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NUCLEAR
Study: Atomic Radiation Down in Arctic
New radioactivity limit could sink shellfish
New Finnish nuclear plant raises hopes and fears
Germany Arrests Man In Libyan Atomic Case
G8 diplomats to mull Iran nuclear incentives in Washington this week
Pakistan Test Fires Nuclear - Capable Missile
'India possess more N-warheads than Pak'
White House Sounds Out Europeans on Iran
Iran Says Won't Be Made to End Uranium Enrichment
U.S. in Talks With Europeans on a Nuclear Deal With Iran
Western nations may make one last offer to Iran on nuclear issue
US to host G8 talks on Iran nuclear incentives but holds firm on demands
Nuclear assets 'vanish' in Iraq
UN Fears Bombmakers May Get Iraq Nuke Items - Diplomats
Iraq Says Open to UN Inspectors Amid Nuclear Alarm
Nuclear weapons materials 'vanish from Iraq'
UN watchdog says nuclear equipment vanished in Iraq
US downplays concerns about missing Iraqi nuclear equipment
Confusion over Iraq nuclear assets
Army chief 'emptied his magazine' at girl in Gaza
TEPCO shutting Fukushima reactor to replace pipe
U.S. Says N.Korea Miscalculating by Stalling on Talks
Military Plans to Put Missile in Alaska
Protecting America or the President's Reelection Chances?
Fifty-ninth General Assembly First Committee 6th Meeting (PM)
Plan to Explode Nuclear Facility Is Dropped
CMS May Extend Nuclear Plant Outage
Nuclear plans stir concern in Vermont
MILITARY
Election Touted as Model for Iraq -- to a Point
Main Afghan Challenger Drops Election Boycott
Security Deteriorates in Darfur - U.N. Official
Guinea-Bissau mediators suggest overhaul of armed forces
Indian Mirage-2000 crashes during joint exercises with Singapore
Britain Withdraws Iraq Weapons Claims
Boeing Expects Air Force Contract
Air Force Asks for Broader Inquiry Into Boeing Contracts
Canada may sue over its second-hand submarines
Romania Lobbies to Host U.S. Military Base
Disarmament Process Starts In Sadr City, Albeit Slowly
Cleric's Militia Begins to Yield Heavy Weapons
Terror Command in Falluja Is Half Destroyed, U.S. Says
U.S. Says It Hit Terror Targets, but Iraqi Civilians Disagree
A Look at Foreigners Taken Hostage in Iraq
U.S. Urges NATO to Take Afghan Mission
NATO Considers How to Raise Forces Faster
NATO planning for takeover of Afghanistan military operations likely: US
After School Siege, Russians' Grief Turns to Anger
Britain Withdraws Iraq Weapons Claims
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Supreme Court jumps into Ten Commandments issue after 25 years
U.S. Senator Closes Capitol Office Citing Security
Sen. Dayton temporarily closing office, citing security threat
DHS May Appoint Cybersecurity Chief
Hamdi Returned to Saudi Arabia
POLITICS
Senate Passes Corporate Tax Bill
Family's TV Clout in Bush's Corner
Kerry Takes Early Lead in Newspaper Endorsements
Bush's Domestic Policy Gap
Congress Departs with a Pile of Dead Bills
OTHER
Images of Mount St. Helens Show Perforated Rock
English Lab Ready to Clone Embryos for Stem Cells
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004
ACTIVISTS
Indigenous Peoples Call for Elimination of Columbus Day
An Iraqi-American's Vote in 2004
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- accidents and safety
Study: Atomic Radiation Down in Arctic
October 12, 2004
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Norway-Arctic-Radiation.html
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Atomic radiation levels are beginning to decline in the Arctic, years after Soviet nuclear weapons tests and the Chernobyl nuclear accident spewed their fallout over the region, according to a study released Tuesday.
But the far north, with its fragile ecosystems, remains at risk from vast depots of aging post-Soviet nuclear weapons, submarines, power plants and waste in northwest Russia, experts say.
``The Arctic is the most sensitive region for nuclear fallout, yet parts of the Arctic have the world's greatest concentration of nuclear materials,'' Per Strand, of the Norwegian Nuclear Protection Authority, told The Associated Press.
Since 1991, scientists from the international Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program have been keeping track of pollutants that reach the remote Arctic.
In its 1991-2002 study, released Tuesday, the group said radiation levels had begun to decline on Arctic land masses.
``The levels are going down in the Arctic, which is a good thing. But it has taken much longer than in the rest of the world,'' said Strand, whose agency led the study in cooperation with the Russian environment and meteorology agency Roshydromet.
He said it has taken longer because tundra vegetation, including mosses, mushrooms and grasses, absorbs more radiation than most plants.
That radiation is then passed on to animals, such as reindeer, and in turn to the people who eat them, including the Arctic's indigenous Sami herders.
Because the region is so vast and the types of radiation are so varied, Strand could give no overall estimate of the decline.
The 1986 Soviet nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl, in Ukraine, killed more than 4,000 people and spread its fallout to the far north. Its impact can still be measured in the Arctic.
The study also examined other sources of radiation, including a nuclear armed U.S. B-52 bomber that crashed and burned in Greenland in 1968. It carried four nuclear weapons.
Strand said the greatest threat comes from the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia, which has the world's greatest concentration of nuclear materials.
The Arctic peninsula, bordering Norway and Finland, is home to Russia's North Fleet, which includes 52 decommissioned and rundown nuclear submarines, many with nuclear fuel still aboard. At least two Russian nuclear submarines have sunk while on patrol in the Arctic in the past 15 years.
The peninsula is also home to depots of nuclear weapons and an old nuclear power plant. The Norwegian environmental group Bellona also says about 21,000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies are stored there and many of the containers are leaking.
Strand said it will take billions of dollars to clean up.
The Arctic monitoring program was set up to advise the Arctic Council, made up of the governments of eight Arctic nations: Canada, Denmark (with Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States.
On the Net:
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program: www.amap.no
--------
New radioactivity limit could sink shellfish
NewScientist.com
Rob Edwards
12 October 04
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996516
Thousands of tonnes of British shellfish currently eaten in Europe could be banned under new international safety limits for radioactivity in food, the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has warned.
Lobsters, cockles and scallops from the north west of England and the south west of Scotland are so contaminated with plutonium from the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria that they will breach limits due to be introduced by the United Nations in 2005.
Although the new limits are welcomed by radiation experts, they are regarded as "not proportionate to the actual risk" by the FSA. And they have angered the multi-million pound shellfishing industry.
Douglas Macleod, chairman of the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers, said that limits should only be set on the basis of robust science backed by credible risk assessments. "Why should the industry be unnecessarily crucified if there is no real risk?" he asked.
Cancer risk
The UN's Codex Alimentarius Commission - which brings together the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organisation - is proposing a safety limit for plutonium in food of one becquerel per kilogram. The aim is to reduce the long-term risk of getting cancer from eating these foods to below one in a million.
The proposal takes into account emerging scientific uncertainties about the health risks of small amounts of plutonium inside the body and is in line with radiation safety limits recommended by other regulatory authorities internationally, in the US and in the UK.
The proposed limit seems "reasonable" to Ian Jackson, a radiation consultant from Cheshire, England. He pointed out that the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield had discharged more plutonium into the sea than those in France and Japan.
Concentrations of plutonium and related isotopes in all the shellfish sampled by the FSA between the Ribble estuary at Preston and Kirkcudbright on the North Solway coast in 2002 exceeded 1Bq/kg. Winkles from St Bees, next to Sellafield, contained 66 Bq/kg.
The area includes one of Europe's biggest cockle fisheries - Morecambe Bay - which is expected to produce up to 10,000 tonnes in 2004. Most of the shellfish harvested from the region are exported to Spain, France and the Netherlands.
The new safety limits would have a major economic impact, according to Jim Andrew, from the north west England Sea Fisheries Committee, a regulatory authority. "But if there is a risk to public health, that has got to come first," he said.
-------- europe
New Finnish nuclear plant raises hopes and fears
Story by Peter Starck
REUTERS FINLAND:
October 13, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/27675/story.htm
OLKILUOTO, Finland - One of the world's largest nuclear power plants is under construction in Finland, raising the long dormant atomic power industry's hopes for a revival but evoking fears among opponents of lethal accidents and waste.
The 3-billion-euro (2-billion-pound) project is the only new nuclear reactor being built in western Europe where nations such as Germany and Finland's neighbour Sweden have decided to phase out their existing atomic power stations.
If the 1,600 megawatt Olkiluoto-3 reactor comes on stream in 2009 as planned, it could herald a new dawn for nuclear power, supporters say. They argue that Europe can't meet its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without more nuclear energy.
"The world needs more and more energy. If you must reduce the use of fossil fuels, nuclear power must be given a prominent role," said Sven Kullander, a professor of high energy physics at Sweden's Uppsala University.
Anti-nuclear campaigners - ever fewer in recent years after a heyday in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl reactor meltdown that contaminated 150,000 square km (57,920 square miles) in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia - oppose Finland's fifth reactor.
"I try to believe that we could stop it," said Annaliisa Mattsoff of Finnish Women Against Nuclear Power.
Last month activists from environment lobby Greenpeace and other anti-nuclear groups demonstrated near Olkiluoto, carrying banners warning the area is "infected by nuclear disease".
"MEGALOMANIA"
The opponents say every new nuclear reactor increases the risk of terrorists getting hold of plutonium, the deadly radioactive material used in nuclear bombs.
Anti-nuclear activist Pirkko Lindberg described the Olkiluoto-3 project as "megalomania". She has written a book about the Pacific state of Tuvalu which is at risk of being submerged if oceans rise as a result of global warming.
"Nuclear power has no effect on the climate," said Stockholm University Meteorology Professor Bert Bolin, who led the United Nations climate change panel during the birth of the Kyoto protocol.
The international treaty, which is yet to come into force, commits industrialised nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
Bolin said 10,000 big nuclear reactors would be needed to produce enough electricity to offset a meaningful cutback in fossil fuel use. "Do we want to have that many?"
Nuclear plants heat up water to steam, which drives a turbine generating electricity. The uranium fuel is extracted from abundant ore deposits mined in several countries.
Enriched uranium used in atomic reactors is highly radioactive and spent fuel remains hazardous for 100,000 years.
CHEAP ELECTRICITY
"I'm not afraid," said part-time farmer Tuomo Jalava, who lives 2 km (1.2 miles) from the two dull-red-and-grey-painted nuclear reactors built in the 1970s at Olkiluoto on Finland's west coast, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Helsinki.
"It is positive for this community. It creates jobs," he said, seated on a red tractor.
Nuclear power produces some 16 percent of world electricity while coal, oil and gas - the fossil fuels whose carbon dioxide emissions are regarded by some scientists as the main global warming culprit - account for two thirds.
Finnish power group TVO, which runs Olkiluoto, puts domestic electricity demand growth at 1.5 to 2.5 percent a year.
"The forest industry needs nuclear power," said Risto Viitanen, an executive at Finnish forestry group UPM, the world's top paper maker. UPM, a co-owner of TVO, has already reserved almost 30 percent of Olkiluoto-3's output.
"This decision ensures a stable and affordable electricity price for UPM's factories," Viitanen said.
French state-controlled nuclear energy group Areva, whose Framatome ANP subsidiary won the Olkiluoto-3 reactor contract, hailed Finland's decision in 2002 as a milestone, saying it "strikes an encouraging chord for nuclear development".
GUINEA-PIGS
But it is a nightmare for anti-nuclear activist Lindberg.
"This is a prototype, it has been tested nowhere," she said of Framatome's new reactor design.
"France, the mother country of this monster, refuses to have it on its own ground. We are chosen to be guinea-pigs ... with the risks and that horrible deadly dangerous waste of plutonium."
Sweden, whose nuclear phase-out has resulted in the closure of one of 12 reactors, stores 4,000 tonnes of spent fuel in a high-security facility near its three-reactor Oskarshamn complex on the Baltic Sea coast 300 km (185 miles) south of Stockholm.
The facility's underground water basins holding spent fuel shimmer eerily blue. Leaning on the 1.5-metre-thick reinforced concrete basin wall, process engineer Stefan Nordh said anyone trying to grab the nuclear waste would die quickly of radiation.
At the nearby Aspo final disposal test site scientists work 460 metres (1,510 feet) below ground. Even earthquakes, rare in Scandinavia, would do little damage at that depth, said Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management spokeswoman Anni Bolenius.
"This represents ultimate security," she told Reuters during a tour of the cavernous tunnels.
Sweden has yet to decide where to build its final waste repository but the Aspo site resembles Finland's planned waste burial ground in the Olkiluoto bedrock.
Lindberg said: "The bedrock there is as full of ruptures as anywhere so it's impossible to say it's safe, maybe for a short time, then the waste will probably spread all over the place."
----
Germany Arrests Man In Libyan Atomic Case
Suspect Is Alleged to Be Middleman In Worldwide Smuggling Network
By Craig Whitlock and Shannon Smiley
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, October 12, 2004; Page A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24420-2004Oct11.html
BERLIN, Oct. 11 -- German prosecutors said Monday they had arrested an engineer on suspicion that he helped Libya in its efforts to build a nuclear weapons program, eight months after the man was named by authorities in Malaysia as a key figure in a network that spread nuclear secrets around the world.
The man was arrested Thursday in the central German state of Hesse, according to the German federal prosecutor's office, which did not release his full name. Officials close to the investigation identified him as Urs Tinner, 39, a member of a Swiss engineering family that has drawn scrutiny from European authorities and nonproliferation experts for more than two decades.
In February, Malaysian officials identified Tinner as a middleman in a network that supplied Libya with gas centrifuge parts that could be used for the enrichment of uranium. That network, headed by Pakistan's top atomic scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, allegedly sold nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and other customers and is the focus of a global investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency and authorities in more than a dozen countries.
According to German and South African officials, who carried out recent arrests of alleged members of the network, those involved attempted to illegally deliver high-technology engineering equipment to Libya for its then-budding nuclear weapons program, drawing on companies in Germany, Malaysia, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Libya has since dismantled its weapons program under a deal negotiated with the United States and Britain.
German prosecutors said in a statement that they were preparing to charge Tinner, a Swiss citizen, with conspiracy to commit treason. A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office declined to elaborate or give details.
Swiss export-control officials said Monday that they recently completed an inquiry into the business activities of Tinner and his family, based on the allegations made in February by Malaysian police. In a telephone interview, Othmar Wyss, spokesman for the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, declined to discuss the findings but said the results were given in late September to Swiss prosecutors.
"Let me say it this way," Wyss said. "If all this information . . . had been false, we would not have passed the results of our preliminary inquiry to the prosecutor."
A spokesman for Switzerland's general prosecutor confirmed Monday that the agency had cooperated with German investigators in the nuclear black market probe but declined to comment further.
In a brief interview in March at his home in the northeastern Swiss village of Haag, Tinner said his family had not been involved in any wrongdoing. He acknowledged working as a mechanic for a Malaysian firm, Scomi Precision Engineering, but said he was unaware of what the company's products were being used for.
The probe into the nuclear network began in October 2003, when a German ship carrying containers bound for Libya was searched in the port of Taranto, Italy. Inside the containers, investigators said they found centrifuge parts manufactured by Scomi that they suspected were intended to help Libya enrich uranium.
Tinner worked as a consultant for Scomi from April 2002 until October 2003 and had a reputation for being secretive, Malaysian officials said.
Upon leaving the company, he erased technical drawings from the firm's computers and took other records, giving "the impression that [he] did not wish to leave any trace of his presence there," according to a Malaysian police report.
--------
G8 diplomats to mull Iran nuclear incentives in Washington this week: officials
(AFP)
Oct 12, 2004
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041012/wl_mideast_afp/us_iran_eu_nuclear_iaea_041012203642
WASHINGTON - Envoys from the Group of Eight industrialized nations are to meet here this week to discuss offering incentives to Iran in a last-ditch effort to get the Islamic republic to suspend its uranium enrichment activities that could be used to make nuclear weapons, State Department officials said.
The department will host talks on Friday between mid-to-senior ranking G8 diplomats to go over options for dealing with suspicions that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic power program, the officials said.
The meeting is part of the G8's consideration of ways to get Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment work as a deadline for Tehran to comply with demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to suspend enrichment and answer all questions about its nuclear ambitions looms next month, the officials said.
The G8, which comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States, is looking at a package deal for Iran in which it would be given access to imported nuclear fuel but would totally suspend its own work on the nuclear fuel cycle in return, according to diplomats close to the IAEA.
Friday's meeting will gather "political directors" from G8 foreign ministries who get together frequently to discuss nuclear non-proliferation issues, the State Department officials said.
However, neither US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) nor his deputy, Richard Armitage, would attend, they said. US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton is likely to be the highest-ranking diplomat in the talks, they said.
Iran's nuclear ambitions have become a major topic in the US presidential campaign with Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) berating President George W. Bush (news - web sites) for failing to deal with Tehran while going to war with Iraq (news - web sites) on faulty intelligence.
Diplomats in Vienna, where the IAEA is headquartered, say the Bush administration has not yet signed off on any package and had thus far been reluctant to be involved in defining any possible incentives.
One diplomat said Washington was unlikely to commit until after the November 2 election.
"The day after the election, things will be clearer," the diplomat said.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that the United States is holding talks with European allies on a possible deal with Iran that would give Tehran access to imported nuclear fuel in return for suspension of uranium enrichment activities.
The New York Times reported earlier Tuesday that while the Bush administration had not endorsed any incentives for Iran, it was not discouraging Britain, France and Germany from assembling a package which might also lift certain economic sanctions on Iran, in particular allowing it to import spare parts for its ailing civilian airline.
Any US support for incentives, even if offered by the Europeans, would mark a significant shift in the administration's policy toward Iran's nuclear program, which it has said should be sent to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Powell, Bolton and others have been saying publicly for the past month that it is past time for Iran to be referred to the Security Council.
-------- india / pakistan
Pakistan Test Fires Nuclear - Capable Missile
October 12, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-pakistan-missile-test.html
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan test-fired an intermediate-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile on Tuesday as part of efforts to boost defenses but the test was not a show of strength for rival India, the military said.
The test came at the start of two days of talks between Pakistani and Indian border officials in the Indian city of Chandigarh, their second meeting this year since regular contacts were revived to discuss frontier issues.
Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said the missile test was meant to ``validate its design parameters.''
``Our missile test is not meant to send any signal to anyone,'' he said.
``We are happy that the peace process is going on and we hope it will produce positive results,'' he said of the talks with India, which have raised hopes for their ties two years after the nuclear-armed neighbors went to the brink of war.
The Pakistani military said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz witnessed the test of the Hatf V, a type of Ghauri missile with a range of 940 miles -- capable of hitting most Indian cities and which can carry a payload of 1,985 lb.
It said the test had been successful.
Pakistan conducts regular missile tests. The last time it test-fired a similar missile was on June 4.
India did not immediately comment on the firing of the Pakistani missile, but both countries inform each other in advance of such tests.
The border talks are being conducted separately from a process of dialogue between Pakistan and India revived last year and aimed at resolving disputes, including the divided region of Kashmir, which has caused two of their three wars since 1947.
TAKING STOCK
Indian officials said Tuesday's meeting would take stock of progress on some border issues since they were last discussed in March in the Pakistani city of Lahore.
The first talks since contacts were suspended after a militant attack on India's parliament in late 2001 that nearly led to the fourth war between the neighbors.
``We will basically focus on peace and tranquility on the border, drug smuggling and also the inadvertent crossings which keep taking place all the time, especially in the areas where there is no fencing,'' said A.K. Mitra of India's border force.
Pakistan tested its first nuclear bomb in May 1998 and says its weapons program is a response to that of India.
In March, Pakistan test-fired the Shaheen II ballistic missile with a range of 1,250 miles and capable of carrying nuclear warheads to every corner of India.
Pakistani Hatf series of missiles, named after an ancient Islamic weapon, includes the Shaheen and Ghauri missiles.
The Ghauri was formally inducted into the military in January 2003. It was developed by Khan Research Laboratories, Pakistan's main uranium-enrichment facility, which was named after Abdul Qadeer Khan, the once-revered as the father of the country's atomic bomb.
Khan was sacked this year from his job as a special government adviser after he admitted to exporting nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Some experts say the Ghauri missile was developed with North Korean help in return for nuclear know-how, but Pakistan denies the link and says it is indigenously produced.
--------
'India possess more N-warheads than Pak'
timesofindia
OCTOBER 12, 2004
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/882803.cms
WASHINGTON: Pakistan possesses 50-90 nuclear weapons compared to India's 55-115, a Washington-based nuclear watchdog has said in a survey. The Institute of Science and International Security headed by well-known nuclear expert David Albright also said Pakistan has 1,000-1,250 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEC) or uranium 235 enriched to 20 per cent or more.
India is also believed to possess this material, used for making weapon-grade nuclear fuel but the survey does not reveal much. India, it claims has 300-470 kilograms of plutonium compared to 20-60 kgs of Pakistan. Pakistan mainly relies on uranium for making nuclear fuel while India on plutonium, it said. "India has been working on building a gas centrifuge plant for many years. The status of the project is rarely discussed in public, although progress should have been made.
"Not enough public information exists to determine whether a significant amount of HEU (highly enriched uranium) has been produced in the facility or if so, to estimate the size of an HEU stock. Nonetheless, based on the age of the project India may now be producing HEU in significant quantities, perhaps enough to make both fission and thermonuclear weapons," the survey released yesterday claimed.
"HEU production (by India) in possible," the institute said without giving any figures. Pakistan has about 20-60 kilograms of plutonium and 1000-1,250 kilograms of HEU, the institute that came out with the findings that disgraced scientist A Q Khan was selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea last year, said.
-------- iran
White House Sounds Out Europeans on Iran
October 12, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Iran-Nuclear.html?oref=login
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration will talk with European allies later this week about possible economic incentives to Iran if it agrees to suspend the enrichment of uranium, a key step in the production of nuclear weapons, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
While the Bush administration has not yet taken a stand on whether to dangle such incentives before Tehran, a high-profile meeting with allies on the issue would mark a significant shift in U.S. strategy and could have implications in the presidential race.
In the meantime, the administration continues to insist that Iran must stop developing nuclear weapons or face sanctions from the United Nations.
On several occasions, the administration has tried to take the dispute to the U.N. Security Council. Another attempt is virtually certain after a meeting in late November of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency if Iran has not complied by then.
Working with European allies to resolve a major security problem is the sort of multilateral diplomacy that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has charged is lacking in the administration. President Bush disputes that charge.
``They are going to come and tell us what kind of package and discussions they have been having, and we will hear them out,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said of the meeting Friday with European allies.
Britain, France and Germany are inclined to try to work out some sort of agreement with Iran and are not inclined at this point to impose economic sanctions.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the proposed European package included providing fuel to Iran for civilian nuclear projects. That official and another, also speaking anonymously, said that while the administration was interested in the idea of proposing a package of incentives, none of Europe's specific proposals had received U.S. endorsement.
European diplomats said the talks with the Bush administration were in an initial stage. They also said the United States was holding on to its option of pushing for U.N. Security Council action against Iran if it is found in defiance of international demands to stop all activities related to uranium enrichment.
A European government official said Russia was skeptical of any Security Council move to punish Iran because of concerns that Russia's $800 million deal to build a nuclear reactor in Bushehr, in southern Iran, could be jeopardized.
Also Tuesday, Iran's foreign minister offered European governments assurances that his government would never produce nuclear bombs if Iran's right to enrich uranium was recognized.
``The time has come for Europe to take a step forward and suggest that our legitimate right for complete use of nuclear energy is recognized,'' Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said in a speech to an energy conference in Tehran.
White House spokesman Sean McCormack said the package the Europeans were touting was not ``different materially'' from proposal that have already been discussed with Tehran.
Invited to the meeting on Iran, along with the three European allies, were the other members of the G-8 group of leading industrialized countries -- Russia, Japan, Italy and Canada. The meeting grows out of talks Secretary of State Colin Powell held last month with G-8 foreign ministers at the United Nations in New York.
President Bush condemned Iran in his 2001 State of the Union address as part of an ``axis of evil'' along with Iraq and North Korea.
Negotiations to end North Korea's nuclear program are sputtering. Talks have been suspended, and while Bush defends his strategy of a joint approach with South Korea, Japan, Russia and China, Kerry is calling for one-on-one talks.
In 1994 North Korea promised to freeze its plutonium program and put it under international inspection in exchange for civilian energy assistance from South Korea and Japan.
The Europeans' proposal that civilian nuclear fuel might be provided to Iran to stop enriching uranium is somewhat parallel to the Clinton administration's deal with North Korea.
Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran contributed to this report.
--------
Iran Says Won't Be Made to End Uranium Enrichment
October 12, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nuclear-iran.html
TEHRAN (Reuters) - The European Union cannot force Iran to give up its right to enrich uranium, Iran's foreign minister said, dealing a blow to EU efforts to halt the process and ease fears Tehran is seeking a nuclear bomb.
``It is wrong for them (the EU) to think they can, through negotiations, force Iran to stop enrichment,'' Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told a conference in Tehran on Tuesday. ``Iran will never give up its right to enrichment.''
Diplomats said the EU had agreed on Monday to prepare a package of ``carrots and sticks'' to get Iran to comply with demands by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agencyto suspend enrichment activities -- a process which can be used to make material for atomic bombs.
Washington is working with the EU on the plan in a final effort to get Iran to cooperate with the IAEA, but is unlikely to offer any specific new incentives of its own, said a senior U.S. official.
Officials in Washington said the United States wanted a commitment from the Europeans that they would back sanctions if Iran insists on continuing its nuclear activities.
Iran says its nuclear program is for electricity generation and says it wants to master the full fuel cycle, including enrichment, so it does not have to rely on imported fuel. Washington believes the program is aimed at developing atomic weapons.
EU ministers had urged Russia, which is building an atomic plant in Iran despite strong U.S. criticism, to join the initiative. But a foreign ministry official in Moscow said on Tuesday Russia thought the EU proposals would be ineffective.
Russia maintains that Iran has an entirely peaceful nuclear program and cannot use Moscow's atomic know-how to make arms.
DEFIANCE
Although Iran is not enriching uranium at present, it is preparing a large batch of raw uranium ready for the process and has resumed building enrichment centrifuges in defiance of a previous agreement with Britain, Germany and France.
The IAEA called on Iran last month to halt such activities and said it may be sent to the Security Council if it failed to do so by the next IAEA board meeting on Nov. 25. Kharrazi said it was up to the EU to make proposals ``that safeguard our right to nuclear technology for peaceful ends'' while he provided assurances to the world that Tehran is not building atomic weapons.
The IAEA said on Monday that equipment and material that could be used to make atomic weapons had been disappearing from Iran's western neighbor, Iraq.
Western diplomats said the agency feared the U.S.-led war aimed at disarming Iraq may have unleashed a proliferation crisis, if looters had sold nuclear equipment.
``If some of this stuff were to end up in Iran, some people would be very concerned,'' a diplomat close to the IAEA told Reuters. ``The IAEA's big concern would be profiteering, people who would sell this stuff with no regard for who is buying it.''
As a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is entitled to enrich uranium under IAEA supervision. A senior IAEA team arrived in Iran on Monday, state television reported.
It said the IAEA team hoped to clarify outstanding questions about Iran's nuclear program and to visit several facilities including the Parchin military base near Tehran which some diplomats have cited as a possible covert atomic arms site.
The IAEA has so far said it has found no evidence of a nuclear weapons program in Iran but that some outstanding issues need to be clarified.
-------
U.S. in Talks With Europeans on a Nuclear Deal With Iran
October 12, 2004
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/politics/12iran.html?pagewanted=all&position=
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 - The Bush administration is holding talks with its European allies on a possible package of economic incentives for Iran, including access to imported nuclear fuel, in return for suspension of uranium enrichment activities that are suspected to be part of a nuclear arms program, European and American diplomats said Monday.
The diplomats said that while the administration had not endorsed any incentives for Iran, it was not discouraging Britain, France and Germany from assembling a package that the administration would consider after the American presidential election on Nov. 2, for likely presentation to Tehran later in the month.
Any support of a package of incentives, even if it is to be offered only by the Europeans, would indicate a significant shift in the Bush administration policy of demanding penalties, but not offering inducements, to get Iran to halt activities that are suspected to be for a nuclear arms program.
European diplomats said that the administration was very squeamish about even discussing incentives, in part because it would represent a policy reversal that would provoke a vigorous internal debate, and in part because of the presidential campaign. Senator John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, has made Iran an issue, criticizing the administration for not working more closely with European nations. Mr. Kerry has said that if elected he would endorse a deal supplying Iran with civilian nuclear fuel under tight restrictions and would press for sanctions if Iran refused.
Under prodding from the United States, the International Atomic Energy Agency has set late November as the deadline by which Iran must comply with demands that it do more to disclose its nuclear activities. The United States wants to send the matter to the United Nations Security Council for discussion of sanctions if there is no compliance.
"The Europeans are in discussion to present some kind of package to present to Iran within the short window of opportunity between the American election and the end of November," said a European diplomat. "If it works, fine. If it doesn't work, we are going to have to talk about sanctions."
The package under discussion, besides allowing Iran to import nuclear fuel for the civilian reactor it is planning to install at Bushehr, might also lift certain economic penalties on Iran, allowing it to import spare parts for its ailing civilian airline.
But the discussions with the Europeans are also said to include specifics on what sanctions would be sought if Iran turns down any incentives presented by the Europeans, the European and American diplomats said. Because there may not be enough votes for sanctions on the Security Council, sanctions might only be adopted by the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Japan.
"If there is going to be a substantial Iran policy, it has to have incentives for Iran or it may not work," said a European diplomat. Another European diplomat said that although the incentives had not been fleshed out for endorsement in Washington, there had been "an ongoing process of discussion between the Europeans and the Americans" and that whatever the Europeans come up with next month "will not come as a surprise" to Washington.
European officials said that whether or not President Bush is re-elected, the administration could find itself facing a tough deadline and divided over how to proceed.
Details of the highly sensitive talks on Iran between Europe and the United States have begun to leak out in Europe and were disclosed by European officials who advocate an approach of some conciliation toward Iran as the only way to change its behavior.
Foreign ministers of the European Union, who met Monday in Luxembourg, said that they supported the approach of what officials called "carrots and sticks" for the government in Tehran.
After these disclosures, an administration official subsequently confirmed that the discussions with European nations were under way. "We are still dealing with theoreticals," said the American official, adding that the discussions were intense.
Officials knowledgeable about the package under discussion say that many of the details still need to be fleshed out. But they say that American sanctions on Iran would have to be lifted in order for the package to be accepted.
The package being discussed would, among other things, let Iran import nuclear fuel from Russia for its reactor at Bushehr, under an agreement in which Russia would then re-import the spent fuel and store it. In return, Iran would suspend its enrichment of 37 tons of yellowcake, which is nearly raw uranium.
In addition, the package would lift a ban on exports to Iran of certain badly needed civilian aircraft parts, without which its fleet of civilian airliners has been virtually grounded.
The discussions also concern what to do if Iran turns down the offer, European officials said. One possible step under discussion would be to circumvent the United Nations Security Council, because two members of that body with vetoes, Russia and China, oppose sanctions. Instead, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Japan, the five biggest economic powers in the world, would impose penalties on Iran.
A European diplomat familiar with the discussions with the Bush administration said that Britain, France and Germany were discussing the package of incentives to be offered Iran but that its ingredients were far from settled.
"We need to have a quiet discussion with the Americans to know what we put in the package," he said.
He added that there was "an ongoing process of discussion between the Europeans and the Americans" so that, even though the United States does not know the details of the incentive package, "the final proposal will not come as a surprise."
There are actually two late-November deadlines looming on Iran. One is the scheduled meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is supposed to rule on the American demand that its board of governors refer Iran's actions to the Security Council.
Another is the late-November meeting of an international conference on Iraq, which is to occur in Egypt and involve Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his Iranian counterpart, in what would be their first face-to-face encounter.
The main focus of American and European concern, administration and European officials and experts say, is the recent finding by the atomic energy agency that Iran possesses 37 tons of yellowcake and that it appears determined to enrich the material with the use of centrifuges, producing material suitable for a weapon.
Another concern is the nuclear reactor at Bushehr, which Russia has agreed to supply with fuel, taking the spent fuel back for reprocessing once it has been used in Iran. That deal has been suspended at the request of the United States. It would resume under the plan being discussed by the Europeans, according to European diplomats.
Iran maintains that it only wants to enrich the yellowcake for energy purposes, and that it has the right to do so under all international agreements that it has signed. The European approach is to use the incentives to get Iran to suspend its enrichment activities permanently, in a way that respects its sovereign right to enrich for fuel purposes.
The delicacy of confronting Iran has been underscored by its injection in the last two presidential debates.
Administration officials say that their preferred approach so far has been to let the three European Union nations take the lead with Iran and report back to Washington, rather than have the United States get involved in dealing directly with Iran.
---------
Western nations may make one last offer to Iran on nuclear issue: diplomats
VIENNA (AFP)
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041012161644.b5xdvkge.html
European nations are trying to convince the United States to offer Iran incentives in a last effort to get Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment activities that could be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Tuesday.
"There is indeed the idea from the G8 to make a last try on Iran," ahead of a November 25 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency at which a deadline falls for Iran to suspend enrichment and answer all questions about its nuclear ambitions, a diplomat close to the IAEA told AFP.
The diplomat, who asked not to be named, said there could be a "package" offer, spearheaded by Britain, France and Germany, which might include giving Iran access to imported nuclear fuel, but that Iran would in return have to totally suspend its own work on the nuclear fuel cycle.
The G8, made up of the world's top industrialized nations, comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The United States and senior G8 officials are to meet Friday in Washington to discuss Iran, a US State Department official told AFP from Washington.
US President George W. Bush charges that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons and should be stopped, but he has so far refused to offer Iran incentives to give up its alleged nuclear ambitions.
John Kerry, his opponent for US presidential elections on November 2, has said however that striking a deal with Iran would be the best way to resolve the crisis.
The official said Britain, France and Germany, Europe's big three who advocate a policy of constructive engagement with Iran, "are up to their old tricks. Our policy hasn't changed," as the United States wants the IAEA to bring Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions for hiding sensitive nuclear activities.
Washington has said the Iranians must first agree to abandon any ambitions to make nuclear weapons before such things as technology transfers and the lifting of sanctions can be discussed.
The US official said the European heavyweights were trying now "to get as much G8 endorsement as they can" in order to make it "that much more difficult for Iran to say no."
If the United States backs their position of offering carrots as well as sticks, then the Europeans would agree to work with the United States on taking Iran to the Security Council if Tehran refused, the official said.
Washington is still waiting to see the European proposal.
"The devil is in the details and if the proposal gives Iran any wriggling room to get off the hook, we would be very unhappy with that," the US official said.
The diplomat said "the Americans are not ready now to participate in defining a package," due to the heated campaign ahead of the presidential election.
"The day after the election, things will be clearer," about the position the world's major nations can take in relation to Iran.
In Iran, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi called on the European Union Tuesday to come up with proposals that could end the stand-off between Tehran and the Vienna-based IAEA, but repeated the Islamic Republic's refusal to give up sensitive fuel cycle work.
"The Europeans have not respected their commitment, and it is time that they took a step and presented proposals that respect our legitimate right to use civilian nuclear technology," he was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA.
But he added that "it is wrong to think that they can, through negotiations, oblige Iran to give up its right to uranium enrichment," which is allowed under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which the IAEA is charged with verifying.
The IAEA has for almost two years been investigating Iran on US allegations that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons and has called for the Islamic Republic to suspend enrichment in order to show its good faith in having a strictly peaceful atomic program.
Uranium enrichment makes fuel for civilian reactors but also what can be the explosive core of atomic bombs.
--------
US to host G8 talks on Iran nuclear incentives but holds firm on demands
AFP
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041012210342.u7wzpozn.html
The United States is willing to consider proposals to entice Iran into suspending uranium enrichment activities that can be used to make nuclear weapons but will not offer incentives itself and still wants the matter to be brought to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, US officials said Tuesday.
The State Department said it would host a meeting of senior diplomats from the United States and other members of the Group of Eight industrialized nations on Friday at which European ideas for convincing Tehran to halt its enrichment work would be the chief topic of discussion.
"They're going to come and tell us what kind of package and discussions they've been having and we'll hear them out," spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. "We look forward to hearing their ideas about how to move forward."
He described the meeting as one at which the G8 would "share ideas about how to bring Iran into compliance" with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demands that it immediately halt enrichment activity.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers said the European Union was ready to renew dialogue with Iran on a host of issues, including trade, if Tehran suspends uranium enrichment activities and described EU policy toward Tehran as one of "engagement with a large number of incentives."
A diplomat close to the IAEA said Tuesday a package offer, spearheaded by Britain, France and Germany, giving Iran access to imported nuclear fuel in return for totally suspending its own work on the nuclear fuel cycle, was under consideration.
In Iran, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi called on the European Union to come up with proposals that could end the stand-off, but repeated Tehran's refusal to give up sensitive fuel cycle work even as an IAEA deadline to do so looms in November.
One State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the European heavyweights were trying now "to get as much G8 endorsement as they can" in order to make it "that much more difficult for Iran to say no."
Despite its decision to host Friday's meeting, Boucher insisted the United States is not wavering from its hardline policy toward the Iranian nuclear program and remained convinced that the Security Council should act on it.
"The United States position has been and remains that this matter needs to be referred to the UN Security Council," he said.
The State Department official said that the United States might be willing to back the EU position if the Europeans would agree to work with the United States on taking Iran to the Security Council if Tehran refused.
But, the official stressed that the United States would not look favorably on a proposal that would give Iran "any wriggling room to get off the hook."
Friday's meeting will occur amid the highly charged US presidential election campaign in which policy over Iran's nuclear program has become a subject of heated debate.
Democratic challenger John Kerry has berated President George W. Bush for failing to deal with Tehran while going to war with Iraq on faulty intelligence.
Bush has refused to offer Iran incentives to give up its alleged ambitions while Kerry has said striking a deal with Iran would be the best way to resolve the matter.
Diplomats in Vienna, where the IAEA is headquartered, say the Bush administration has not yet signed off on any package and is reluctant to be involved in defining any possible incentives during the campaign season.
One diplomat said Washington was unlikely to commit until after the November 2 election. "The day after the election, things will be clearer," the diplomat said.
The G8 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
-------- iraq / inspections
Nuclear assets 'vanish' in Iraq
The US has been blocking full UN inspections in Iraq
BBC
Monday, 11 October, 2004,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3735224.stm
Equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear arms have been vanishing in Iraq since the invasion, the United Nations has warned.
Satellite images show entire buildings have been dismantled without any record being made, said Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog.
Iraq's US-backed leaders have not reported to the UN on the state of nuclear plants despite a duty to do so.
But they have asked the UN to help sell off unwanted nuclear material.
Inspectors from Mr ElBaradei's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who established that Saddam Hussein had abandoned any nuclear weapons programme before the war, have not been allowed to move about Iraq freely by the US.
Apart from a couple of limited checks on the main nuclear facility at Tuwaitha last June after reports of looting - and with no teams now on the ground - the IAEA has to rely on satellite imagery and other sources.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Mr ElBaradei said buildings related to Iraq's previous nuclear programme appeared to have been systematically dismantled and equipment and material removed.
"The disappearance of such equipment and materials may be of proliferation significance," the IAEA director general warned.
No reports
Sensitive technology such as rocket engines has turned up for sale abroad, Mr ElBaradei said.
However, high-precision "dual-use" items including milling machines and electron beam welders appear to have disappeared, as has material such as high-strength aluminium.
Mr ElBaradei called on any state with information on the location of such items to inform his agency.
The US removed nearly two tonnes of low-enriched uranium from Iraq earlier this year. The IAEA has verified that 550 tonnes of nuclear material still remain at Tuwaitha.
Iraq, the agency says, has asked for help to sell the nuclear material and in dismantling and decontaminating former nuclear facilities.
Mr ElBaradei reminded the Security Council that Iraq was still obliged to "declare semi-annually changes that have occurred or are foreseen at sites deemed relevant" by the IAEA.
However, since March 2003 "the agency has received no such notifications or declarations from any state", he said.
Last week, a report from chief US weapons inspector Charles Duelfer concluded that Saddam Hussein had stopped trying to build weapons of mass destruction following the 1991 Gulf War.
----
UN Fears Bombmakers May Get Iraq Nuke Items - Diplomats
October 12, 2004
REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-nuclear-iraq.html
VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog is worried the U.S.-led war aimed at disarming Iraq may have unleashed a proliferation crisis if looters have sold equipment that can be used to make atomic weapons, Western diplomats said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which monitored Saddam Hussein's nuclear sites before last year's Iraq war, said on Monday equipment and materials that could be used to make atomic weapons have been disappearing from Iraq but neither Baghdad nor Washington had noticed.
``If some of this stuff were to end up in Iran, some people would be very concerned,'' a diplomat close to the IAEA told Reuters. ``The IAEA's big concern would be profiteering, people who would sell this stuff with no regard for who is buying it.''
The profiteers could have sold the items on to groups or countries interested in weapons, the diplomat added.
The United States believes Iraq's neighbor, Iran, is secretly developing nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy program. Tehran denies this, insisting its nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity.
Pre-war U.S. allegations that Saddam had revived his atomic weapons program from the early 1990s have never been proven.
But the IAEA has warned countries to keep a close eye on all their nuclear sites due to multiple warnings from Western intelligence agencies that terrorist organizations are interested in getting their hands on a nuclear device.
AUTHORIZED OR UNAUTHORIZED REMOVAL?
Satellite imagery shows entire buildings in Iraq that once housed high-precision equipment have been dismantled, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he believed most of the removal of materials and equipment took place in the chaos that reigned shortly after the invasion last spring.
``It is not clear, but it appears, and I'm seeking more details after receipt of the IAEA report overnight, that most of the unauthorized removal took place in the immediate aftermath of the major conflict in March and April last year,'' Straw told parliament.
The diplomat close to the IAEA said Straw's comment implied the removal of materials and equipment that took place after April 2003 had been authorized.
``If that is the case, the IAEA would like to know,'' he said, adding that the U.N. watchdog had received no response so far from the Iraqi, U.S. or British authorities in this matter.
In 1991, the IAEA detected Saddam's clandestine nuclear weapons program and spent the next seven years investigating and dismantling it. By the time U.N. inspectors fled the country in December 1998, Iraq's covert atom bomb program was gone.
IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said that before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, all of the nuclear materials, equipment and facilities that have disappeared from satellite photos were accounted for and were not being used in a weapons program.
``This is dual-use stuff of which -- when we were there -- we were certain was not being misused,'' he said, adding that everything had been tagged or sealed and was closely monitored.
``It was systematically removed,'' Gwozdecky said.
A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said the issue was in the hands of the CIA's Iraq Survey Group -- U.S. weapons inspectors who declared this month that Saddam had no stockpiles of banned weapons when the U.S.-led invasion began.
President Bush, locked in a tough re-election battle with Senator John Kerry, justified the war in part by saying Saddam was on the brink of developing a nuclear bomb that he might use against the United States or give to terrorists.
----
Iraq Says Open to UN Inspectors Amid Nuclear Alarm
October 12, 2004
REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq.html
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear inspectors are welcome to return an Iraqi minister said on Tuesday in response to concerns of an ``apparent systematic dismantlement'' of Saddam Hussein's once-vigorous nuclear program.
Science and Technology Minister Rashad Omar was responding to an International Atomic Energy Agency report on Monday that neither Baghdad nor Washington appeared to have noticed the disappearance of nuclear equipment and materials once closely monitored by the agency.
``The locations that belong to the Science and Technology ministry are secure and under our control,'' Omar told Reuters.
He said nothing had gone missing since a looting spree after last year's U.S.-led invasion, which the United States and Britain said was to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Both countries now admit Saddam had no banned weapons.
Omar said Tuwaitha, a vast compound south of Baghdad that included Iraq's main nuclear facility, was being turned into a science park. ``The IAEA came back one month ago, they inspected the plant and others and didn't say anything.
``We are transparent. We are happy for the IAEA or any other organization to come and inspect,'' he said, adding he had not seen the agency's report to the Security Council.
The IAEA report, released three weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential election, could fuel criticism of the Iraq policies of the Bush administration, already under fire for its handling of an insurgency that has so far proved impossible to crush.
A U.S. photographer abducted by gunmen on Sunday has been freed, the picture agency representing him said on Tuesday.
Paul Taggart, 24, has been released and has spoken by telephone with his parents in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said Stephen Claypole, chief executive officer of the World Picture News agency in New York.
Claypole said Taggart, who had been in Iraq for about five months, was kidnapped by three masked gunmen on Sunday morning in Baghdad when his car was intercepted by what appeared to be a criminal gang.
On the military front, an overnight U.S. air strike on the rebel-held city of Falluja targeted a restaurant which the military said was a meeting place for followers of America's top enemy in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The latest raid coincided with efforts to restore state authority in Falluja and elsewhere before January elections.
Witnesses said bombs flattened the popular Haji Hussein kebab house on Falluja's main street, killing two guards and reducing it to a pile of crushed concrete and twisted metal.
After sunset, U.S. forces and insurgents clashed just east of Falluja, residents said. U.S. air support was called in, with fighter planes firing on one neighborhood, they said. A doctor at a Falluja hospital, Haithan Rahim, said eight people were killed in the fighting. The U.S. military had no information.
FOCUS ON ZARQAWI
The U.S. military said it was a ``precision strike'' on a location where Zarqawi militants met to plot attacks.
``Zarqawi does not come here. Where is Zarqawi? We have not seen Zarqawi,'' yelled one Falluja resident after the U.S. raid.
Zarqawi's group has claimed some of Iraq's bloodiest suicide bombings, as well as the beheadings of foreign hostages, including Briton Kenneth Bigley, who was killed on Thursday.
Bigley's body was dumped south of Baghdad the following day, insurgent sources said on Tuesday. The British embassy said it had still not recovered the Briton's remains.
Insurgents have sought to frighten U.S. allies into pulling their troops and contractors out of Iraq.
Hungary's new prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, said on Tuesday his government would decide at the end of November or early December whether to keep Hungary's 300-strong transport battalion in Iraq beyond the end of the year.
South Korea is investigating a warning posted on an Arabic Web site threatening attacks if Seoul does not pull its 3,600 troops out of Iraq in 14 days, an official said.
Three South Korean civilians have been killed in Iraq.
The U.S. military believes Falluja is a main sanctuary for such militants and American officers have voiced skepticism that any political deal to pacify the town can dislodge them.
Falluja representatives met interim government officials on Tuesday in the latest of a series of talks to put Iraqi security forces back in control of the rebellious city.
Previous truce deals have failed to calm Falluja.
--------
Nuclear weapons materials 'vanish from Iraq'
Scotsman.com News
IRWIN ARIEFF
12 Oct 2004
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1185422004
EQUIPMENT and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons are disappearing from Iraq but neither Baghdad nor Washington appears to have noticed, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency reported yesterday.
Satellite imagery shows that entire buildings that once housed high-precision equipment have been dismantled.
Equipment and materials helpful in making bombs have also been removed from open storage areas in Iraq and disappeared without a trace, according to the satellite pictures, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report to the UN Security Council.
The warning comes just days after a CIA report detailed how armed insurgent groups in Iraq are trying to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction.
The report said rebel groups were trying to manufacture chemical weapons, adding that the availability of chemicals and munitions, as well as sympathetic former Iraqi weapons scientists "increases the future threat".
The new claims by the IAEA will give ammunition to those who claim Iraq had the industrial wherewithal to easily restart its nuclear programme should sanctions be lifted.
In his report to the Security Council yesterday, IAEA Director-General Mohamed El Baradei said that some military goods that disappeared from Iraq after the March 2003 United States-led invasion, including missile engines, later turned up in scrap yards in the Middle East and Europe.
However, he added that none of the equipment or material known to the IAEA as potentially useful in making nuclear bombs has turned up yet.
The US barred the return of UN weapons investigators after launching war on Iraq last year, preventing the IAEA from keeping tabs on high-tech equipment and materials up to the present day.
Under anti-proliferation agreements, the US occupation authorities who administered Iraq until June, and then the Iraqi interim government that took power afterwards, would have to inform the IAEA if they moved or exported any of that material or equipment.
But no such reports have been received since the invasion, officials of the watchdog agency said.
The US also has not publicly commented on earlier UN inspectors' reports disclosing the dismantling of a range of key weapons-making sites, raising the question of whether it was unable to monitor the sites.
In the absence of any US or Iraqi accounting, council diplomats said the satellite images could mean the gear had been moved to new sites inside Iraq or stolen. If stolen, it could end up in the hands of a government or terrorist group seeking nuclear weapons.
"We simply don't know, although we are trying to get the information," said one council diplomat.
US officials had no immediate comment on the report.
-----
UN watchdog says nuclear equipment vanished in Iraq
VIENNA (AFP)
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041012165639.juojruvh.html
Equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons, in some cases entire buildings housing sophisticated technology, are disappearing from Iraq, the UN nuclear watchdog has reported to the UN.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he was concerned about the "widespread and apparently systematic dismantlement that has taken place at sites previously relevant to Iraq's nuclear program" under deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.
So-called dual-use equipment - with peaceful as well as weapons-making applications -- is disappearing, ElBaradei said, raising fears terrorists could be getting their hands on it.
The October 1 letter to the United Nations was posted on the IAEA web site Tuesday.
The IAEA, whose inspectors left Iraq before the US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein began in March 2003 and have not been allowed to return, now must rely for its reporting on "open sources and commercial satellite imagery," ElBaradei said.
He said "the imagery shows in many instances the dismantlement of entire buildings that housed high precision equipment (such as flow forming, milling and turning machines; electron beam welders; coordinate measurement machines) formerly monitored and tagged with IAEA seals."
Meanwhile, material such as high-strength aluminium has also vanished from open storage areas, he said.
While some military equipment in Iraq later turned up in scrap yards abroad, "none of the high-quality dual-use equipment or materials ... (have) been found," ElBaradei said.
"The disappearance of such equipment and materials may be of proliferation significance," ElBaradei said.
US President George W. Bush justified the war by saying Saddam's push for weapons of mass destruction was one reason for launching the war.
But a new report last week from chief US weapons inspector Charles Duelfer concluded that Saddam had stopped trying to build weapons of mass destruction after international inspections were begun following the 1991 Gulf war.
ElBaradei reports every six months to the Security Council since the IAEA still has a UN mandate to investigate Iran's nuclear program.
IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said that neither US authorities in Iraq nor Iraq government officials have reported to the agency about nuclear facilities in the country.
ElBaradei said in his letter that the IAEA needed "to be provided by all states with information" relevant to the agency's mandate.
But Gwozdecky said: "We're not getting information from authorities on what's happening."
He said that when the IAEA had inspectors in Iraq, it "had all of this stuff under close scrutiny and Iraq did regularly report to us whenever there were changes in inventory."
"Iraq still has an obligation to report to us whenever there is a change in inventories, but this has not been happening," Gwozdecky said.
-------
US downplays concerns about missing Iraqi nuclear equipment
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041012211554.vxe17379.html
The United States on Tuesday played down concerns raised by the UN atomic watchdog about equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons reported missing from Iraq, saying the problem had been addressed.
The State Department acknowledged that such items had been looted from Iraqi facilities in the immediate aftermath of the US-led invasion of Iraq but maintained that "most, if not all," had been accounted for and that Iraqi authorities had acted to prevent further thefts.
"This is a problem that did occur after the war," spokesman Richard Boucher said. "We think though, that, through a variety of efforts that we and the Iraqis have been making, it has been brought under control."
"Indeed, the International Atomic Energy Agency has been able to inspect facilities in Iraq to ensure that the materials that are still there are properly categorized and accounted for," he told reporters
In an October 1 letter to the UN Security Council, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he was concerned that material and equipment, in some cases entire buildings housing sophisticated technology, are disappearing from Iraq.
So-called dual-use equipment -- with peaceful as well as weapons-making applications -- is disappearing, ElBaradei said, raising fears terrorists could get their hands on it.
"The disappearance of such equipment and materials may be of proliferation significance," ElBaradei said.
He also said the IAEA, whose inspectors left Iraq before the US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein began in March 2003 and have not been allowed to return, now must rely for its reporting on "open sources and commercial satellite imagery" which show the extent of the missing material.
However, Boucher said IAEA teams had been to Iraq, including the nuclear facility at Tuwaitha, at least twice -- in June 2003 and in August 2004 -- since Saddam was ousted and that such inspections would continue.
ElBaradei reports every six months to the Security Council since the IAEA still has a UN mandate to investigate Iraq's nuclear program.
But IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said that neither US authorities in Iraq nor Iraq government officials have reported to the agency about nuclear facilities in the country and that the agency was not getting the information it needed.
--------
Confusion over Iraq nuclear assets
BBC
By David Bamford
12 October, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3736158.stm
US troops guard canister containing traces of uranium The IAEA has not been able to properly check Iraq's facilities since looting last year
The statement by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's nuclear monitoring agency, on the disappearance of nuclear equipment and materials in Iraq, may give rise to some confusion.
The IAEA director-general said entire buildings related to Iraq's former nuclear programme appeared to have been dismantled, and that the agency had lost track of high-precision equipment thought to have been inside the buildings.
News headlines have been full for months of acknowledgements in the US and elsewhere that Iraq had long ago abandoned plans to build nuclear weapons.
Yet now the IAEA is talking of equipment known to have been in Iraq as recently as last year that had potential nuclear use.
Back in the 1970s and 80s, Iraq did have a civilian nuclear programme, being developed under close supervision by the IAEA.
It suffered a major setback in 1981 when the Israelis attacked and destroyed Iraq's French-built Osirak nuclear reactor.
Since then, atomic energy inspectors have visited Iraq but they were forced to leave last year because of the Iraq war.
Answers needed
The Americans have still not allowed them back for further inspections, and this seems to be a key factor lying behind Mr ElBaradei's statement now.
He says the agency knows in which buildings this sensitive equipment was stored when it left Iraq.
Now satellite photos suggest the entire buildings have been dismantled.
The Iraqi interim Minister of Science and Technology, Rashad Omar, told the BBC that the buildings concerned were comprehensively looted during the days following the American-led capture of Baghdad last year and before the coalition troops could secure the facilities.
He said the US did take control - with the approval of the IAEA - of quantities of low-grade uranium.
US troops look down on the nuclear facility at Tuwaitha, Iraq The US has been blocking full UN inspections in Iraq Since the transfer of sovereignty, the Iraqi government has assumed responsibility for the sites.
An IAEA spokesman, Mark Gwozdecky, said that the Agency has been monitoring foreign ports to try to track the flow of nuclear-related and 'dual-usage' items out of Iraq.
He said there has been a steady flow of mildly radioactive scrap items, including missile engines, turning up in locations including Jordan and the Netherlands.
The IAEA says it cannot do its job of guarding the world against secret nuclear proliferation if it is prevented from keeping track of such equipment.
The Americans may well know what has happened to it - or they may not.
Mr ElBaradei does not know because he has been kept out of the information loop - and he wants some answers.
-------- israel
Army chief 'emptied his magazine' at girl in Gaza
12 October 2004
independent.co.uk
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=571222
Two separate official investigations are under way into the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old girl in Gaza by the Israeli army after soldiers testified that their company commander "emptied his magazine" at her after she had been shot and was presumed dead.
The army has already admitted that the killing of Iman al-Hams in the town of Rafah a week ago was a mistake and that her bag, which it says soldiers thought carried explosives, contained school books.
Soldiers have come forward to explain that her body was riddled with 20 bullets because their immediate commander "confirmed the killing" by shooting two bullets at her already prone body before withdrawing a short distance and then firing a burst of automatic gunfire at the corpse.
The Judge Advocate General, Brigadier General Avi Mandelblit, has instructed the military police to launch a criminal investigation against the commander in the Givati Brigade's crack Shaked Battalion as a result of the claim. Unusually, the investigation was ordered even though the army inquiry is incomplete.
The move follows interviews with soldiers serving in the company published in the Israeli newspaper Yedhiot Ahronot. It quoted them as saying the commander should have been stood down immediately after the incident. One soldier told the newspaper: "The company CO who sprayed the girl with bullets turned us all into vicious animals and besmirched us all ... If he is not dismissed, we will not agree to serve under him." Another said the commander had "desecrated the body".
According to figures produced by 11 UN agencies, 24 Palestinians under the age of 17 have been killed since 28 September when the army entered northern Gaza in response to the firing by Palestinian militants of two Qassam rockets which killed two Israeli children in Sderot. A nine-year-old girl was among 11 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip over the weekend.
The investigations opened as security sources told the newspaper Haaretz that the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, had rejected a request from army commanders to withdraw from the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on the grounds that the fortnight-old operation "Days of Penitence" was endangering troops and that militants had now removed rockets to positions outside the camp.
Mr Sharon told the Knesset at the opening of what promises to be a difficult winter session for the government that it would be voting on 25 October on his plan to withdraw some 7,500 settlers from Gaza.
The level of difficulty was underlined last night when the legislature opposed by 45 to 33 a routine motion noting Mr Sharon's speech. Although it does not threaten Mr Sharon's administration, the defeat emphasised the strong opposition to the plan from the extreme right of Israeli politics and from the far right of his own Likud party, seven of whose members abstained last night.
A Palestinian farmer, Hani Shadeh, 26, was shot and critically wounded in his olive orchard near Nablus in the West Bank yesterday.
-------- japan
TEPCO shutting Fukushima reactor to replace pipe
(Reuters)
Oct 12, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6475759
TOKYO, - Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) (9501.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it was shutting down the No. 5 nuclear power generation unit at its Fukushima-Daiichi plant in northern Japan to replace a high-pressure gas pipe.
Japan's biggest utility started closing the 784,000-kilowatt unit at around 6 p.m. (0900 GMT) to replace the pipe, which is not directly connected to the reactor, a spokesman said.
"It will take about two to three days to replace the pipe," the spokesman said. He did not specify when the power company would restart the unit.
The Fukushima prefectural government suspected the thickness of the pipe might have fallen below safe levels and had asked TEPCO to replace it immediately, TEPCO said in a statement.
TEPCO had planned to replace the pipe during routine maintenance scheduled for early November, but has decided to shut the unit now due to the government's request, the spokesman said.
Safety inspections at Japanese nuclear power plants have been reinforced after five workers were killed when steam leaked from a pipe at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s (9503.T: Quote, Profile, Research) Mihama nuclear facility in western Japan on Aug. 9.
After the shutdown, eight of TEPCO's 17 nuclear units will be operating, the spokesman said.
-------- korea
U.S. Says N.Korea Miscalculating by Stalling on Talks
October 12, 2004
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-korea-north.html
TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States accused North Korea Tuesday of miscalculation by refusing to resume talks on its nuclear programs before the U.S. presidential election while China renewed a diplomatic drive to end the stalemate.
Beijing has played host to three rounds of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions. At the last round in June, China, the United States, Russia, Japan and North and South Korea agreed to meet in September, but those talks never took place.
``Unfortunately, I don't have a good crystal ball regarding North Korea. But it appears that since we've only got 22 days I think until our election, that the North Koreans don't have much interest in holding talks before then,'' U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters.
``I think this is a miscalculation on their part,'' Armitage said during a two-day visit to meet Japanese officials and attend an international donors' conference on Iraq.
Analysts say Pyongyang is stalling to see who wins the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 2 because it believes the Democratic contender, Senator John Kerry, will be easier to deal with than President Bush.
Kerry has said he would like to initiate bilateral talks with North Korea alongside the six-way discussions. China has voiced no view on that position.
Taking up the diplomatic baton, China announced Tuesday that North Korea's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong-nam, would visit next week and that Beijing's special envoy for Korean affairs would tour ``relevant countries'' to push for a new round of talks.
North Korea said Friday it wanted bilateral nuclear talks with the United States but would rejoin stalled six-party meetings at once if Washington dropped its ``hostile policy'' toward Pyongyang.
The nuclear crisis began in October 2002 when U.S. officials said North Korea had admitted to pursuing a secret uranium-enrichment program.
FLURRY OF VISITS
North Korea now denies having such a program, and has demanded energy aid and diplomatic concessions in return for freezing an older, plutonium-based nuclear arms program.
Armitage met officials including Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi, and the two sides agreed to continue to urge North Korea to take part in six-way talks without preconditions, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
Kim, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's parliament, is the most senior official from Pyongyang to visit China since the reclusive country's top leader, Kim Jong-il, toured in April.
During the Oct. 18-20 visit, Kim will meet Chinese leaders to ``exchange views on some issues in bilateral relations,'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told a news conference without elaborating.
The visit will be officially to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the establishment of relations.
In addition to the nuclear crisis, analysts expect economic cooperation to be a key topic. China has been trying for years to coax its secretive neighbor to reform and open its command economy, following in Chinese footsteps.
China's special envoy for Korean Peninsula affairs will make a two-day visit to South Korea from Wednesday for talks on resuming the stalled six-way talks, and would then visit the United States and Japan, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported, quoting the South Korean foreign ministry.
Zhang said only that Ning would visit ``relevant countries'' as part of China's continued efforts to seek a resolution to the thorny standoff.
-------- missile defense
Military Plans to Put Missile in Alaska
October 12, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Missile-Defense-Alaska.html
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- The military plans to place a sixth ballistic missile interceptor inside a silo at Fort Greely by the end of the month, as initial tests of a national defense system critics contend is highly flawed near their conclusion.
To prepare for activation, the military is conducting exercises at the Interior Alaska post, where five of the 55-foot-long rockets have been installed since July, as an essential component of the Bush administration's national security policy.
The first two interceptors destined for Vandenberg Air Force Base in California will go into existing silos in November, with two more scheduled to be deployed there next year and 10 more at Fort Greely.
``We're going through this shakedown period to make sure everything is working properly,'' Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, said Tuesday.
The ultimate decision on when the system should be activated lies with various commanders, including the U.S. Northern Command, the military force responsible for protecting the United States. Command officials will then brief the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before final approval, said Mike Kucharek, a spokesman for the Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The decision is expected before year's end, Kucharek said.
Until the system is deemed fully operational, interceptors will remain locked down, even as crews go through exercises, including communicating among a network of command centers at Fort Greely, Vandenberg and Colorado Springs.
The system has been criticized by Democrats and others for costing billions without adequately proving itself in tests.
As envisioned by defense officials, the interceptors will be linked to a network of satellites, radars, computers and command centers. In an attack, satellites would alert the Northern Command, triggering a response by interceptors topped with optical sensors called ``kill vehicles,'' while a complex radar system would track incoming enemy missiles.
Critics say no one knows if the interceptors will work; in highly controlled tests, the interceptors have failed three of eight times.
``The system has no demonstrated capability that it would work in realistic conditions,'' said Philip Coyle, who was the Pentagon's former assistant secretary of operational test and evaluation in the Clinton administration. Coyle is now an adviser to the Center for Defense Information in Washington.
Failures have only led to better equipment designs, according to the system's advocates. ``This is always going to be a work in progress,'' Lehner said. ``We're constantly improving.''
On the Net:
www.acq.osd.mil/mda/mdalink/html/mdalink.html
www.cdi.org
--------
Protecting America or the President's Reelection Chances?
Antiwar.com
by Ivan Eland
October 12, 2004
http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=3764
Pretending to fulfill a 2000 campaign pledge, the Bush administration will soon declare the "activation" of the nation's second national missile defense (NMD) system. Intended to look good for the election, the new system is likely to repeat the fate of the first one-abject failure.
In the early 1970s, President Nixon activated the Safeguard anti-ballistic missile system, which was supposed to protect the United States from incoming communist nuclear weapons, only to deactivate it a short time later after the U.S. government discovered that it didn't work. Today, the Bush administration is traveling the same road.
Because politics rather than national security is driving the program, the rush to have some sort of system in place by November has led to the mentality of "field now and test later." After reviewing many weapons programs, the Government Accountability Office has concluded that this tactic usually leads to disaster-generating escalating costs and diminishing performance. Adequate testing must be done before building hardware or costly redesigns probably will be needed when some planned technologies inevitably don't pan out. With a close election at hand, however, the free-spending Bush administration cares little about the taxpayer's dollars.
Over the years, according to the New York Times, the U.S. government has spent a whopping $130 billion on missile defense but still has no genuinely effective system to fulfill Ronald Reagan's Star Wars fantasy. The desire on the right to deify Reagan and preserve his legacy has made support for missile defense a litmus test issue-even though it has little to do with national security.
The Bush administration's activation of six interceptors is a pale shadow of the grandiose Reagan "Star Wars" vision that only fancifully would have stopped a massive Soviet nuclear attack and made atomic weapons obsolete. And even that assumes those interceptors can actually hit real incoming long-range missiles from North Korea or any other "rogue" state.
NMD is the most complex weapon system ever designed. To allow a "bullet to hit another bullet," the system requires satellite systems for detection of missile launches and tracking, radars for additional tracking, booster rockets to propel the killing warhead, and battle management computers. The Pentagon has conducted some successful intercepts of missiles, but these tests were rigged to help the interceptor kill the incoming missile. The real challenge will be integrating all of these components together so that the interceptor, without cheating, can hit a real missile that might be trying to fool it.
If all of this isn't bad enough, the larger question of whether such a defense system is even needed remains unanswered. Ever since nuclear weapons were invented, the United States has relied on the world's most potent atomic arsenal to deter other countries from a nuclear attack. Countries with a few nuclear warheads-which is all the missile system will ever be able to intercept, even if it works-would likely be deterred from using them against the United States anyway by the threat of national incineration by thousands of accurate U.S. warheads. So if deterrence would work more cheaply than adding on expensive missile defenses, why are conservatives so keen on building them?
Glorifying and keeping alive the legacy of Ronald Reagan is only one of several hidden agendas. As recently released Air Force documents on space weapons and fighting doctrine show, the U.S. government wants to put weapons in space. Hawks hope that funding for missile defense will eventually lead to the deployment of space-based interceptors, which will open the door to a panoply of offensive space weapons. Starting an arms race in space is ill-advised, however, when the United States is the country most reliant on commercial and military satellites.
Although the stated purpose of national missile defense is to protect the nation from a few missiles launched from small "rogue" states, many conservatives eventually would like to use a more robust system against China. The problem with any kind of missile defense, however, has always been that an adversary can build additional missiles to saturate the defenses cheaper than expensive defensive systems can be augmented. An increasingly prosperous China should have no trouble "outbuilding" U.S. defenses.
Finally, the September 11 attacks demonstrated that the main threat to America is probably not from missile-delivered nuclear weapons but from those planted by terrorists or commandos using other means-for example, devices smuggled by ship into a U.S. port. In reality, long-range missiles threaten the ability of the United States to meddle willy nilly in the affairs of other countries. For example, if Saddam Hussein had possessed a few nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that could have hit the United States, the Bush administration probably would have been deterred from invading Iraq. But it is scary to think of a similarly aggressive future U.S. administration that believes an imperfect missile shield would protect America completely from any missiles launched from a nation under U.S. attack.
Most likely, the Bush administration's missile defense will be an ineffective waste of money. But even in the unlikely event that NMD is somewhat effective, it remains a dangerous idea and should be scrapped.
-------- u.n.
Fifty-ninth General Assembly First Committee 6th Meeting (PM)
Press Release
GA/DIS/3276
Middle east nuclear proliferation highlighted, as disarmament committee continues general debate
Conflicting views of the state of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East were highlighted this afternoon, as the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) continued its general debate.
Israel's representative told the Committee international decisions should not be seen as substitutes for national controls because confronting proliferation "begins at home". Criticizing States' "irresponsible behaviour" and reluctance to honour their commitments, the representative of Israel drew special attention to Iran's "serial non-compliance", the case of Libya, and Abdul Qadeer Khan's proliferation network, whose magnitude had still not been fully revealed. Declaring that there were discrepancies between some Middle Eastern States' official statements and their actual behaviour, he warned that the resulting dangerous situation would have ramifications beyond the region.
In view of regional threats, Israel enforced strict controls over conventional weapons exports, including the export of technology, he said. On the other hand, certain States were abetting the illicit traffic of small arms and light weapons in the region. Such actions helped terrorists, he stated. Other States in the Middle East were developing weapons of mass destruction capabilities, supporting terrorist organizations, and publicly threatening Israel's very existence. The combination of such policies was "leading our region far from the vision of peace and security".
By contrast, the speaker from Libya noted that his country's decision to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programme showed its belief that an arms race would not provide security to the Middle East, but would instead make the path to a peaceful world more difficult. Expressing the hope that all States in the region would follow Libya's lead, without double standards, he pointed out that his country had only sought non-traditional weapons because its security and independence had been threatened by other States in the region that possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Although the Treaty for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) had entered into force long ago, nuclear Powers such as the "Zionist entity" still rejected the Treaty and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Calling on the international community to apply serious pressure on that entity to change its behaviour, he extolled the virtues of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.
The representative of Iran noted that the idea of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East had actually been originally proposed by his country, but there had been no papers on the issue because of Israel's refusal to respond to claims about its clandestine programme. In keeping with the spirit of such a zone, Iran had made sure that weapons of mass destruction had no place in the country's defence doctrine. Declaring that using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes was an inalienable right, enshrined in article IV of the NPT, he told delegates that his country had signed the IAEA's additional protocol to enhance confidence, and had even gone so far as to implement it before ratification by Parliament.
Statements in the general debate were also made by the representatives of Myanmar, United Republic of Tanzania, Colombia, Republic of Korea, Viet Nam, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Uganda, Dominican Republic, Botswana, Angola, Croatia and El Salvador. The representatives of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea spoke in exercise of the right of reply.
The Committee also heard from the representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. Tuesday, 12 October.
Background
The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) met this afternoon to continue its general debate on the whole range of arms limitation and security arrangements. (For background, see Press Releases GA/DIS/3271 and 3272.)
Statements
GEREMY ISHASHAROS, Deputy Director General, Strategic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, said the Committee could not afford to operate in a vacuum, divorced from existing or emerging threats. In that context, he reasoned that if it wished to preserve its integrity and retain its importance, it would have to address today's most pressing challenges. Because the multilateral community was both continuing to obstinately deal with outdated, irrelevant issues, and taking an unhealthy "all or nothing" approach to negotiation, the various disarmament bodies were locked in a stalemate.
One of the primary challenges facing the international community today was the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, he said. Criticizing States' "irresponsible behaviour" and reluctance to honour their commitments, he drew special attention to Iran's "serial non-compliance", the case of Libya, and Abdul Qadeer Khan's proliferation network, whose magnitude had still not been fully revealed. He also stated that, over the past year, traditional verification mechanisms had been proven to be limited and unable to provide the necessary security assurances.
Referring to man-portable air defence systems (MANPADs), he called for the international community to exert more control over them Ð- by limiting access and taking steps to protect civil aviation. For its part, his country had adopted the relevant export control guidelines. Turning to terrorism, he said it must be discussed in its true form, without euphemisms. Expressing concern that many terrorists aspired to acquire weapons of mass destruction, he said that those aspirations, combined with increased cases of "suicide terrorism", constituted a "potentially apocalyptic vehicle".
Noting that last week's terrorist attacks in Sinai had killed Egyptians, as well as Israeli vacationers, he stressed that terrorists made no distinctions between countries or religions. After all, they had attacked States as diverse as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Spain. Rather, terrorism was fuelled by simple hatred Ð- hatred for the free world, democratic values, human rights, peace, and reconciliation. Welcoming Security Council resolution 1540, he, nevertheless, stressed that international decisions should not be seen as substitutes for national controls. In that regard, he stated that confronting proliferation "begins at home", through clear policies and accountability.
In view of regional threats, Israel enforced strict controls over conventional weapons exports, including the export of technology, he said. On the other hand, certain States were abetting the illicit traffic of small arms and light weapons in the region. Such actions helped terrorists, he stated. Other States in the Middle East were developing weapons of mass destruction capabilities, supporting terrorist organizations, and publicly threatening Israel's very existence. The combination of such policies was "leading our region far from the vision of peace and security". Declaring that there were discrepancies between some Middle Eastern States' official statements and their actual behaviour, he warned that the resulting dangerous situation would have ramifications beyond the region.
MYA THAN (Myanmar) said that the greatest security threat facing mankind today was the threat of weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons. Another great threat starring the international community in the eye was terrorism. The international community had been concerned about the possibility of a nightmarish scenario of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists. Efforts to deal with and overcome those horrendous threats needed to be stepped up. Nuclear disarmament was, therefore, the highest priority on the international agenda for arms control. The benchmarks for the implementation had been laid down by the 2000 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Review Conference. The international community should, therefore, measure the progress in systematic and progressive efforts for nuclear disarmament against those benchmarks.
The early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was an imperative for the effective implementation of nuclear disarmament, he continued. It was, therefore, essential that countries in the Annex 2 of the Treaty ratify it as soon as possible. Another step in a systematic and progressive process of nuclear disarmament was the negotiation of a draft treaty banning fissile materials for nuclear weapons or other nuclear-explosive devices.
He noted that, although the Conference on Disarmament had been unable to agree on its programme of work and to begin its substantive work, there had been some significant developments in the Conference at its 2004 session. On 12 February, it took a decision on the enhancement of the participation of civil society in the work of the Conference. Agreement on the programme of work was the highest priority. The international community should take a balanced approach, based on the three pillars of the NPT -- nuclear non-proliferation, nuclear disarmament, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The international community should recognize, respect, maintain and strengthen the interrelationship and synergy among those pillars of the Treaty.
AUGUSTINE A. MAHIGA (United Republic of Tanzania) welcomed Libya's decision to get rid of its nuclear and chemical weapons programmes and said that all countries that possessed weapons of mass destruction should emulate Libya's example. There was no moral or military justification for any country to continue possessing and relying on weapons of mass destruction for its defence or deterrence when their use Ð- intentionally or accidentally Ð- could trigger total annihilation of the world and its civilization.
He said that, despite the fact that the international community agreed that the NPT was the cornerstone of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, some States did not seem prepared to honour their part of the agreement. It was regrettable that, as the 2005 NPT Review Conference approached, the 13 practical steps agreed upon in 2000 had not been implemented. That was in spite of the fact that the nuclear-weapon States unequivocally undertook to eliminate their arsenals. Worse, the world was witnessing the development of new nuclear doctrines, which included the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon States. In addition, new types of more sophisticated and concealable nuclear weapons and their delivery systems were being researched and developed. All those actions undermined and contravened the spirit and letter of the NPT.
He reaffirmed his support for the efforts aimed at combating illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons. Small arms in regional and internal conflicts in recipient countries in the developing world had fuelled violent conflicts, resulting in unrelenting civilian deaths, the destruction of livelihoods and mass human displacements. Concerted international action was needed to arrest that situation. His country had been and would continue to participate in subregional, regional and international processes aimed at addressing that problem.
He added that his country supported efforts aimed at improving the effectiveness of the work of the First Committee. That reform of the Committee should be part of the revitalization of the General Assembly as a whole, and should not be done in isolation. It should address the most urgent challenges that the international community faced today -Ð general and complete disarmament. Nothing would have been achieved if the reforms did not bear fruit.
MABRUK MILAD (Libya) said that this was the Committee's first session since his country's decision to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programme. He said his country's initiative showed its belief that an arms race would not provide security to the Middle East, but would instead make the path to a peaceful world more difficult. Expressing the hope that all States in the region would follow Libya's lead, without double standards, he pointed out that his country had only sought non-traditional weapons because its security and independence had been threatened by other States in the region that possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Listing five reasons why his country had decided to turn away from weapons of mass destruction, he said that, first, maintaining peace and security in today's changing world was important. Second, keeping weapons of mass destruction was not viable or feasible in the long run, and results could be tragic and unpredictable. Third, weapons of mass destruction were dangerous for possessors, as well as potential targets. Fourth, such arms, in addition to being a means for protection, actually needed protection themselves. Fifth, building such an arsenal led to the "bleeding of funds", which came at the expense of socio-economic development.
Although the NPT had entered into force long ago, disappointments still remained. For example, nuclear Powers such as the "Zionist entity" still rejected the Treaty and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Calling on the international community to apply serious pressure on that entity to adhere to change its behaviour, he extolled the virtues of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. For its part, his country had ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention and the CTBT this year. Its officials had also signed the IAEA's Additional Protocol, received inspectors, and met with such figures as Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA.
Calling for the Conference on Disarmament to become active again, especially so that negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty could begin, he reiterated that multilateralism was the only means to bring about complete and general disarmament in the world. Turning to landmines, he said his country had over 10 million such weapons embedded in its soil. They had been buried there during the Second World War, and thousands of innocent civilians had died because of them. In that context, he called on the countries that had planted them to assume their responsibilities, provide maps and information regarding the mines' locations, and compensate victims.
Voicing his desire for the Mediterranean to become a zone of peace, he lauded Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's visit to his country last Thursday to inaugurate a pipeline carrying Libyan gas to Europe via Italy. He also praised the European Union for lifting sanctions and its arms embargo against Libya. To further improve pan-Mediterranean relations, all foreign navies and military bases should be withdrawn from the area, he said. Additionally, outsiders should refrain from intervening in States' internal affairs. Before concluding, he said an international conference should be held to define terrorism, determine its causes, and find the necessary means to confront it. As for reforming the First Committee, he said resolutions should be implemented, especially by the major Powers.
MARIA ANGELA HOLGUIN (Colombia) urged that the initiative to improve the working methods of the First Committee be assessed on its merits, rather than on the basis of the States or group of States that were sponsoring it. The Committee was the most important forum for discussion of international security issues. The international community must, therefore, keep the forum and reform it. It was only by so doing that it could show that multilateralism could be effective.
She reiterated Colombia's position that only the total elimination of weapons of mass destruction would make it impossible for such weapons to fall into the hands of terrorists. Colombia was committed to the total elimination of such weapons. It had signed the CTBT in 1990. It had, however, not been able to ratify it, because of internal requirements. In that regard, her country had proposed the idea of finding ways to address the cases of countries that were in such situations, so that they could ratify the Treaty as quickly as possible.
She said that her country needed greater cooperation in combating illegal drugs. Tighter control was also needed in the area of small arms and light weapons. In addition, it was necessary to ensure universalization of the Ottawa Convention aimed at anti-personnel mines, to ensure that producers of such weapons were bound by it. The international community should also ensure urgent demining throughout the world. She noted that, after years of reduction, world military expenditures had begun to rise.
KIM SAM-HOON (Republic of Korea) said the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction remained the gravest threat to international security today. In that regard, clandestine networks, such as the one run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, had to be addressed, and the NPT's inherent weaknesses and loopholes had to be remedied. He also expressed concern that some countries were attempting to develop weapons under the guise of peaceful energy programmes. Welcoming Security Council resolution 1540, he said it was a good step forward and complemented his country's desires for greater international verification capabilities. For its part, his country was fully cooperating with the IAEA, so that complete nuclear transparency would be achieved.
Underscoring the urgency of the entry into force of the CTBT, he called on all States, especially those whose ratification was required for entry into force, to ratify it. He also highlighted the importance of a fissile material cut-off treaty. Until such instruments were brought into force, it was imperative that States uphold moratoria on nuclear-test explosions and fissile-material production, he said. Turning to the international multilateral machinery, he said its performance had been "rather disappointing". In that regard, he called on such bodies as the Conference on Disarmament and the Disarmament Commission to break out of their stalemates. He also noted that their deadlocks made the First Committee more important than ever, thus, rendering the need for reform even more significant.
He stated that the underlying causes of proliferation should be addressed, through the easing of regional conflicts. In that context, he reiterated his commitment to a peaceful solution to the KoreanPeninsula issue. Looking to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to abandon its nuclear programmes and to join the thriving East Asian mainstream, he called for the continuation of the six-party talks. Turning to missiles, he lamented that the panel appointed by the Secretary-General to discuss the topic had failed to produce a report. On conventional weapons, he welcomed the inclusion of MANPADs in the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms.
NGUYEN DUY CHIEN (Viet Nam) expressed regret that continued endeavours at various multilateral disarmament forums, such as the Disarmament Commission, the Conference on Disarmament and the third NPT Preparatory Committee, had not produced encouraging results. The current state of disarmament affairs could only be rectified if real political will prevailed and cooperative efforts to overcome existing difficulties and obstacles were renewed and redoubled.
Nuclear weapons were posing the most serious threat to international peace and security, he continued. Viet Nam had consistently called for the total elimination of nuclear arsenals and was committed to closely cooperating with the international community to get rid of such dangerous weapons. His country attached great importance to the strengthening of the NPT. It fully supported the Non-Aligned Movement's proposal to establish, at the 2005 Review Conference, subsidiary bodies to the main committees to deliberate on practical steps for systematic and progressive efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons, on security assurances and so on. It hoped that the existing divergence of views among States parties on priorities and perspectives on the 2005 NPT Review Conference would be resolved soon through a broadly acceptable programme to assure its success.
He said that the creation of nuclear-weapon-free zones constituted important steps towards attaining the objective of regional and global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. His country welcomed the announcement by China of its readiness to accede to the protocol annexed to the Treaty for the South-East Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone and called on all nuclear-weapon States to do likewise.
KHUNYING LAXANACHANTORN LAOHAPHAN (Thailand) said that it was unfortunate that, despite the continuing efforts that the international community had exerted in the promotion of disarmament and non-proliferation, the world today was not any safer from the scourge of weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons that it was over half a century ago when the United Nations was founded. The Secretary-General's most recent report on the work of the organization recalled that "the clandestine network and violations of non-proliferation commitments along with slow pace of disarmament and threat of terrorism which jeopardized international peace and security may increase the risk of new instances of unilateral or pre-emptive use of force". To prevent those developments from further weakening confidence in multilateralism, it was widely felt that a strong regime of compliance was vital to the effective functioning of a multilateral system. As a developing country, Thailand fully recognized the difficulties that other developing countries faced in fulfilling their obligations, but stood ready to work with them in achieving the common endeavour.
His country believed that the NPT was the cornerstone of collective non-proliferation efforts and the essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament, he went on. In that regard, all nuclear-weapon States should become party to the NPT and all NPT parties should implement the Final Document adopted at the 2000 NPT Review Conference with a view to achieving the total elimination of nuclear arsenals. He also hoped that the discussion that would take place during the upcoming Review Conference of the NPT in 2005 would bring about concrete outcomes that would eventually lead to a nuclear-weapon-free world.
While the world was faced with the threat of weapons of mass destruction, chemical and biological weapons, the problem of conventional weapons had never faded away, he continued. Despite the continued effort of the international community in addressing the challenges posed by small arms and light weapons, hundreds of innocent lives were taken away by the scourge of those weapons each year. Thailand supported the establishment of the open-ended working group to negotiate an international instrument on marking and tracing of illicit trade of such weapons. His country saw the merit and admired the work of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, which had contributed greatly to the effort to solve the problem of small arms and light weapons. Those non-profit organizations needed to be given more opportunities to closely coordinate with government agencies and international organizations in raising public awareness and continuously campaigning in that arena. As part of a capacity-building exercise and in accordance with the Plan of Action, Thailand, in collaboration with the United Kingdom, would hold a regional workshop on small arms and light weapons transfer in January in Bangkok.
ALISHER VOHIDOV (Uzbekistan) said that existing or multilateral instruments were no longer an adequate deterrent to terrorist elements and their bid to achieve their goals. In today's world, effective mechanisms for countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction were still at early stages development. On the other hand, implementing the provisions of existing multilateral treaties could substantially reduce that threat to international peace and security. Further, priority must be given to the regional agenda. It was only through step-by-step programmes at the regional level, implemented within the framework of multilateral agreements, that could ensure security and stability in the world. In that regard, the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia would be a positive step. Uzbekistan welcomed the readiness of nuclear Powers to cooperate on the establishment of such a zone.
The NPT remained the cornerstone of the global non-proliferation regime and complete disarmament in the world, he went on. His Government expected a positive result in the work of the Conference on Disarmament, in spite of the failure to agree on a programme of work. His country had been among the first to ratify the CTBT and had called on those countries whose ratification was necessary for the Treaty to go into force to ratify it as soon as possible. Finally, he added that Uzbekistan considered the First Committee to be one of the most important forums for exchange of views on peace and security. All delegations should, therefore, make a strong effort to help reform the Committee and ensure its effective functioning.
BISHER AL-KHASAWNEH (Jordan) began by expressing solidarity with Egypt, in light of the recent terrorist attacks in Sinai. He then turned to the state of the world's multilateral disarmament machinery. Declaring that reforming and revitalizing the First Committee and, indeed, the entire General Assembly was important, he expressed concern over the failure of the Conference on Disarmament to make any progress. Looking forward to the next NPT Review Conference, he hoped it would be more fruitful.
Stating that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction constituted a "present and clear danger", he rejected all forms of terrorism. In that context, he told delegates that, a few months ago, his Government had discovered a terrorist conspiracy involving weapons of mass destruction. The clandestine plan had been stopped immediately, because his country believed in facing and confronting international terrorism. In that regard, he appreciated Security Council resolution 1540, and noted that one of the best safeguards against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction would entail holding important negotiations on a relevant convention.
Complete nuclear disarmament was a necessity, he said. In the meantime, all nuclear Powers should pledge not to use or threaten to use such arms against non-nuclear-weapon States. Turning to his own region, he criticized Israel for refusing to adhere to the NPT. Calling on Israel to do so immediately, and to subject its facilities to international inspections, he extolled the virtues of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. Regarding small arms and light weapons, he noted the link between such arms and drugs and crime. In that context, he voiced support for an international convention on the marking and tracing of such weapons.
CHARLES WAGABA (Uganda) expressed the hope that the 2005 NPT Review Conference would reiterate and underline the umbilical link between non-proliferation and disarmament. The failure of the third Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference to agree on substantive recommendations was indicative of the big task that still remained to be accomplished in order to advance the agenda of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. The CTBT was still not in force, due to the non-ratification by required States. That treaty was a vital instrument in the nuclear non-proliferation arsenal and the concerned States must immediately ratify it. In the meantime, the moratorium on nuclear tests should be maintained.
He stated that it was more urgent than ever before that weapons of mass destruction should be eliminated, before they fell into the hands of mindless terrorist who had, by their actions, demonstrated that they would use them to devastating effect. All States should ratify or accede to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and of Their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention) and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (Biological Weapons Convention) in order to bring them into universal application.
He underlined the devastating effects of the inundation of small arms and light weapons on the political, economic and social fabrics of countries across the globe, particularly developing countries. Those weapons had wrought havoc and mayhem through their easy availability and indiscriminate use. Uganda, therefore, welcomed the work that continued to be carried out with a view towards the prevention, combat and eradication of the illicit trade in those weapons. An International Conference on the Great Lakes Region would take place next month in Dar-es-Salaam to grapple with the problems of the inundation of the region with small arms and light weapons in the hands of non-State actors, resulting from the unending conflicts in the region. The international community should support that conference and should extend political and financial support to the resultant programmes.
Global military expenditures, after falling off following the end of the cold war, had resumed its growth, currently by more than 5 per cent annually, he noted. Conversely, the flow of official development assistance (ODA) from developed to developing countries was falling steadily. Additionally, products from the developing countries were finding it difficult to enter the markets of industrial economies. That dual assault had exacerbated the conditions of underdevelopment and poverty in the developing countries. Those conditions, in turn, bred insecurity and conflict. There was, therefore, an urgent need to re-examine the relationship between disarmament and development.
ENRIQUILLO DEL ROSARIO (Dominican Republic) said that, because of the phenomenon of terrorism, which did not respect international borders and spared no one, it was important to strengthen all multilateral disarmament machinery. At the same time, however, it was important to acknowledge that other threats, which were perhaps more subtle but equally important, existed, as well. They included hunger, extreme poverty, and the inability of Member States to meet socio-economic goals. Such soft threats generated sources of conflicts and could, thus, not be ignored.
Turning to his own region, he highlighted the problems posed by the transport of radioactive material and dangerous waste through the Caribbean. After all, because his country depended on tourism to drive development, the maintenance of pure waters and scenic coasts was of the utmost importance. Other countries in the region felt that way, as well. Proposing solutions to the problem, he suggested that offending parties should offer: guarantees against the pollution of the marine environment; commitments to recover material that was dumped; pledges to decontaminate affected areas; and agreements on effective norms in the case of damage.
Turning to small arms and light weapons, he said the illicit trade in such arms was inherently connected to organized crime. In light of that link, his country was doing its part to improve security for its citizens by fighting crime, effectively using the judiciary, and modernizing its police forces. However, the international community could help. Specifically, voicing support for an international instrument to track such weapons, he said that such a mechanism would lay the foundation for lasting peace.
JAVAD ZARIF (Iran) said the danger of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction was a matter of serious concern for the international community. Calling for a global ban on all weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, he said the NPT, the Biological Weapons Convention, and the Chemical Weapons Convention should all be strengthened. The reluctance of certain nuclear-weapon States to follow the 13 practical steps for nuclear disarmament was disappointing. What was perhaps more worrying, however, was news that one nuclear Power had plans to produce new types of nuclear weapons and had already allocated millions of dollars towards research in that area. Possible efforts by other nuclear Powers to maintain balances might start a new arms race, he warned.
On the idea of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East, originally proposed by Iran, there had been no progress because of Israel's refusal to respond to conce