Members of the Sept. 11 commission yesterday called for the White House and Congress to move quickly on their recommendations, which included creation of a national director of intelligence and the development of a National Counterterrorism Center (Sept. 11 commission photo). White House, Lawmakers Indicate Quick Action on Sept. 11 Commission Recommendations By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Both the White House and the U.S. Congress have recently indicated that they plan to move quickly on intelligence-reform measures and other recommendations included in a report released last week by the Sept. 11 commission (see GSN, July 23)...Full Story

Pakistan Releases Three Men Detained for Questioning in Nuclear Smuggling Investigation Pakistan on Saturday released three employees of the country’s main nuclear weapons facility after having held them in custody for more than six months on suspicion that they might have been involved in the transfer of Pakistani nuclear technology abroad, according to the Los Angeles Times (see GSN, July 16)...Full Story

U.S. Specialists Prepare to Merge Forensic, Agricultural Sciences to Deter Bioterrorism By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A group of U.S. plant disease experts hopes to combine its work with the science of a criminal investigation to protect U.S. crops against bioterrorism (see GSN, Nov. 17, 2003)...Full Story

	Monday, July 26, 2004

White House, Lawmakers Indicate Quick Action on Sept. 11 Commission Recommendations By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Both the White House and the U.S. Congress have recently indicated that they plan to move quickly on intelligence-reform measures and other recommendations included in a report released last week by the Sept. 11 commission (see GSN, July 23). The commission called for sweeping changes to the structure of the U.S. intelligence community, including the creation of a national director of intelligence and the creation of a National Counterterrorism Center, and for changes in how Congress oversees the intelligence community. The commission also issued a number of recommendations regarding the war on terrorism and homeland security efforts. White House officials announced Friday that President George W. Bush directed White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to lead a Cabinet-level task force to determine how many of the commission’s recommendations could be implemented by executive order, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Times today quoted a White House official as saying that Bush could act “within days” on some of the commission’s recommendations. In a letter sent Saturday to the chairman and vice chairman of the commission, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) wrote that Bush could implement at least half of the commission’s recommendations without congressional action. Kerry is expected this week to accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination for the 2004 election. While saying he would examine the commission’s recommendations, Bush also warned the public Saturday that there is no such thing as “perfect security.” “No matter how good our defenses are, a determined enemy can still strike us. Yet all Americans can be certain our government is using every resource and technological advantage we have to prevent future attacks,” Bush said in a national radio address. In Congress, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Senator Joseph Lieberman (Conn.), the committee’s top Democrat, announced plans Friday to hold committee hearings on the commission’s recommendations next month, while most of Congress is in recess. The two senators said hearings would begin during the first week of August on the creation of a national director of intelligence and a National Counterterrorism Center with the aim of preparing legislation by Oct. 1.  “So no longer is it going to be a sleepy, quiet August around here,” Collins said.  Both senators said that they did not know of a time previously when hearings were held in August. Collins and Lieberman said they hoped Congress would take action on any proposed legislation before the end of the year, even if a “lame-duck” session is needed after the November elections. “Why would we waste two or three months, then start the process in January —months during which the vulnerabilities that the commission laid out yesterday would remain? It just doesn’t make sense,” Lieberman said. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is also set to hold hearings on the commission’s recommendations over the summer recess, reports indicate. Earlier this month, the Senate intelligence panel released a report that was highly critical of the U.S. intelligence community’s performance regarding prewar Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. In addition, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) announced last week that a special Senate working group would be created to examine the commission’s recommendations for changes in how the Senate oversees the intelligence community. The working group is expected to complete its efforts and prepare recommendations by Oct. 1. In the House of Representatives, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas) announced Friday that all “appropriate committees” have been asked to begin holding hearings on the commission’s recommendations next month with the aim of reporting legislation proposals in September. A spokeswoman for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said today that the committee plans to conduct hearings next month on the commission’s recommendations. No dates for those hearings have yet been set. There are no plans as of yet, though, to convene in the House a working group similar to the one planned in the Senate to examine the commission’s recommendations for changes in congressional oversight, a Hastert spokesman said today. He added that both Hastert and DeLay have “the utmost respect” in the House committee chairmen’s ability to move forward “expeditiously” on the recommendations. Collins and Lieberman said Friday that they hoped their committee’s plans to hold hearings next month would help pressure the House to quickly act. “We know that our country is at increased risk, even as we speak, of another terrorist attack. We have a commission that has laid an excellent foundation for strengthening our capabilities. How can we not act?  We must act,” Collins said. Sept. 11 Commission Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton said Sunday that it was important for both the president and Congress to move quickly on the commission’s recommendations. “This is really important for the American people. Get your house in order.  Act on these things as quickly as you possibly can. And every day that passes is a day of increased risk if we do not make changes,” Hamilton said on NBC’s Meet the Press. Back to top

Democratic Party Platform Says Bush Exaggerated Iraqi Threat; Describes Security Concerns The Democratic Party platform accuses the Bush administration of exaggerating connections between al-Qaeda and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the evidence that he possessed weapons of mass destruction, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, July 6). However, the platform does not say whether the party believes the Iraq war was a mistake, instead stating that “people of good will disagree about whether America should have gone to war.”  The platform names terrorists with weapons of mass destruction as the single greatest security threat to the United States. It also vows to place greater emphasis on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons drive through direct talks with the communist nation, and pledges to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The effort to secure nuclear weapons and material left over from the former Soviet Union is also emphasized (Washington Post, July 25). Back to top

Pakistan Releases Three Men Detained for Questioning in Nuclear Smuggling Investigation Pakistan on Saturday released three employees of the country’s main nuclear weapons facility after having held them in custody for more than six months on suspicion that they might have been involved in the transfer of Pakistani nuclear technology abroad, according to the Los Angeles Times (see GSN, July 16). The three freed men are Nazir Ahmed, director-general of science and technology at the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL); retired Army Brig. Sajawal Khan Malik, the facility’s security director; and retired Maj. Islam ul-Haq, personal assistant to top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. Khan has admitted to transferring nuclear weapons technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. The three men were released because they were no longer needed for questioning, said military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan. None of the three presently face charges, but Sultan said that the investigation into Khan’s activities continues and the three men could be questioned again. While the three men have been released from government custody, they remain under house arrest, according to Mohammed ul-Haq, brother of Islam ul-Haq. They are not allowed to discuss any secrets they may have learned while working at KRL or during the Khan investigation, they are not allowed to meet with anyone without government approval and they are not allowed to leave Islamabad, Mohammed ul-Haq said. To date, only one person detained in the Khan investigation remains in custody — KRL Director-General of Foreign Procurement Mohammed Farooq, the Times reported (Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times, July 25). Meanwhile, the U.S. Sept. 11 commission recommended in a report released last week that the United States commit itself to providing Pakistan with sustained assistance as part of international counterterrorism efforts. Such aid should only be provided, though, if Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf commits himself to confronting Islamic radicals, preventing nuclear proliferation and to implementing political reforms, the commission said (Christopher Marquis, New York Times, July 24). Back to top       North Korea Rejects U.S. Nuclear Proposal North Korea on Saturday apparently rejected the U.S offer made at the last round of six-party talks for the communist nation to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, the New York Times reported (see GSN, July 21). A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the U.S. plan, presented last month in Beijing, was “a sham offer” because it required North Korea to disarm and allow nuclear inspections before receiving economic concessions from the United States, Japan, South Korea and Russia. North Korea has offered to return to a “freeze” of its nuclear programs, similar to the one in effect under the Agreed Framework from 1994 to late 2002. President George W. Bush has said he would not return to a freeze deal, saying it would allow Pyongyang continue its nuclear work at its discretion. As North Korea would not be rewarded for freezing its nuclear programs, “the landmark proposal made by the United States” was not worthy of consideration, according to the North Korean statement. “It is a daydream for the U.S. to contemplate forcing [North Korea] to lay down arms first under the situation where both are in a state of armistice and at war technically,” the statement says. “No one expected a positive response,” one senior U.S. official involved in the issue said Saturday. “But this did not sound like it closed the door, either,” the official added (David Sanger, New York Times, July 25). Meanwhile, six-nation talks could soon resume in Beijing, with working-level talks addressing the U.S. proposal expected next month, according to AFP. The working-level talks would be followed by senior-level discussions, the Japanese Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com,, July 25). Elsewhere, the United States announced Friday it would provide 50,000 tons of food aid to North Korea through the World Food Program, AFP reported. The food would be sent “to help relieve the suffering of the North Korean people despite our concerns about the North Korean government’s policies,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher (P. Parameswaran, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, July 24). Back to top       Indian, Pakistani Foreign Ministers to Meet By Mike Nartker Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan are scheduled to meet in September as part of a peace dialogue to help reduce tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals (see GSN, July 19). Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh announced Friday that he and Pakistani Foreign Affairs Minister Mian Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri would meet Sept. 5-6 in New Delhi. India and Pakistan also plan to hold six meetings involving lower-level officials between now and mid-August to discuss issues such as economic cooperation and terrorism. “India and Pakistan are committed to discuss and settle all bilateral issues, including that of Jammu and Kashmir, to the satisfaction of both sides,” Singh said Friday prior to leaving Islamabad, where he attended a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. India and Pakistan early this year announced plans to conduct a peace dialogue, which the two countries have expressed hope would lead to the resolution of their dispute over control of the Kashmir region, which has been a source of conflict in the past. Through the dialogue, India and Pakistan have agreed to several risk-reduction measures, such as creating a formal system of advance notification of missile tests and a nuclear “hot line” between their foreign secretaries. The United States has praised the effort for seemingly helping to reduce tensions between the two South Asian neighbors. During his five-day trip to Islamabad, Singh met with several senior Pakistani officials, including President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and new Prime Minister Chaudhury Shujaat Hussain, to discuss the progress of the Indian-Pakistani peace talks. Singh described the “attitude” of the Pakistani officials as “constructive and positive.” In his 90-minute meeting with Musharraf, Singh said “no aspect of our relationship, including Jammu and Kashmir, was left out of our warm, frank and realistic discussions.” According to Pakistani press reports, Musharraf told Singh during their meeting that Pakistan was committed to ensuring that the peace dialogue was a “success.” Back to top       U.S. Energy Department Widens Work Halt The U.S. Energy Department on Friday ordered classified work to stop at up to two dozen facilities throughout the country following the disappearance earlier this month of two computer disks at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, July 23). The “stand-down” of operations using “controlled removable electronic media [CREM]” that contain classified nuclear weapons research material was needed to gain better control over those disks, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said. The stand-down will continue until a CREM inventory is conducted and enhanced security measures are established, energy spokesman Joe Davis said, adding that employees who use the disks will have to undergo security training. “While we have no evidence that the problems currently being investigated are present elsewhere, we have a responsibility to take all necessary action to prevent such problems from occurring at all,” Abraham said in a statement. Affected facilities include the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and the nuclear weapons plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn. (Associated Press/Washington Post, July 24). Meanwhile, Los Alamos Director Peter Nanos warned last week that security concerns at the facility could lead to a loss of support and funding from the government and private industry, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Nanos told Los Alamos employees Thursday that the facility could lose up to 20 percent of its revenue next year due to lost work resulting from security and safety scandals. He also said that Los Alamos needed to find and remove those employees who do not take security seriously. “If I have to restart this laboratory with 10 people — if I have 10 solid people left in this laboratory — I will rebuild this laboratory,” Nanos said. Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), considered to be a strong Los Alamos supporter, publicly released a letter Thursday critical of the facility, according to the Journal. “Today, in Washington, Los Alamos’ reputation as a crown jewel of science is being eclipsed by a reputation as being both dysfunctional and untouchable,” Domenici wrote. “I do not yet know if the most recent security incident is, unto itself, of great consequence. But I can tell you that the analogy of the straw that breaks the camel’s back is appropriate,” he added (Adam Rankin, Albuquerque Journal, July 23). Back to top       Vanunu May Not Leave Israel, Supreme Court Says The Israeli Supreme Court ruled today that nuclear whistleblower Mordecai Vanunu would remain under security restrictions forbidding him to leave the country or speak with foreign reporters (see GSN, May 28). Vanunu appeared to immediately violate the ruling by speaking to both Israeli and foreign journalists. “We are saying always that Israel is not a real democracy, and today we are seeing it inside the Supreme Court,” Vanunu told the reporters. “We will find a way to continue to survive and demand the rights to live as best we can,” he added. The state is investigating Vanunu for previous interviews he gave to foreign media following his release from prison in April and other potential violations of the rules, said Shai Nitzan, an attorney at the state prosecutor’s office (Laurie Copans, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, July 26). Vanunu warned in an interview published Sunday that the Middle East is at risk for a “second Chernobyl” from Israel’s 40-year-old Dimona nuclear power plant, Agence France-Presse reported. An accident at the facility in the southern Negev desert could pose a threat to the region through “leaking of nuclear radiation, threatening millions of people in neighboring countries,” Vanunu said (Agence France-Presse/Khaleej Times, July 25). Vanunu also said the Israeli government was behind the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, according to the Press Trust of India. In an interview published in the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper’s Arabic supplement yesterday, Vanunu said Kennedy was assassinated in retaliation for “pressure he exerted on then head of government, David Ben-Gurion, to shed light on Dimona’s nuclear reactor” (Press Trust of India/Hindustan Times, July 26). Back to top

Some Drug Companies Say Project Bioshield Does Not Address Important Industry Concerns Project Bioshield, the legislation President George W. Bush signed last week to help develop a biodefense industry in the United States, has been criticized by some of the companies it was designed to assist, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, July 21). While the bill authorizes the use of federal money for the purchase of drugs and vaccines, some pharmaceutical industry executives and analysts say developing medicines for use after a biological attack is a high-risk business. Despite the $5.6 billion in federal Bioshield funding, new drugs take a long time to develop, profit margins tend to be small, and the possibility of patient lawsuits if a drug fails is a major disincentive for most drug companies, they say. “I can’t blame companies for not wanting to get involved,” said Charles Bailey, executive director of research at the National Center for Biodefense at George Mason University. “It is not a very attractive market,” he added (see GSN, June 22). Many executives say they need complete liability protection should a drug have adverse effects or fail to protect against a pathogen, potentially leading to devastating lawsuits. Only about 100 of the 1,000 U.S. biotechnology companies are working on biodefense efforts, the Post reported. “Until the liability question is solved, we’re not going to see big drug companies come to the table,” said Frank Rapoport, who represents vaccine maker Aventis Pasteur SA. “They have too much to lose,” he added. Some Washington-area executives for biodefense-related companies say Bioshield is unlikely to significantly affect their firms’ business plans. “I don’t think companies are going to turn on a dime to start chasing this money,” said Robert Eaton, president of MdBio Inc., a Maryland trade group for biotechnology companies. Congress is likely to address liability and other big industry concerns, said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Bioshield does not solve all the disincentives a company may have to get involved,” he said. “But it’s a very good start,” Fauci added (Michael Barbaro, Washington Post, July 26). Back to top       FBI Ends Latest Search of Army Laboratory A weeklong FBI investigation of some laboratories at Fort Detrick’s U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases has been completed, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, July 21). Investigators seeking the perpetrator in the fall 2001 anthrax attacks concluded the search on Friday, FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman said yesterday (Washington Post, July 26). Back to top

Russia Plans to More Than Double Chemical Weapons Disposal Funding Next Year, Official Says Russia plans to more than double funding next year for chemical weapons disposal efforts, Sergei Kiriyenko, presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District, said Friday (see GSN, July 23). In 2005, Russia plans to spend $454 million for chemical weapons destruction, up from the $184 million allocated this year, Kiriyenko said. He also said that Russia expects to receive next year an additional $76 million in foreign aid for the disposal effort. Russian Federal Industry Agency chief Boris Aleshin said Friday that Russia expects to be able to comply with its chemical weapons destruction schedule (Interfax/BBC Monitoring, July 23). Back to top       Tooele Begins Destruction of VX Spray Tanks The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Utah began preparations Friday for destroying spray tanks containing VX nerve agent, the Deseret Morning News reported (see GSN, July 22). A demonstration disposal test is expected to take place in early or mid-August, according to the Morning News. Never used by the United States in combat, more than 800 of the 180-gallon tanks are stored at the U.S. Army’s Deseret Chemical Depot. The final VX munitions remaining at the depot are land mines, scheduled for destruction following the spray tanks (Deseret Morning News, July 24). Back to top       Hezbollah May Be Seeking Missiles Armed With Chemical Weapons, Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Says The Islamic militant group Hezbollah may have a number of short-range missiles that Syria is trying to adapt to carry chemical warheads, the head of the Israeli Defense Force intelligence branch, Maj. Gen. Ze’evi Farkash, said yesterday (see GSN, May 12). Farkash also said that Hezbollah might have as many as 30 missiles that are capable of flying as far as 215 kilometers (Voice of Israel/BBC Monitoring, July 25). Back to top       World War I Chemical Shell Injures Three A World War I-era shell found in Delaware injured three members of a military explosives disposal team last week when what is suspected to be blister agent was released from the munition, the Delaware News Journal reported (see GSN, June 25). The three service members were confronted with a “black, tar-like substance” after using a small explosive charge in an attempt to open the corroded shell at Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday. The next day, the three reported undisclosed symptoms and one remained hospitalized in stable condition on Friday, according to an official statement. “World War I was when they were using and experimenting with various chemical agents,” said George Mercer, spokesman for the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. “My understanding is that the people from the Air Force who were doing this either had burns or blisters,” he added. A Delaware State Police trooper discovered the shell Monday morning protruding from a clamshell driveway near Bridgeville, Del. State police then requested that the base dispose of the munition. “We have an interest in learning what was in the shell,” said Maj. Cheryl Law, public information officer for the 436th Airlift Wing at Dover. “We decontaminated the area thoroughly, and there is no danger to the public whatsoever,” she added. The shell remains at Dover awaiting disposal, according to Karen Drewen, a spokeswoman for the Army’s nonstockpile chemical demilitarization program at Aberdeen Proving Ground. A trailer-mounted portable unit, called the Explosive Destruction System, is expected to be dispatched to the base to break apart the shell with explosions and then agitate the fragments with a neutralizing chemical. Between February and April alone, nearly 100 explosive devices were found in Sussex County driveways, according to state police. The explosives were probably transported by a hauler who sold clamshells, a common driveway covering in parts of Delaware, according to investigators (Montgomery/Jackson, Delaware News Journal, July 24). Back to top

Russian Firm Denies Missile Proliferation Allegation The head of the Russian Federal Research and Production Complex Altay denied Friday a U.S. allegation that the company has engaged in missile proliferation activities (see GSN, July 22). On Thursday, the United States imposed sanctions against the country for the alleged transfer of missile-related items. In response, acting Altay Director-General Nikolai Dochilov said Friday that the allegations were “groundless” and the United States had “no reason for such declarations” (Mosnews.com, July 23). Back to top

U.S. Specialists Prepare to Merge Forensic, Agricultural Sciences to Deter Bioterrorism By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A group of U.S. plant disease experts hopes to combine its work with the science of a criminal investigation to protect U.S. crops against bioterrorism (see GSN, Nov. 17, 2003). The goal of members of the American Phytopathological Society is to be able to determine the origins of dangerous plant microbes, allowing investigators to track them in case of an attack and possibly even deter an incident. “It involves new levels of application of our science,” said Jacqueline Fletcher, a plant pathology professor at Oklahoma State University. “We do have a lot that we can bring to bear now, but we need to do more work,” she added. There are no present indications that terrorists are planning attacks on U.S. crops, Fletcher said. However, the U.S. Agriculture Department believes “it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when” such an attack will occur, said Gerald Holmes, an assistant plant pathology professor at North Carolina State University.  Microbes that attack plants are accessible, relatively safe for people to handle and easy to disperse, Fletcher said. The ethical quandary is reduced, as those who might balk at harming humans are unlikely to feel the same sympathy for plant life. Terrorists, however, might not look first to crops in their efforts to attack the United States, said Gail Wisler, chairwoman of the University of Florida’s Plant Pathology Department. “A bunch of burning cattle or a person with smallpox is certainly more attention-getting than diseased plants,” Wisler said. Nevertheless, the potential for such an effort should not be discounted, Wisler said, and the economic impacts could be huge. The Agriculture Department lists nine high-priority pathogens that could be used to attack crops of everything from wheat to corn to citrus fruit, Fletcher said. Naturally occurring pathogens already cause 65 percent of crop losses for U.S. producers, costing them $137 billion each year, she said. An attack could range from using a crop-dusting plane or other aerial means, to spray an area with a pathogen, to simply introducing a diseased plant into a field, Holmes said. A dispersed plant pathogen could damage and kills crops at one farm or, over time, an area of hundreds of thousands of acres. Smaller crops mean producers and sellers lose money while consumers pay more, and it would take only one confirmed report of a plant disease for that crop to be quarantined against international distribution, Wisler said. Along with the losses would come the cost of managing the disease. Any country that produces agriculture — which is to say, almost all of them — would have people trained to work with plant diseases, Fletcher said. Most are seeking to defeat disease, but “the potential is certainly there” for them to work in the opposite direction, she said. The United States and the Soviet Union both stockpiled crop killers like rice blast and wheat rust during the Cold War. U.S. scientists went the extra mile by developing a “feather bomb,” a missile containing bunched turkey feathers carrying wheat rust spores that could detonate overhead and infect crops as the feathers touched down. Rihab Taha, the former Iraqi biological weapons scientist known as “Dr. Germ,” studied plant diseases in the United Kingdom and received her doctorate in tobacco pathogens. “I’ll guarantee you if you say, ‘Terrorists will never do that,’ they’ll do it tomorrow,” said William Cobb, a private plant pathology consultant in Kennewick, Wash., who has served on an APS committee on microbial forensics. “I always look at it as what’s the worst-case scenario and am I prepared for it? I think this falls into that area,” he said. Sciences Against Terrorism The normal work of a plant pathologist in the United States is to study the 50,000 diseases that afflict U.S. plants in hopes of reducing their effects.  Forensic science is the application of science to the law, according to the British Forensic Science Society. For police, that means the collection of physical traces — from blood to hair fibers — to support a criminal investigation and eventual trial. For Fletcher, combining the two means being able to determine features of a pathogen that could lead investigators to its creator and to prosecution. Plant pathologists are already doing some work in this area. Cobb has conducted crop-loss investigations for 16 years; roughly 10 percent of his investigations involve litigation. The work he does in preparing for a court case, including extensive laboratory work and specimen sampling, would carry over into this new field. Fletcher wants to take her science further, to the point where investigators would be able to better discriminate between different strains of the same pathogen and even map the DNA of a large number of those strains. That would require in-depth investigations of high-threat strains, but could ultimately allow scientists to determine if a pathogen is a naturally occurring strain or one intentionally modified for an attack. There are hundreds and possibly thousands of facilities that work with plant pathogens, Cobb said. However, the numbers working with specific types is much smaller, meaning identification could fairly quickly lead to the source. “Somebody couldn’t just get up in the morning and say, ‘I’m going to put together a powerful microbe for attacking plants,’” Cobb said. Society members have been discussing the antiterror marriage of forensic and plant sciences for about a year, Fletcher said. They hope to organize a working group of interested scientists and raise awareness of the effort at the organization’s annual meeting beginning July 31 in Anaheim, Calif. The next step would be to develop research policies and procedures, and to seek funding for working on the priority pathogens, Fletcher said. Their work would add to antiterrorism efforts by the U.S. Agriculture Department and the National Plant Diagnostic Network, which this spring trained 2,500 county agents and crop consultants to become “first detectors” for potential attacks. Microbial forensic research would take years, though useful information would be developed along the way, Fletcher said. The potential result would be a deterrent against biological attacks against crops in the United States and its allies. Terrorists who know their pathogens can be tracked back to them could think twice about unleashing an attack on plants, Fletcher said. “If it does happen, you have a means to trace it, to identify the perpetrator and to bring them to justice,” she said.   Back to top

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