Disarmament Diplomacy

News Review

'Evil Weapons': WMD Terrorism Dominates International Debate

In the traumatic wake of the September 11 attacks and subsequent anthrax mailings, a range of international discussions have been held to assess and respond to the threat of terrorist groups acquiring or using weapons of mass destruction. Addressing the opening of a UN General Assembly debate on terrorism on October 1, Secretary-General Kofi Annan, eloquently expressing the fears of many, set out the basic elements of the new agenda:

"It is hard to imagine how the tragedy of September 11 could have been worse. Yet, the truth is that a single attack involving a nuclear or biological weapon could have killed millions. While the world was unable to prevent the September 11 attacks, there is much we can do to help prevent future terrorist acts carried out with weapons of mass destruction. The greatest danger arises from a non-state group - or even an individual - acquiring and using a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon. Such a weapon could be delivered without the need for any missile or other sophisticated delivery system. In addition to measures taken by individual member states, we must now strengthen the global norm against the use of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This means, among other actions: redoubling efforts to ensure the universality, verification and full implementation of key treaties...including those outlawing chemical and biological weapons and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; promoting cooperation among international organisations dealing with these weapons; tightening national legislation over exports of goods and technologies needed to manufacture [WMD]...; and developing new efforts to criminalise the acquisition or use of weapons of mass destruction by non-state groups. In addition, we need to strengthen controls over types of weapons that pose grave dangers through terrorist use. This means doing more to ensure a ban on the sale of small arms to non-state groups; making progress in eliminating landmines; improving the physical protection of sensitive industrial facilities, including nuclear and chemical plants; and increased vigilance against cyberterrorist threats."

Addressing a UN symposium on 'Terrorism and Disarmament' in New York on October 25, Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala highlighted the implications for the major military powers of the new security challenges. The "elements" of an effective "strategy must include a strengthened legal regime," Dhanapala argued, "but, as Secretary-General Annan has said, the search for legal precision must be driven by the need for moral clarity." Calling for "heightened vigilance and a prioritisation of disarmament goals," Dhanapala continued: "Weapon-based security not only perpetuates the wrong value system internationally, it also increases weapon stocks and the danger of their diversion to non-state actors and individual warlords with calamitous consequences. The increasing number and sophistication of weaponry and expensive defence systems will not protect us from terrorism, just as the derogation from fundamental human rights cannot be justified by the fight against terrorism. Disarmament and non-proliferation norms contribute to the battle against terrorism. Short-term expediency should not lead us to compromise on them because [this neglect]...will eventually feed terrorism as we have seen from the legacy of the Cold War."

Dhanapala's emphasis on the need to mount a disarmament as well as a non-proliferation and security and safety response to September 11 was also stressed in a October 21 article in the New York Times by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev: "Concrete steps should include accelerated nuclear and chemical disarmament and control over the remaining stocks of dangerous substances, including chemical and biological agents. ... I hope the United States will support the [draft] verification protocol to the [Biological Weapons] Convention...and ratify the treaty to prohibit all nuclear steps, though both steps would reverse the Bush administration's current positions."

The most immediate concern is that the al Qaeda network may already have acquired or be close to acquiring a chemical and biological, and possibly even nuclear, warfare capability; concerns compounded by an interview given by Osama bin Laden to the Pakistani Dawn newspaper, published on November 10, in which he stated, "we have chemical and nuclear weapons as a deterrent and if America used them against us we reserve the right to use them." While the possibility of a credible nuclear threat has generally been dismissed as remote - on November 11, US Secretary of State Colin Powell described bin Laden's comments as "a wild boast and threat" - the terrorist aspiration to possess WMD is widely accepted as serious and under active pursuit. In a televised address to a conference in Warsaw on November 6, President Bush observed that al Qaeda was "seeking chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Given the means, our enemies would be a threat to every nation and, eventually, to civilisation itself." Later that day, Bush told reporters, referring to bin Laden: "This is an evil man we're dealing with, and I wouldn't put it past him to develop evil weapons to try to harm civilisation as we know it." Speaking on British Forces Radio on October 27, Prime Minister Tony Blair identified removal of the long-term WMD threat as a central objective of military action against al Qaeda and other terrorist networks: "If these terrorists who killed over 6,000 people in America are allowed to carry on building up their terrorist network, possibly acquiring chemical, biological, even nuclear weapons of mass destruction, our world will be an insecure, unsafe place and there will be no corner of the world - particularly not a place like Britain - that will be untouched by that."

Meeting at a symposium on 'Nuclear Safeguards, Verification, and Security' the Headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna from October 29-November 2, experts from many countries addressed the depressingly wide range of threats to be considered under the heading of 'nuclear terrorism'. Addressing participants on November 1, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, describing "the nuclear terrorism threat" as "far more likely than it was before September 11," observed grimly:

"The willingness of terrorists to sacrifice their lives to achieve their evil aims creates a new dimension in the fight against terrorism. We are not just dealing with the possibility of governments diverting nuclear materials into clandestine weapons programmes. Now we have been alerted to the potential of terrorists targeting nuclear facilities or using radioactive sources to incite panic, contaminate property, and even cause injury or death among civilian populations. An unconventional threat requires an unconventional response, and the whole world needs to join together and take responsibility for the security of nuclear material. Because radiation knows no frontiers, states need to recognise that safety and security of nuclear material is a concern of all states. ... September 11 presented us with a clear and present danger and a global threat that requires global action. Many of our programmes go to the heart of combatting nuclear terrorism, but we now have to actively reinforce safeguards, expand our systems for combatting nuclear smuggling in nuclear material, and upgrade our safety and security services. At a minimum, national assessments of security infrastructure for all types of nuclear and radioactive material should be required. Countries will have something to gain from allowing international assessments to demonstrate to the world that they are keeping their nuclear material secure."

On November 14, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved proposed legislation writing off $3.5 billion Russian debt to the US to reimburse the costs of Russian WMD non-proliferation and safety and security programmes. The write-off, a joint initiative of Republican Senator Richard Lugar and Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, forms part of a package of foreign aid measures moving through Congress. As of mid-November, the White House had not endorsed the proposal. However, Biden, the Chair of the Committee, expressed confidence that "this is an idea whose time has come". Biden added: "This is something that is very fertile ground and of considerable interest to the Russians... It gives them the tools to do something I believe the Russians want to do anyway."

On October 30, efforts by Democrats in the House of Representatives to boost spending on US nuclear safety and security assistance to Russia were defeated in a voice vote rejecting an amendment stipulating an additional $131 million on top of the $173 million requested by the administration, the same figure as last year. Texas Democrat Chet Edwards, who introduced the proposed supplement, noted angrily: "That's business as usual. We're faced with a war against terrorism, and the terrorists have declared war against us." Republicans said they objected only to the detail of the Edwards amendment, which would have taken the additional funding out of the administration's request for spending on nuclear-armed cruise missiles.

Note: on October 3, the British government announced it would be proceeding with plans to begin operation of a $472 million plutonium reprocessing facility at the Sellafield nuclear power plant in northwest England. The facility will import and process plutonium into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. The plan has been heavily criticised for the security and terrorist risks it may generate, for possible safety hazards, and for damaging non-proliferation efforts by encouraging the production, transport and trade of plutonium. According to an October 3 statement from the Irish government, the decision "defied logic in the current climate of international terrorist threats." Stephen Tindale, Executive Director of UK Greenpeace, warned the same day: "Expanding the global trade in plutonium is dangerously irresponsible, especially at a time of huge global insecurity."

Reports: Secretary-General, addressing Assembly on terrorism, calls for 'immediate, far-reaching changes' in UN response to terror, UN Press Release SG/SM/7977, October 1; Britain Oks nuclear fuel plant, Associated Press, October 3; Fury over Sellafield plutonium decision, The Guardian, October 4; Joint Statement on Counterterrorism by the President of the United States and the President of Russia, Shanghai, October 21, 2001, The White House; A leading role for the Security Council, by Mikhail Gorbachev, New York Times, October 21; House panel Oks defense bill, Associated Press, October 24; UN Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala, Remarks to a UN symposium on Terrorism and Disarmament, New York, October 25, 2001, UN transcript; Nuclear safety of world is at stake, Blair tells troops, The Times, October 27; Officials worry about Soviet weapons, Associated Press, October 30; House Dems lose Russian nukes move, Associated Press, October 30; Calculating the new global nuclear terrorism threat, IAEA Press Release, November 1; Experts discuss chances of nuclear terrorism, Washington Post, November 3; Bush warns bin Laden wants nuclear weapons, Reuters, November 6; Bush says al Qaeda seeking nuclear weapons, Reuters, November 6; Osama claims he has nukes, The Dawn, November 10; Powell dismisses bin Laden's nuclear claims, Reuters, November 11; Senate panel backs debt-relief plan for Russia, Reuters, November 14; House panel Oks $20b for anti-terror, Associated Press, November 14; Senate Oks Russia debt reduction, Associated Press, November 14.

© 2001 The Acronym Institute.