U.S. Response:  New Permits Proposed for Shipping Hazardous Material

By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Transportation Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration this week proposed a hazardous materials safety permit program for motor carriers transporting certain kinds of dangerous cargo, including radioactive materials (see GSN, July 3).

Under the proposal, motor carriers would have to obtain a safety permit to transport four types of cargo — more than 55 pounds of certain types of explosives; more than a quart of hazardous material deemed to be toxic if inhaled; more than 3,500 gallons of liquefied natural gas; and highway route-controlled quantities of controlled radioactive materials, considered to be a quantity of material that emits high levels of radioactivity.  The safety permit, which would be valid for two years, would be required to be carried in the vehicle transporting designated hazardous material.

In addition to the safety permit, shipments of radioactive materials would also be required to be preinspected by a government official and require a written transportation route plan, according to a notice published Tuesday in the Federal Register.  Drivers would be required to communicate with the carrier once every two hours and at any time they deviated from the route plan. 

“Hazmat cargo represents a large segment of the freight being transported daily across America, and the department is committed to ensuring its integrity and security,” Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said in a press release.

The safety administration proposal calls for the safety permit requirement to be phased in beginning Jan. 1, 2005. 

To obtain a permit, motor carriers would first have to have a satisfactory rating assigned by the safety administration and a satisfactory security program, which includes a security plan, communications equipment installed in vehicles used to transport hazardous materials and security training for all hazardous materials employees.  In addition, motor carriers will also be required to register with Transportation’s Research and Special Programs Administration.  If a motor carrier has already obtained a safety permit from a state under a program equivalent to the transportation proposal, then they will automatically be granted a permit.

Safety permits can be revoked for several reasons, including failure to maintain a satisfactory rating or failure to abide by hazardous material regulations.  The permit can also be revoked upon failure to pay a civil penalty.

The safety administration has estimated that it will cost about $75 million over the next 10 years to implement the safety program, according to the Federal Register notice. 

In addition, the agency has estimated that the new safety permit system will be “decisive” in stopping 1 in 1000 terrorist incidents involving hazardous material shipments and will make each attempted incident “less likely to inflict its intended damages,” the notice says.

While a 1 in 1000 chance of stopping a terrorist incident may seem low, it is actually a “fairly good probability,” administration spokesman Andy Black told Global Security Newswire yesterday, estimating that there are 800,000 hazardous material shipments per day.

Industry experts also agreed that the proposal’s probable rate of preventing a terrorist incident was positive.  Jack Legler, director of the American Trucking Association’s Trucking and Security Operations, told GSN yesterday that he believed the odds of stopping an incident with the proposed system were “pretty darn good.”

The safety administration is seeking public comment on the proposed safety permit system until Oct. 20. 

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Iraq I:  United States to Interrogate “Chemical Ali”

U.S. officials plan to interrogate the recently captured Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” for ordering chemical weapons attacks on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq in 1988, U.S. officials said yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 21).

Al-Majid may be connected to the continuing attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, said Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command.

“‘Chemical Ali’ has been active in some ways in influencing people around him in a regional way,” Abizaid said during a U.S. Defense Department press conference yesterday.

Abizaid refused to provide details as to the circumstances surrounding al-Majid’s capture, saying that doing so “would give away things we do not want to give away” (John Lumpkin, Associated Press/Newsday, Aug. 21).

Former Iraqi intelligence chief Wafiq Samarrai said he believed al-Majid was captured near the northern Iraqi city of Samarra.  A senior U.S. defense official said al-Majid was captured Sunday in northern Iraq in the company of five or six bodyguards.  The announcement of al-Majid’s capture was delayed to allow time to confirm his identity and to avoid tipping off other wanted senior Iraqi officials, the U.S. defense official said.

Many Iraqis have expressed relief and a sense of satisfaction that al-Majid has been apprehended, according to the Washington Post.  Laith Zuheir, a 25-year-old Iraqi worker, said he wanted first a public trial for al-Majid, then his execution.

“I wish I could torture him with my own hands, shoot him with a pistol, beginning in his leg until I reached his head, so that he could feel the pain of every innocent person he killed,” Zuheir said.  ‘Then he would see how they suffered,” he added.

Some U.N. officials have proposed that a war crimes trial for captured senior Iraqi officials be conducted by a mixed panel of Iraqi and international experts, according to the Post.  U.S. officials have suggested a war crimes tribunal led by Iraqis — a popular idea among Iraqis themselves.

“We want a public trial,” said Ahmed Hussein, an employee at Fayha, a store in Baghdad that sells refrigerators, air conditioners and fans.  “We want all those criminals to admit their crimes in front of the Iraqi people and confess to everything they did,” he said (Anthony Shadid, Washington Post, Aug. 22).

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Iraq II:  Former U.N. Inspector Surprised by WMD Absence

Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler said today that he did not know why weapons of mass destruction still have not been found in Iraq (see related GSN story, today).

“I’m a bit shaken, as everyone is, by the fact that the country, now under occupation, hasn’t yielded this treasure trove of WMDs,” Butler said during an Australian parliamentary inquiry into intelligence used to justify war with Iraq.

Butler outlined four possible reasons why weapons of mass destruction have not yet been found in Iraq — such weapons may have been destroyed prior to the war, they may have been well hidden, they may have been taken out of Iraq or they may never have existed at all. 

“The only honest answer I can give to you, which of those four would I choose as the best explanation, is, I don’t know,” Butler said.  “But I think we should try and find out,” he said.

Butler also said that he did expect coalition forces to find some quantity of weapons of mass destruction eventually, though it may not be the vast arsenal that was predicted.

“I think that authentic record probably will reveal a few caches of weapons here or there,” Butler said.  “Whether it will reveal the substantial quantity that’s being talked of now, I don’t know,” he said (Australian Associated Press/Sydney Morning Herald, Aug. 22).

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North Korea:  Japan Wants to Preserve U.S. Nuclear Umbrella

As next week’s six-nation talks on North Korea near, Japanese officials have asked the United States to maintain its commitment to defend Japan using any necessary force, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Aug. 21).

Tokyo is concerned by the possible consequences of Washington promising not to use nuclear weapons against North Korea.  Mitoji Yabunaka, the head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanic Affairs Bureau, made the request last week to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Aug. 22).

Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung yesterday asked North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions and he asked Washington to provide Pyongyang with a nonaggression pact.

“We can agree on the principle (of resolving the nuclear issue) as part of a package deal and implement parts gradually as and when necessary,” he said.

North Korea and the United States are set to meet next week in talks with South Korea, Japan, Russia and China.

“The six-way talks must succeed,” Kim said (Sim Sung-tae, Korea Herald, Aug. 22).

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il will lead the North Korean delegation to the talks, the Korea Herald reported.  Ri Gun, who led the delegation at April talks on the nuclear crisis, will serve as Kim’s deputy (Seo Hyun-jin, Korea Herald, Aug. 22).

The 19-member South Korean delegation will be led by Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck (Yonhap News Agency/BBC Monitoring, Aug. 22).

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United States:  Study Discounts Feasibility of Air Force Space Bomber

The Institute for Defense Analyses has completed the first phase of a study examining options for a new U.S. Air Force long-range strike system, discounting one proposal for an orbital bomber, Inside the Air Force reported today (see GSN, Aug. 4).

The main reason a suborbital or orbital bomber was dropped from the list of possible system was cost concerns, according to a Pentagon source.  Instead, the institute posed three options — an “arsenal aircraft” similar to the B-52 bomber, a subsonic bomber inspired by the B-2 stealth bomber and a supersonic bomber, according to Pentagon officials.

The second phase of the institute’s study is expected to provide further detail on each of the three options and “should come up with one best option,” a Pentagon spokeswoman said.  The second phase is expected to be completed in June 2004 (Amy Butler, Inside the Air Force, Aug. 22).

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Smallpox:  University Readies Test for New Smallpox Vaccines

St. Louis University’s Center for Vaccine Development is planning to test two new smallpox vaccines against the current Dryvax vaccine, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported Tuesday (see GSN, March 11).

The two new vaccines, ACAM1000 and ACAM2000, were both developed by Massachusetts biotechnology firm Acambis.  U.S. health officials are hoping that the newer vaccines will pose fewer health risks to recipients.

University officials are currently seeking 90 volunteers to take part in the tests (Tina Hesman, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Aug. 19).

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United States:  Army Expects Funding to Replace Patriots Used in Iraq

The U.S. Army expects to receive additional funding this fiscal year to replace the 22 Patriot missile interceptors used during the war in Iraq, an Army official said yesterday (see GSN, July 29).

The Patriot Advanced Capability 3 interceptor will be purchased to replace the PAC-3s and older PAC-2s used during the war, said Army Col. Tommie Newberry, Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense project manager.  The additional PAC-3s will be purchased in addition to the 100 interceptors already approved for fiscal 2003 (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, Aug. 22).

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Japan:  Defense Agency Wants $1.12 Billion For Missile Defense

Wary of an attack from North Korea, Japanese defense leaders want to spend $1.12 billion on missile defense in the next fiscal year, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Aug. 19).

The Japanese Defense Agency request is set to be submitted next Friday.  The funding would be almost nine times the amount of money Tokyo spent on missile defense research from 1999 to 2003.

A large amount of the money would be put toward acquiring new missiles, including hundreds of millions of dollars for Standard Missile 3 interceptors (Natalie Pearson, Associated Press, Aug. 22).

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Nuclear Materials:  Uranium Ore Ship Runs Aground in South Africa

A cargo ship carrying 50 tons of uranium ore ran aground Tuesday in Table Bay, near Cape Town, South Africa (see GSN, July 15).

The Sealand Express was taking the ore to the United States where it was to be processed into nuclear fuel, according to Paul Fitzsimon, operations director of South Africa’s Nuclear Fuels Corporation.

The uranium is packed into “high-integrity drums” which are then held in industrial containers, Fitzsimon said.  It would take a “fairly catastrophic” accident to rupture the drums, he added.

Asked if Cape Town residents should be concerned about the grounded ship and its cargo, Fitzsimon said, “Not in the grand scheme of things” (South African Sunday Times, Aug. 22).

Efforts to free the ship have so far fallen short, the Sunday Times reported.

“She is permanently fixed for the moment,” said Bill Dernier, operations manager of the South African Maritime Safety Authority.

South African authorities plan to pump heavy fuel oil and water ballast from the Sealand Express in another attempt to free the ship during the next spring tide in about one week (South African Sunday Times II, Aug. 21).

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Food Safety:  FDA Releases Action Plan That Includes Food Safety Measures

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this week released an action plan that includes new measures to combat agricultural terrorism, according to Government Computer News (see GSN, Aug. 13).

“This strategic action plan is our coordinated effort to respond to some of the most challenging threats and opportunities for public health that we have ever faced,” FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan said.

Under the plan, the FDA plans to adopt a risk-based food import surveillance system to focus on those imports that pose the highest risks to the U.S. food supply, according to GCN.  The agency is also working with the U.S. Homeland Security Department to link its systems with Customs entry processes.

In addition, the FDA is also working to apply a “life cycle” approach to food safety, GCN reported.  Such an approach would differ from the current system, which involves the examination of certain shipments, by examining a product’s history from raw materials to purchase by the consumer to spot unusual trends (Mary Mosquera, Government Computer News, Aug. 21).

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