News Briefs

Pentagon Conducts BWC Protocol 'Trial Visit'

South Korea Joins MTCR

UN Imposes Arms Embargo on Liberia

Nuclear Command and Control Review Initiated

The establishment of a committee to conduct the "End-to-End Review of the U.S. Nuclear Command and Control System" was first made public in the Federal Register March 6. A Defense official indicated March 19 that the committee will examine nuclear command and control "from national command authority to individual weapons" and will attempt to ascertain the "appropriate balance between facilitating authorized use and preventing unauthorized use." The review will also consider the role of "emerging technologies and threats," according to the official.

The review will cover the responsibilities of the nine departments and agencies involved in nuclear command and control: the National Security Council; the departments of State, Justice, Energy, and Defense; the Office of Management and Budget; the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the White House Military Office; and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The six-person committee, which is expected to meet for the first time April 5, will be chaired by former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and includes three other former government officials and two current senior officials.

While Defense officials were unsure of when a review examining interagency command and control policy was last conducted, they said that the Defense Department last examined its own responsibilities in 1992. Last year, then-Defense Secretary William Cohen apparently began the process required to undertake the interagency review, and Rumsfeld decided to move ahead with it following a briefing on the issue he received shortly after taking office.

Pentagon Conducts BWC Protocol 'Trial Visit'

The Defense Department conducted an exercise March 20-22 to assess the national security implications of on-site measures being considered for a compliance protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention. (For information on the protocol, see BWC Ad Hoc Group Meets With 'Mixed' Results.)

Ordered by Congress in November 1999, the exercise, known as a "trial visit," was the first in a series and was conducted at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C. During the trial, a visiting team, exercising "notional protocol provisions," toured the facility, interviewed personnel, and reviewed relevant documentation, according to a Defense official. A second team hosted the visit and tried to assess whether "the notional provisions adequately allowed for the protection of national security information."

The Defense Department is still evaluating the trial's results, which it will factor into an administration report to Congress assessing the need for "investigations" and "visits" under the compliance protocol. The department is considering conducting another trial visit later this year.

South Korea Joins MTCR

South Korea became the 33rd member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) on March 26, as regime members unanimously approved its membership at a meeting in Paris. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which serves as the MTCR's official point of contact, acknowledged and welcomed South Korea's admission in a statement released March 28.

The MTCR is a voluntary regime in which members pledge to control the export of missile systems and missile technology capable of delivering a 500-kilogram payload 300 kilometers or more. South Korean accession had been anticipated since a January 17 announcement by the United States that it planned to support Seoul's membership in the regime. That same day, South Korea announced that, after five years of consultations with Washington, it would extend the maximum permitted range of its missiles to 300 kilometers. (See ACT, March 2001.)

UN Imposes Arms Embargo on Liberia

On March 7, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution imposing a new arms embargo on Liberia for supporting the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a rebel group that has waged a guerrilla war in Sierra Leone.

Security Council Resolution 1343 prohibits all states from selling or supplying Liberia with arms and related material and from providing Liberia with technical training to manufacture, maintain, or use arms and related material. The resolution orders the government of Liberia to "immediately cease its support for the RUF in Sierra Leone and for other armed rebel groups in the region" by expelling RUF members from its territory and halting financial and military backing to the RUF.

Under the resolution, Liberia must also stop trading rough diamonds from Sierra Leone that are not controlled through the certificate-of-origin regime currently in place. Developed under a July 2000 Security Council resolution to curb illicit arms-for-diamonds trafficking, the regime formally certifies Sierra Leone diamonds mined in government-controlled areas and bars all states from importing Sierra Leone diamonds without official documentation.

The diamond trade is a primary source of revenue for the RUF's activities, and a December 2000 UN report confirmed that Liberia smuggles arms to and diamonds from Sierra Leone with the "permission and involvement" of Liberian President Charles Taylor.

Sponsored by the United States and the United Kingdom, the resolution passed unanimously in the 13-member Security Council. The new arms embargo took effect immediately, replacing another arms embargo the Security Council had instated against Liberia in 1992 because of its civil war. That war ended in 1996, but the embargo was never lifted.

Liberia must comply with the resolution's demands by May 7 or face further sanctions prohibiting all states from importing rough diamonds from Liberia and banning travel by senior Liberian government officials. The arms embargo and all additional sanctions will remain in effect until May 7, 2002, or until Liberia meets the resolution's terms.