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1. Washington. The Bush Administration is expected to considerably expand homeland security monitoring efforts for radioactive materials coming into and traveling within the nation. The New York Times reported on 1 February that the plan calls for the establishment of the office of domestic nuclear detection, to be housed within DHS, to coordinate the consolidation of the presently fragmented network of radiation detection equipment.
2. Jordan and CBW. In an on-going trial nine terrorists are accused of planning a toxic chemical attack in Amman against the Jordanian Intelligence Department, the Prime Minister’s office, as well as the US Embassy. According to televised confessions by several of the suspects, including their alleged leader, the group planned to use three large trucks packed with explosives to spread 20 tons of very toxic chemicals.
The trial of these suspects, along with Zarqawi and others still at large in Iraq, reinforced the threat of possible terrorist chemical attacks against coalition forces. The CIA has long cautioned all on the insurgent threat of use of CW weapons. The baseline of available expertise including unemployed and very disgruntled high level CBW professionals, and the still unaccounted for pre-cursor stocks and CW materials within Iraq, could make for a catastrophe if caution is not observed.
3. The International Trading Establishment, Amman, Jordan was awarded on Feb. 14, 2005, a delivery order amount of $29,320,709 as part of a $174,432,311 firm-fixed-price contract for various radios, heavy and light machine guns, AK-47 rifles, M4 shotguns, 9mm handguns, and night vision goggles. According to this contract, work will be performed in Amman, Jordan, and is expected to be completed by Feb. 11, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity. We are sure that Greenpeace would heartily approve of the Army’s latest and greatest recycling effort - we just hope it will have a modicum of success and that we will not have to recycle these equipments at yet another time and place and at another great price.
4. US Army Nurses WWI - and an asinine decision. In 1918 the US Army had approximately 16,000 professional nurses on active duty. This number represented approximately 1/6 of the total professional nurses in the US at that time. In the summer of 1918 - the US Treasury Department made the decision that US Army Nurses that were taken captive by the German forces, were, unlike soldiers, not entitled to pay while they were prisoners of war. Sort of reminds us of some of the asinine decisions made by a select, very small minority of non-uniformed Pentagon personnel who have put it to the uniformed forces in the Iraqi conflict.
5. Canada and Water - National Defence Hq. Ottawa. Of Canada’s total of 22 very valuable and highly mobile NBC qualified military water purification units, most (15) are out of commission and unavailable for deployment because of a squabble between civilian companies who are vying to repair the units. This action (lack of action) has been tied up in the Federal Court system since March of 2004.
6. Dual-use Chemicals, Prohibited Materials and South Korea and Germany and Switzerland and Japan and others. With the CBMTS-Industry IV in September 2005 having a primary interest in Non-proliferation matters, the following examples of prohibited material and dual-use material sales are provided to illustrate the difficulties in control of these product. The information provided is from the NIS Export Control Observer of October, November and December 2004 - which is published by the CNS Monterey.
A. South Korea’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy stated that several cases of unauthorized export of dual-use materials had occurred in recent years, including:
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(1) 107 metric tons of sodium cyanide which is used in mining, agriculture and some industry and which is also a precursor for the nerve agent tabun, was shipped from South Korea to North Korea via China between June and September 2003.
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(2) Under current investigation is a case involving 40 tons of sodium cyanide exported to North Korea by a Malaysian firm and which included 15 tons acquired from a South Korean trading company.
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(3) In 2003, North Korea made an unsuccessful attempt to import sodium cyanide from Thailand. A South Korean firm had exported 338 tons to Thailand and then a Thai firm attempted to ship 70 tons of this product to North Korea. South Korea prevailed upon the Thai Government to stop this shipment and they did.
B. South African authorities are continuing to investigate the illegal transfer of nuclear technology and material to states of concern including Libya and Iran. This is part of the now infamous Khan network. Arrested were South African and German nationals.
C. In October 2004 German authorities in the State of Hesse arrested a Swiss engineer for his assistance to Libya in their nuclear program. This Swiss was earlier (February 2004) identified by Malaysian authorities as part of a Swiss father/son team involved in a clandestine international nuclear smuggling network headed by Khan. This ‘team’ had been under international scrutiny for two decades.
D. In September 2004 the IAEA inspectors discovered Japanese-made three-dimensional precision instruments at a nuclear facility in Libya. In October 2004 the Japanese Newspaper Asahi Shinbun revealed that these instruments had been shipped from a Japanese manufacturer to a company in Malaysia before being rerouted to Libya. Six units were exported from this manufacturer to an affiliate in Malaysia, the Scomi Precision Engineering (SCOPE) Company. This company had links to the Khan nuclear procurement network.
E. A Japanese company also exported a portable plant to Libya for an experimental uranium program in 1984 - before such exports were prohibited by the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 1993.
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