-Russian Missile Defense Cooperation Should Start With Smaller Projects, Former MDA Chief Says The failures of a joint U.S.-Russian program to develop two ballistic missile-tracking satellites demonstrates that U.S.-Russian missile defense cooperation should begin by focusing on smaller projects, the former head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said earlier this month (see GSN, June 18). The United States and Russia began the Russian-American Observation Satellite (RAMOS) program in 1992, but the agency is seeking to end the program at the end of fiscal 2004 due to years of stalled progress and bureaucratic disputes, according to Jane’s Defense Weekly. “If we can be successful in the short run on more modest goals, then we will be able to move forward quicker on more ambitious activities,” said former MDA chief Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, who left his post on July 2. “I think the biggest problem (with RAMOS was) that we couldn’t, at [the] government-to-government level, make the agreements allowing us to proceed without worrying about barriers that have to be overcome,” he added.  Kadish also said that missile defense cooperation discussions are set to be held soon between the United States and Russia. Defense sources told Jane’s that the United States is interested in using Russian missiles as targets in training and missile characterization exercises. The countries might also collaborate on development of radar to track ballistic missiles (Michael Sirak, Jane’s Defense Weekly, July 14).   Back to top

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