Requests for Building Blocks for Biological Agents Can be Made on the Internet

Genetic building blocks for biological agents can be obtained with a simple e-mail request, New Scientist reported last week (see GSN, Nov. 7).

A New Scientist investigation found that biotechnology companies are not conducting checks on the orders or on those requesting genetic components of potential biological weapons.

Requests for a biotechnology firm to construct specific genes can be made by e-mail or from a company’s Web site.   The genes are then sent through the mail a few weeks later. Only five of the 12 companies that replied to questions from New Scientist screened every request. Four said some sequences were screened, while three said no screening took place.

Terrorists could order the components of a biological agent such as smallpox from these firms, according to New Scientist. However, ordering all of the genetic parts necessary to construct smallpox would likely raise suspicions.

“That would stand out from a technological point of view,” said Drew Endy, a bioengineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

More probable is that terrorists would ask for genes for a pathogen such as the Ebola virus and then use them to turn another virus or bacterium into a weapon, according to New Scientist. Genes for a bacterial toxin could also be ordered, although these are already available in nature.

Firms that do not run sequence screens on orders are unapologetic. “That's not our business," says Bob Xue, a director at Genemed Synthesis.

Other companies said that while they did not screen orders, they did investigate customers. The scope of these investigations varies, however. Some firms explore customers’ published papers and affiliations, while others only confirm that the request came from a legitimate research institution.

Endy said that researchers need to better self-regulate by only ordering from companies that screen customers. He said lack of regulation could hamper important research.

“As soon as people start dying from a bioengineered organism, there will be a huge security response and research will be clamped down,” he said (Peter Aldhous, New Scientist, Nov. 12).

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Companies Developing Safer Smallpox Vaccine

Two companies have made advances in their work to develop a smallpox vaccine safer than the one now stockpiled by the United States, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 27).

A third company, without official U.S. funding, has also been developing a smallpox vaccine that could be used if terrorists released the pathogen simultaneously in numerous cities, according to the Post.

The vaccine work raises questions for U.S. lawmakers over what vaccine they should choose to produce, how many doses are needed, whether an abandoned plan to vaccinate health workers before an attack should be revived and how to deliver the vaccine to the public after an incident, the Post reported.

“Right at the present moment, we're setting up a committee to really look at this with a very hard eye,” said smallpox expert D.A. Henderson. “There are major changes that have occurred that force us to re-examine what we're going to do.”

Experts said that these new, safer vaccines give the Bush administration a chance to remake its smallpox vaccination plans. However, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department has conceded that it is impossible to know how the vaccines would work in an epidemic because there are no existing smallpox cases. Plans would have to be based on animal tests and other sources of information.

“You cannot answer all the questions — it's not possible,” said department official Noreen Hynes, who coordinates development of bioterror countermeasures.

The vaccine primarily being considered is a weaker version known as modified vaccinia Ankara, or MVA. Developed in Germany in the 1970s, it does not reproduce once in the body and has shown to be less likely to cause illnesses in people with weakened immune systems or who have suffered from skin conditions such as eczema. This vaccine has received most of the public research funds, according to the Post.

Acambis PLC and Bavarian Nordic A/S have received federal funds to work on the vaccine and are competing to win the U.S. contract to supply the treatment (see GSN, Oct. 20). While the firms’ vaccines have been tested extensively, full side effects remain unknown. The weaker vaccine could also require higher or multiple doses.

Health and Human Services has issued a request for at least 20 million doses of the vaccine and could buy another 60 million. Acambis and Bavarian Nordic are expected to ask for 10 to 20 times the $3 per-dose price of the existing vaccine, according to the Post.

Bavarian Nordic is urging the United States to replace its entire smallpox vaccine stockpile, which could cost billions.

“What would the public say if smallpox is released, 20 million people get the safe vaccine, and everyone else gets the unsafe vaccine?” said Paul Chaplin, Bavarian Nordic’s executive vice president for research. “Which line would you and your family like to be in?”

VaxGen Inc. of California is preparing another vaccine. It prompts strong immunity while lowering the risk of brain infections in children, a side effect of the standard vaccine.

VaxGen’s vaccine is expected to be less expensive that the other new vaccines and by requiring only one dose might be more effective in an emergency.   However, the purchase of VaxGen’s vaccine would further complicate plans for how to distribute various vaccines in an emergency.

Significant quantities of new vaccines are not expected for one or two years. This gives the government time to develop a vaccine plan through consultation with state health departments and medical personnel.

“I think the medical community has to take a serious look at this,” said Michael Osterholm, who leads the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. “Anybody who thinks smallpox is off the table also doesn't think a single jet can bring down a skyscraper” (Justin Gillis, Washington Post, Nov. 14).

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NATO Warns of Unsecure Russian Biological Weapons

A NATO report issued yesterday found that Russian biological weapons are poorly guarded and could be obtained by terrorists, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 9).

The report was presented to the science committee at NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly session. It said that stopping terrorists from accessing the Russian weapons is Europe’s greatest security challenge.

Former Soviet bioweapons facilities lack proper security and could be entered with little effort, the report states. Not officially part of the Soviet bioweapons program, these facilities are not eligible for Western financial assistance.

Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, Canada’s general rapporteur, said nonproliferation efforts for biological weapons suffer from “paltry spending” (Associated Press, Nov. 13).

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Australian Authorities Link Terrorism Suspects to Sydney Nuclear Reactor Attack Plot

Australian authorities suspect that eight men arrested last week on terrorism charges may have been planning to attack a Sydney nuclear reactor, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Oct. 26).

Police stopped three men near the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in December 2004, according to Reuters, and authorities found recently that a security gate lock there had been cut.

A 21-page court document also alleges that the men purchased chemicals for bombs, and were found with bomb-making instructions and videos entitled “Sheikh Osama’s Training Course” and “Are you ready to die?” (Reuters, Nov. 14)

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Bush Rails Against Critics of Iraqi WMD Intel

U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday called Democratic accusations that he misled the country into war with Iraq “deeply irresponsible,” the New York Times reported (see GSN, Nov. 11).

Speaking in Pennsylvania, Bush said charges that he misused intelligence on Saddam Hussein’s WMD programs undermine the war effort. Efforts to counter these charges come as public support shrinks for the war and questions about the president’s credibility linger, according to the Times.

“The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges,” Bush said. “These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will. As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them.”

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (Nev.) was quick to counter the president’s assertion.

“Attacking those patriotic Americans who have raised serious questions about the case the Bush administration made to take our country to war does not provide us a plan for success that will bring our troops home,” Reid said in a statement. “Americans seek the truth about how the nation committed our troops to war because the decision to go to war is too serious to be entered into under faulty pretenses.”

In the speech, the president said that Democrats, Republicans and the United Nations believed before the war that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.   No WMD programs have been found in the aftermath or the invasion. Bush said that his administration did not distort intelligence and that congressional resolutions supporting the war had support from both sides of the aisle.

“While it is perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began,” the president said.

“Some Democrats and antiwar critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war,” he continued. “These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs.”

“They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein. They know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing his development and possession of weapons of mass destruction,” Bush added.

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Bush was “playing the politics of fear and smear on Veterans Day.” Fellow Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy said the president’s speech was “a campaign-like attempt to rebuild his own credibility by tearing down those who seek truth about the clear manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.”

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said that it was “regrettable that Senator Kennedy has found more time to say negative things about President Bush than he ever did about Saddam Hussein” (Richard Stevenson, New York Times, Nov. 12).

Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, yesterday said that the Iraq war taught lawmakers to seriously consider intelligence before authorizing military force, the Washington Post reported.

“I think a lot of us would really stop and think a moment before we would ever vote for war or to go and take military action,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We don't accept this intelligence at face value anymore,” Roberts added. “We get into pre-emptive oversight and do digging in regards to our hard targets.”

Senator John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said the committee’s ongoing review of prewar intelligence (see GSN, Nov. 10) was “absolutely useful” because “if it is the fact that they [the Bush administration] created intelligence or shaped intelligence in order to bring American opinion along to support them in going to war, that's a really bad thing — it should not ever be repeated” (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, Nov. 14).

The Washington Post’s review of the use of intelligence Saturday found that U.S. intelligence agencies believed that Iraq had a WMD program. Most members of Congress backed this belief, according to the Post.

However, intelligence reviewed by the White House was more robust than that viewed by Congress.   The Post also found that commissions that have reviewed the use of intelligence were not charged with determining whether the Bush administration improperly used the information.

“Our executive order did not direct us to deal with the use of intelligence by policymakers, and all of us were agreed that that was not part of our inquiry,” said Laurence Silberman, co-chairman of the presidential commission on weapons of mass destruction.

The White House also did not share the most sensitive intelligence with lawmakers and provided the National Intelligence Estimate to Congress just days before the vote to allow military force.

The National Intelligence Estimate also raises questions. Doubts in the report could not be made known to the public because the estimate was classified. For example, the concluded found that Hussein would not use weapons of mass destruction unless he had no other option.

The Post found last year that only six senators and a “handful” of representatives read past the estimate’s executive summary.

Within the Bush administration there was also disagreement. In February 2001, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell said of economic sanctions against Iraq, “Frankly, they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction (Milbank/Pincus, Washington Post II, Nov. 12).

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North Korea Tabled Five-Part Disarmament Plan

North Korea last week offered a five-step plan for gradually eliminating its nuclear weapons capability, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Nov. 11).

North Korean negotiators at the six-party talks in Beijing proposed forgoing nuclear testing, ending transfers of nuclear technology and halting production of additional nuclear weapons, said South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young.

They also proposed readmitting inspectors and dismantling their atomic weapons before returning to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Chung said.

He declined to comment on Pyongyang’s requirements from the other negotiating countries in exchange for taking those steps, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, officials said North Korean and U.S. negotiators would hold bilateral discussions before the multilateral talks resume to discuss Washington’s decision to impose sanctions against eight North Korean entities suspected of WMD trafficking. The talks are tentatively expected to resume in January, according to AP (Agence France-Presse I/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 14).

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan demanded Saturday that Washington lift sanctions against the firms, AFP reported.

“The lifting of sanctions is not something needed to keep negotiations alive, but something that should be implemented as promised,” he said (Agence France-Presse II/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 12).

Kim also said Pyongyang would not disarm until Washington provided rewards, the Associated Press reported.

“As we have to follow the ‘action for action’ principle, we will act if action is made,” Kim told AP. “We will never move first” (Kwang-Tae Kim, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, Nov. 12).

U.S. President George W. Bush, traveling in Asia beginning today, is expected to discuss the North Korea standoff with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing, AP reported.

Bush is also expected to discuss the issue with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, according to AP (Jennifer Loven, Associated Press II/Southern Illinoisan, Nov. 14).

Elsewhere, Australia offered increased aid to North Korea if it disarms, the Australian Associated Press reported today.

“Once the North verifiably abandons its nuclear programs, Australia is willing to provide significant development aid, energy assistance and nuclear safeguards expertise to assist dismantlement,” said Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, traveling in Seoul (Sandra O’Malley, Australian Associated Press/Sydney Morning Herald, Nov. 14).

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Experts Question U.S. Intelligence on Alleged Iran Nuclear Warhead Experiments

Intelligence presented to International Atomic Energy Agency officials by the United States in July suggesting an Iranian attempt to build a nuclear warhead has come under fire by some experts, the New York Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 11).

Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Robert Joseph led the briefing, which was comprised of computer simulations and accounts of experiments found on what was said to be a stolen Iranian laptop computer, the Times reported.

Joseph declined to discuss classified material from the briefing but said the intelligence was one of various indicators “that together lead to the conclusion Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability.”

Some international analysts, however, have expressed doubts about the material, in part because U.S. officials have refused to divulge the computer’s origin.

“I can fabricate that data,” said a senior European diplomat. “It looks beautiful, but is open to doubt.”

However, a dozen officials and nuclear weapons experts in Europe and the United States well versed in the intelligence called it credible evidence that Iran was trying to build a warhead.

“They’ve worked problems that you don’t do unless you’re very serious,” said a European arms official. “This stuff is deadly serious.”

One U.S. official said notations in the documents indicated that the Iranians had conducted experiments.

“This wasn’t just some theoretical exercise,” he said.

Tehran has denied any knowledge of the warhead plans.

“We are sure that there are no such documents in Iran,” said Ali Larijani, Tehran’s top nuclear negotiator. “I have no idea what they have or what they claim to have. We just hear the claims.”

One senior intelligence official questioned whether, if the documents were authentic, Iran had actually been success in executing the plan.

“It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that beautiful pictures represent reality,” the official said. “But that may not be the case.”

Some European diplomats are concerned that confronting Iran with the warhead studies could undermine negotiations and cause Tehran to expel international nuclear inspectors, according to the Times.

“It’s a card that will explode the system in place, so the question becomes when and how you play it,” said a senior European diplomat. “If there is information that can serve to make progress with the Iranians, without blowing up the system, that’s better” (Broad/Sanger, New York Times, Nov. 13).

One U.S. nuclear expert today disputed the characterization of the device depicted in the documents as a “warhead.”

The information instead describes a re-entry vehicle for a missile, Institute for Science and International Security President David Albright said in a press statement (ISIS release, Nov. 14).

Iran yesterday denied attempting to design a nuclear warhead, the Associated Press reported

“This is only a rubbish scenario introduced to affect the Nov. 24 meeting of the (IAEA) Board of Governors,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi. “The case just led to joking among our colleagues here. We do not handle our confidential affairs on laptops” (Associated Press/Times of India, Nov. 13).

Asefi confirmed yesterday that Tehran would not accept a nuclear compromise plan that involved outsourcing its uranium enrichment, AFP reported.

“Enrichment should be carried out on Iranian soil, as other Iranian officials have said before,” he said, reiterating a statement Saturday by Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Gholamreza Aghazadeh (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 13).

However, a European official and a diplomat close to the U.N. nuclear watchdog played down the rejection, noting that Aghazadeh had not seen the plan, AP reported yesterday.

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei plans to present the offer to officials in Tehran within days, diplomats said.

The European official said the European Union and the United States have both endorsed the compromise deal and ElBaradei’s visit (George Jahn, Associated Press/Boston Globe, Nov. 13).

Meanwhile, early results from Nov. 1 agency inspections at Iran’s Parchin military installation have revealed no nuclear activity, diplomats said Friday.

“The very first preliminary results have not found anything so far,” a diplomat close to the agency told Agence France-Presse.

Another diplomat said more laboratory results were expected, though they are not expected before the Nov. 24 agency meeting.

One diplomat said evidence of nuclear activity was unlikely to be found at Parchin, given the amount of time allotted Tehran in preparing for the inspectors’ visit.

“We don’t expect those samples to show any undeclared nuclear activities, after all the time Iran was given to sanitize those sites,” said the diplomat (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Nov. 11).

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Fire at Pine Bluff Stops Chemical Weapons Processing

Chemical weapons elimination at the U.S. Army’s Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas was stopped Saturday morning following a fire in an explosives containment room, the Pine Bluff Commercial reported (see GSN, Nov. 12).

Pieces of a sheared rocket are believed to have ignited. A small flame emerged from the tipping gate of the deactivation furnace, said Raini Wright, a spokeswoman for the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. 

Wright said in a statement that the fire lasted for several minutes before being extinguished by the sprinkler system. She added that no rockets were being destroyed during the fire and that workers, the public and the environment were not in danger.

“The cause of the event appears to be the ignition of residue material near the hopper area,” facility project manager Mark Greer said in a written statement. “The hopper is the container that holds sheared rocket pieces before they are released into the deactivation furnace.”

“Operations will resume after all systems have been checked and it is determined that it is safe to proceed,” he added. Officials did not give a date for work at the facility to resume (Wilson Brown, Pine Bluff Commercial, Nov. 12).

Meanwhile, destruction of VX nerve agent at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana stopped Thursday so that workers can replace gaskets on two agent neutralization reactors, the Associated Press reported.

Weapons processing will be halted for at least two weeks, the Army said.

An investigation determined that the Oct. 29 spill of nearly 500 gallons of wastewater was caused either by gasket failure or improper alignment of a gasket, the Army said.

Spokeswoman Terry Arthur said that 88 gaskets need to be replaced.

“To assure ongoing system safety, we are taking this opportunity to change out all gaskets in the reactor system,” said Rick Rife, project manager for site contractor Parsons Technology Inc., said in a statement.

Work at the site has been stopped since the spill occurred. Replacing the gaskets means work will be stopped for at least a month, according to AP (Associated Press, Indianapolis Star, Nov. 10).

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Tokyo CW Attacker Unfit for Punishment, Lawyers Say

Lawyers for Shoko Asahara, who led the Aum Shinrikyo cult that killed 12 people in the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, said that he is mentally unfit to be put to death for his crime, Agence France-Presse reported Friday (see GSN, Aug. 22).

Asahara’s lawyers said he is only able to groan and does not speak to them or look them in the eye. They said a doctor’s report would soon be submitted to Tokyo’s High Court in an attempt to show Asahara’s mental incapacity.

“This doctor's evaluation is likely to say Mr. Asahara has a grave mental disorder after being confined inside a narrow cell,” said defense counsel Akio Matsushita. 

“We are not sure how the mental evaluation document will affect the court's decision, though,” Matsushita added. “The court officially keeps saying that Mr. Asahara can take criminal responsibility” (Agence France-Presse/Borneo Bulletin, Nov. 11).

Asahara was sentenced to death in February 2004 for leading the cult responsible for the subway attack (see GSN, Dec. 21, 2004). He has appealed the conviction, although his lawyers have asked the High Court to stop their client’s appeal because he is unfit to stand trial (see GSN, Aug. 1).

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Poland Considers Housing U.S. Missile Defenses

Polish and U.S. officials have discussed placing a U.S. missile defense installation in Poland, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday (see GSN, July 13, 2004).

“Secret negotiations took place last year over the stationing of one of three antimissile bases in Poland,” the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper reported Saturday.

Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz confirmed that Poland was considering such a move.

“We will analyze everything thoroughly and at the appropriate moment say whether it is good or not for Poland,” he told TVN television.

“We back the participation of Poland in what has been called the third stage of the antimissile system, related to the radar identification and destruction of enemy missiles,” says a government statement (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 12)

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Japan Plans to Produce Patriot Missiles

Japan plans to eventually switch from a U.S. supplier to a domestic defense contractor to fill its order of 124 Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missiles, the Japan Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 11).

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries ultimately is expected to be licensed to produce the missiles, at a cost of $4.2 million each, for deployment by 2010, defense sources said Saturday.

The PAC-3 system is intended as a backup defense against incoming missiles that elude interceptors fired by the Aegis air-defense system, according to the Times (Japan Times, Nov. 13)

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