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Show Al3 The Salt Lake Tribune WORLD Sunday, January 24,1999 _ theinstitute is no longer underthe direct control of Georgia’s authorities. At the request of Georgia’s government, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy attempted to conduct an inventory of the institute but were pre- Of Rogue Operatives vented by continuing strife. In December @ From Previous 1997, a Russian team finally gained access to the facility. The storage site had perts suggest that the Russians are not sharing intelligence about smuggling attempts they haveintercepted, out of embarrassmentor fear of acknowledgingsecurity lapses —a charge Russianofficials deniedin interviews. Perhaps mostpersuasiveis the theory that smugglers no longer attempt to piercerelatively tightly controlled European borders, but instead probethe poor- ly protected southern borderof the for- mer Soviet Union. In fact, the southern tiers of newly independent, ex-Soviet na- tions share a 4,400-mile border with Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and China. The Septembersting in Turkey is considered Exhibit A among experts concerned that nuclear material is leaking across these southern borders.It was the third reported seizure of uranium by Turkish officials since 1994. “The Turks don’t want to see their country become a conduit for these mate- rials,” said David Kyd ofthe International Atomic Energy Agency. Turkey acknowledges its concern but maintains that no highly enriched urani- um has ever been found in Turkey. All casesofillicit trafficking in Turkey are reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Cengiz Yalcin, presi- dent of the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority. William Potter, the expert on nuclear smuggling, has argued that a great window of opportunity opened for theft and diversion after the Soviet breakup. He said it is conceivable that material was stolen and not marketed immediately but set aside in hopeof better conditions. For example, in June 1997, authorities in Vilnius, Lithuania, weretipped off that material had been stolen from the Ignalina nuclear-powerstation. They were directed to materialburied in a nearbyfor- est. Authorities later learnedthat the theft actually had taken place in 1992, when four men stole a 20-kilogram uranium fuel rod andburiedit. In November 1997, threeofthe thieves,all formersoldiersin the security battalion guarding Ignalina, were sentenced to prison terms. A fourth suspect is still being sought. No buyer ever wasidentified; the thieves apparently were waiting for an opportune timeto sell the material. One serious case that has been reportedis the disappearance of 2 kilograms of highly enriched uranium — enriched to more than 90 percent — in the breakaway Abkhaz Republic in Georgia. The materi- al had been stored at the IN. Vekua been brokeninto andallavailable urani- um had been stolen, although other radioactive material was still present. Russia has no idea howlong the material! has been missing or whereit has gone. The earliest cases of diversion were supply-side driven, with would-besellers desperate for money and thuswilling to steal the material on speculation. U.S.provided security measures have since helped deter thefts. So has publicity about sting operationsthat trappedprofi- teerstrying to sell nuclear materials. Now investigators increasingly are finding anecdotal evidence of demand for nuclear materials. After the 1995 poison-gasattack in the Tokyo subway by the doomsday cult Aum Shinri Kyo, press accounts disclosed that Russian followers of the sect were look- ing for nuclear material or weapons in Russia. The accounts said the group was cooperating with North Korean and Russian crime gangs and dealing indirectly with Iran to smuggle nuclear material out of Russia through Ukraine. Vladimir Orlov, Russia’s leading authority on nuclear smuggling, said in an interview thatterrorist groupsconstitute the greatest threat to the security of nu- clear materials. Orlov said Russian foreign intelligence officials estimate that 200 to 400 groups“could beinterested in acquiring weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons.” Citing the case of nuclear smuggling in- volving the Italian Mafia, Glenn Schweit- zer, a proliferation expert at the National Research Council in Washington, said that organized crime has become more, well, organized. “Organized crime has really gotten its act together,” he said. “We used to worry about 100 grams. Now we worry about quantities approaching 10 kilograms or more.” Retired Air Force Gen. Lee Butler,former commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, hasgonefrom headof the na- tion's nuclear force to nuclear abolitionist. He said any advances in avoiding criminalproliferation over the last several years must nowbereevaluated. Butler said his successorat the strategic command, Gen. Eugene Habiger, visited five Russian nuclear weaponssites in June — two months before Russia plunged into economic crisis. Habiger “was optimistic about what he saw about Whenthe Soviet Unionfell apart, alarms sounded for 2,500 researchers the centersits a giant globe, a monument to the planetary reachof his ambitions. Vinogradov was amongtheelite who built the Soviet Union’s anti-ballistic missile system over Moscow.a giant network of nuclear-armed rockets and radars formed Russian and Western officials, Traq and Iran, as well as China, India massdestruction. warplanes, threatened again by Iraqi MiGs and anti-aircraft Iraqi President Saddam Hussein lashed out against Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in a statement published Saturday, accusing them of glutting the oil market and betraying Arabs for the ed bombs Saturday on two sur- face-to-air missilesites. The two F-14 Tomcats and two F/A-18 Hornets, which had been United States. As foreign ministers gathered in Cairo for a session of the Arab League, the rare editorial by Saddam ran on the front pageofthe state-run al-Jumhouriya dailyin Iraq’s latest attack on routine patrol in the “no-fly” zone oversouthernIraq, returned safely to the USS Carl Vinson in the Persian Gulf, according to the Pentagon and U.S, Central Com- on the United States’ allies in the Arab world. He accused Saudi Arabia and Kuwait of increasing oil production, causing plummeting prices over the past year to the detriment of Arab states and the benefit of the Americans. Oil prices are now at a record low, with a barrelselling mandoutside Tampa,Fla. The incident, the latest in a around $10, or half the price from a year ago. string of test-of-will clashes since a mid-December bombing campaign by British and American forces, occurredat 1:15 a.m. EST, after the American planes detect- clear, we will continue to enforce the no-fly zone vigorously and take appropriate action to protect ed two Iraqi warplanes ‘darting in and out” of restricted airspace, a U.S. official said. The Americans “respondedto a threat initiated by two Iraqi MiG- 21s flying south of 33rd parallel in Iraq and groundfire from antiaireraft artillery,” said Lt. Col MikeMilord, a Pentagon spokes- man There was “no air-to-air en- ouraircraft and continue to con- tain the threat Saddam poses to the region and international community,” Leavy said. “Today's tions are consistent with both.” Aircraft mainly from a NATO baseinIncirlik, Turkey, are main. taining a similar no-fl. ly policy in northern Iraq. gagement” between the Iraqi and U.S. planes, Capt. Michael Shav- ers, a spokesman for Operation Southern Watch, said from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Eachof the four U.S. fighters loosed precision-guided bombs on the Iraq air-defense installations, Shavers said. ——— Hi You suffer from I | At the White House, National Security Council spokesman David Leavy said the confrontations would not alter U.S, resolve to en- force the flight-interdiction zones = Heart Disease i1 acresof land. Butit could not adapt. Subsidies turned to a trickle. The chiefs of the institute tried to transformit into a private company and to rent out space But there was a long, drawn-out legal wrangle. The work force dwindled to 2,500. Someof the younger and smarter engineers went to work for a successful Moscowcellular telephone company On the verge of being forced into bankruptcy, the institute was given a reprieve tists proved wrong. There wasnot a mass exodus from Russia, although someleft. Instead, the proliferation of missile technology and nuclear know-how came from inside. Scientists could be approachedfor information, technology and designs without attracting attention. They did not have to leave Russia. The buyers cameto them. by President Boris Yeltsin, who decreed in November that it could not be forced to close. But the halls of its headquarters are silent. In the entrance, a kerosene heater roars loudly. Wires hang from ceilings, the linoleum floors buckle un- derfoot. “TodayI have to do myjob herein the What could stop a nuclear warhead zooming through space? At the dawn of the ballistic missile era, Oleg Golubev was among the young Soviet scientists who puzzled over the idea in the summer of 1955. Golubev became designer of guidance systems for the interceptor rockets of a vast anti-ballistic missile sys- institute,” Vinogradov said. ‘‘On the other hand, I am ready and willing to repair anyelectronic equipment, VCRs, tape re- corders, automobiles, do construction. Though, by profession, I am a physicist, an engineer.” In a vivid reminder of how far they had fallen, Vinogradov said the scientists got a special pass for people tem that Soviet leaders built over Moscow. The rockets, nicknamed Galosh and who haven't been paid allowing them to Gazelle, would try to kill incoming missiles. ride the buses and subwayfree. Their headquarters was a prestigious link in the Soviet military-industrial complex. They built two generations of antiballistic missile systems, the second of which, known as A-135, was put into operation in the final years of the Soviet the problem of ballistic missilesis gaining fresh attention around the world. The reason is that several nations aspiring to build — or already building — nuclear- Dan's Andin a twist that is deep with irony, armed missiles have been scouring the world for technology and expertise. Price Effective Jan. 24-2 1999 Sunday: Monday & Tueeday WHILE SUPPLIES LAST! “GREAT DEALS! MONDAY & TUESDAY'S Snel Boies EK COULD THERE BE A Be ed Call for a FREE hearing We are doing a screening by our licensed certified audiologists: LDS Hospitat HEARING SERVICES 321-3125 Temperature (fever/teverish) 8th Avenue & C Street, SLC Blocked or Runny Nose Sore Throat IHC HEARING AND BALANCE CENTER Feel Tred ‘Bro QR coli Cro Os ~~ » lbs. Feel Unwell and would like fo take part in Sjoerd (George) & #7 Helene (Leny) Bosgraaf v4 582-1502 1500 S. Foothill Drive, SLC Barywer Cunic 350-0442 Therapeutics Thomas Borman, MD or 3980 § 700 £, Suite 22 Murray, Utah 84 J Cathy Darby, Study Coordinator 1 on . Phone: 208-9796 De et et eee ‘ Soviet police state enforced it. The scientists were tracked. But today, this compact between the government and the weaponsbuildersis in tatters. “It doesn’t exist,” said Vinogradov. “The government no longer provides wages, muchless a decent standard of living, so the scientists just drift away.” Moreover, some of the early assumptions about the Russian weapons scien- HEARING? research study this winter and would like to hear from you. If you think you have the 5, am 50th Weddings Anniversary travel abroad. The dealwasironclad: The ol vr jache “As the president has made in it. The Russian government did not close them, nor did it give them work Theywereleft in limbo The anti-missile institute once had 10,000 workers, 20 buildings and 150 living standards and a chanceto carry out their research but forfeited the right to HOW’S YOUR Lung Disease? — that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein agreed to at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. et military-industrial complex and thousands of weaponsscientists who worked fences of the closedcities. In the Soviet era, weapons scientists ac- ranks of the Soviet and Russian defense industry, looks down with feelings of bitterness.“I feel humiliation,” he said. @ Saddam Rails at Saudis, Kuwait ground fire, dropped laser-guid- laboratories and beyondthe barbed wire and furs. From his windows above them, Vino- been caught up in a dangerousglobal contest for their skills. According to well-in- by the same name. Theyarrive in droves at the institute to unload leather and fur coats. The collapseof the institute is a metaphor for the larger implosion of the Sovi- cepted a basic trade-off: They got better gradov, who spent 30 years in the highest Under Attack, U.S. Jets Again BombIraqiSites ‘THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — American Butnowit is clear that was only part of the problem. Just as vulnerable, if not more so, were tens of thousands of specialists who worked outside the weapons it into a warehouse for leather jackets where all the weapons scientists have aryis $100 a month. These days, the only “Gazelle” in sightis a Russian light truck and laboratories. ed fourfloorsofthe institute and turned “Well, guess what?” Butler said. his optimism on the chance that Russia might one dayslide into chaos. were located in “secret” nuclearcities Dozens of Chinese men jostle hugeyellow bales of goodson their backs, carrying them up and downthestairs. They are “shuttle traders,” the hardy, cross-border merchants who lug cheap goodsinto Russia for meager wages. They have rent- gone. It is certain, however, that some have extinction. Golubevearns the equivalent of $45 a month, and his last paycheck was in 1995 Vinogradov, the deputy director, has not been paid regularlyin 32 months. His sal- edge of bomb-building technology and butin the new Russia, thescientists inside havebarely survived. Today, their building is a beehive of anotherkind. someof them civilian work, no one knows Today, Golubev, 75, a diminutive, soft- spoken veteran of a half-century at the institute,still comes to work three days a week. Buttheinstitute is in the throes of nuclearscientists who had direct knowl- Research Institute of Radio Device De- Their research institutes have been turned into warehouses, or just abandoned. Their government paychecks stopped. Many have foundother jobs in business. Still others have just disappeared. Despite Western efforts to offer rockets. The scientists won awards — Golubevgot the Lenin Prize — and they had the highest top-secret clearances. about the fate of the core 2,500 to 3,000 sign. A signstill hangsoutsidethe institute, means to deliver them — have been thrown onto the street in Russia’s chaos ofrecent years. ping incoming warheadswasto hit them with nuclear chargeson the interceptor When the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, alarm bells sounded in the West Their six-story headquarters at No. 80 Leningradsky Prospekt was ultra-secret and bore a simple name: The Scientific His despair goesto the heart of one of the least understood but most significant consequencesof the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet military-industrial complex. Tens of thousandsof highly trained specialists who built Soviet weapons of mass destruction — nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the Union. The centerpiece was a pyramidlike, four-sided radar that watched over European Russia, and beyond. Ultimately, their solution to the problem of stop- Soviet and Russian weapons expertise. Russia hosted undercover groups and shady businessmen shopping for missile parts and technology. Export controls were practically unenforced. “I do not knowof any major cases of prosecution of export control violations which put people in jail,” said Vladimir Orlov, director of the Center for Policy Studies in Russia, a nonproliferation group that exposed howIraq bought Russian missileguidance systems. balding engineer with an easygoing manner, once wasa captain of Soviet weapons technology. Even now, his office has the aura of a citadel of military science. In “Clearly, that's the scenario that we are seeing unfolding.” he added that he would haveto condition and North Korea, have benefited from BY DAVID HOFFMAN THE WASHINGTON POST MOSCOW — Boris Vinogradov, a tall, overthe past sevenyears a steady stream of know-howandtechnology and, in some cases, the scientists themselves, have been plucked from Russia by nations hungry to build their own weapons of security of nukes” then, Butler said. “But Physics and Technology Institute in Su khumi and hadbeen last inventoried in 1992. Because Sukhumi is in Abkhazia, Where Have Russia ArmsScientists Gone? | Nukes for Sale: Seizure RenewsFears , Large Florida Market Street ‘4 300-500 Ct, Frozen 1] Bay Shurtanp | Panik Grapetrats 2, ) BDIOD VP 745 E. 300 Sewth, SLO " a ih ino * Peet as ert) NO DEALERS A °; wk in Layton > cama bat aL 1000 Soow Creed ¢ Oe es 3 ‘ |
