A U.S. sailor receives the smallpox vaccine in 2003. A senior Homeland Security Department official yesterday said that the United States is focused on protecting the public from biological attacks with agents that could cause massive casualties (Sean Gallup/Getty Images). Homeland Security Threat Priorities Draw Criticism By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Homeland Security Department is focused on protecting the United States against acts of catastrophic biological terrorism that would be difficult to pull off, a senior official said here yesterday, renewing questions about whether the Bush administration is directing resources toward exotic, unlikely threats (see GSN, June 30, 2004)...Full Story

Congress Ready to Reduce Support for CTBTO By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers agreed this week to reduce funding for the international organization that would be responsible for implementing a global ban on nuclear testing. ..Full Story

Federal Officials Could Reconsider Trucker Checks By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. officials told a House of Representatives subcommittee yesterday that they would be open to a targeted reconsideration of post-Sept. 11 rules requiring background security checks for a large group of hazardous-materials truckers (see GSN, Oct. 20)...Full Story

	Wednesday, November 2, 2005

Federal Officials Could Reconsider Trucker Checks By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. officials told a House of Representatives subcommittee yesterday that they would be open to a targeted reconsideration of post-Sept. 11 rules requiring background security checks for a large group of hazardous-materials truckers (see GSN, Oct. 20). Trucking representatives at the Homeland Security Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity Subcommittee hearing said the panel, which is considering changes to the 2002 law requiring the security assessments, should require checks for fewer materials and fewer truckers. The federal officials they would not oppose pursuit of “risk-based” changes to focus security checks more closely on the most dangerous materials and the most suspect drivers. “We are amenable to undertaking a risk-based analysis,” said Transportation Security Administration threat-assessment specialist Justin Oberman, “to determine whether the existing requirements … are overbroad.” Speakers at the hearing told the subcommittee the checks have imposed unfair new costs and dissuaded some drivers from seeking clearances at all. “The trucking industry has borne the brunt of government-imposed HAZMAT transportation-security programs that are overreaching and are not properly aligned with the primary objective of preventing a terrorist from using a large truck hauling HAZMAT to do catastrophic harm,” said American Trucking Associations representative Stephen Russell, chairman and chief executive officer of trucking company Celadon. The security checks are stipulated in the 2002 Patriot Act and carried out by the Transportation Security Administration. The new checks have been integrated into an older process by which truckers intending to haul all sorts of hazardous materials obtain special safety endorsements on their commercial driver’s licenses. Russell said the new check should be separate from the traditional HAZMAT-safety endorsement and should apply to a much smaller number of materials deemed to be of particular security sensitivity. “The safety-based HAZMAT universe is simply too broad to serve as the foundation for a program to regulate transportation security,” he said, calling for “a risk-based approach that limits the background-check requirement to drivers hauling HAZMAT that truly poses a risk of causing catastrophic harm.” A partial basis for a reduced list of materials requiring driver security checks, Russell said, could be a 2004 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration list that requires permits for radioactive materials, explosives, toxic-by-inhalation chemicals and liquefied natural gas. Both Russell and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association representative Michael Laizure complained at the hearing that the current checks are costly and unnecessary. Laizure, who owns a company called Time Critical Ordnance Transportation, said most of his association’s members have been hauling hazardous materials for decades and that many are offended by the new requirements. “Hasn’t TSA figured out a way to identify persons who are more likely than not to be terrorists?” Laizure asked. Truckers who undergo the checks pay up to $134 and can lose days’ worth of revenue traveling to far-flung TSA-endorsed fingerprinting sites, Laizure said. He called for focusing checks on a smaller group of high-risk drivers — in part, by drawing on “red-flag” lists in other federal agencies — and for establishing clearance reciprocity arrangements with other federal agencies. “Even though I have been cleared by the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and other federal agencies to haul highly specialized and security-sensitive loads, I will … have to make [a] 340-mile round-trip drive … to a TSA-associated facility to be fingerprinted again and to go through yet another background check,” Laizure said. Laizure added that background checks are fundamentally of limited value, since “the most likely way that persons will obtain a truck and hazardous materials is to steal or hijack them at an unsecured location.” He argued for more safe places for truckers to park and sleep and for changing the HAZMAT placarding process so that terrorists cannot readily identify truck contents. Barring truckers from carrying firearms creates another vulnerability, Laizure said. “I have hauled various sorts of chemicals, weapons, ammunition and radioactive materials, as well as some other materials that I am not at liberty to discuss. … I have clearances to carry just about anything there is to haul in the U.S., but I cannot carry a weapon in the cab of my truck,” Laizure said. “If someone sticks a gun in my face, I’ve got two choices, and I’m not the one that gets to make them.” Any revision to the materials list for security checks should be undertaken in cooperation with the Transportation and Homeland Security departments and should be “risk-based,” said Robert McGuire, associate administrator in the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Various materials’ relative risk of diversion and misuse should be considered, he said, as well as the effectiveness of background checks in preventing misuse. TSA official Oberman said states and other federal agencies would be involved in any revision of the list and that seemingly benign materials should not necessarily be treated lightly. “A person who is given an HME [hazardous-materials endorsement] today is authorized to carry the full range of hazardous materials that require a placard,” Oberman said. “These include toxic chemicals and radioactive or poisonous commodities, as well as materials that may be perceived as relatively benign, such as nail polish, paint and soft-drink concentrate. However, in large quantities, even these benign commodities could be used to cause significant harm.” Back to top

Senate to Continue Iraq War Intelligence Inquiry U.S. Senate Republicans yesterday agreed to restart an inquiry into the Bush administration’s use of intelligence in making its case for invading Iraq, Knight Ridder reported (see GSN, Nov. 1). Democrats who forced a surprise closed-door session received Republican assurances that the inquiry would continue. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Robert (R-Kan.) promised to continue the investigation that stopped last year into how intelligence was used to justify the war.  The committee last year determined that U.S. intelligence had incorrectly assessed Iraq’s WMD capabilities. In February 2004, the committee said it would expand the inquiry into whether Bush administration claims made to sell the war were backed by intelligence, according to Knight Ridder. “The Libby indictment [see GSN, Oct. 31] provides a window into what this is really all about — how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared challenge its actions,” said Democratic leader Harry Reid (Nev.) (Kuhnhenn/Landay, Knight Ridder/Akron Beacon Journal, Nov. 2). In the closed session, a six-member task force with three members from each party was set up to review the committee’s work and report back by Nov. 14, the Associated Press reported. Work on the second stage of the review has already began, Roberts said, blaming Democrats for the delay. He said his staff told Democrats on Monday the review would be finished next week. “Now we have this … stunt 24 hours after their staff was informed that we were moving to closure next week,” Roberts said. “If that's not politics, I'm not standing here” (Associated Press/ABC News, Nov. 2). Back to top

Congress Ready to Reduce Support for CTBTO By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers agreed this week to reduce funding for the international organization that would be responsible for implementing a global ban on nuclear testing.  Agreeing to a Bush administration request, House and Senate legislators decided to cut U.S. funding this fiscal year for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization by $8 million, a 36-percent reduction (see GSN, July 21). In its fiscal 2006 budget released in February, the Bush administration proposed paying only $14.35 million of an expected $22 million toward the organization’s $105 million budget for fiscal 2006.  The White House has steadfastly opposed the pact signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, which would ban live nuclear weapons tests. The treaty has not yet entered into force because it requires the ratification of several key nations, including the India, Pakistan and the United States. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a congressional committee this year the proposed cut was not motivated by any opposition to the treaty or the organization but rather because of budget difficulties (see GSN, June 27). Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.) had indicated he would try to obtain more money for the organization and appeared to be initially successful. The Senate in July approved an additional $5 million he had added to the fiscal 2006 Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill. A House-Senate conference committee on the bill yesterday, however, released a report showing the additional money was not approved. “If the administration had asked for the full request, Congress would have funded it. Congress is basically matching the administration on this,” said David Culp, legislative representative for the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Back to top       Iran Allows New Inspections at Key Military Complex International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are being given improved access to a key Iranian military installation, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 1). Diplomats said inspectors were admitted to the Parchin site, where Washington has accused Tehran of conducting secret nuclear arms work. Agency experts in January found no traces of radioactivity during an inspection, which was closely monitored by Iranian authorities, according to AP. One diplomat, however, said the inspectors in recent days had “gained access to buildings” to which they were previously not admitted. The diplomat said the inspectors took environmental samples in the buildings for analysis. Detection of radioactivity would give credence to suspicions of nuclear work at Parchin, AP reported. The results are expected to be available before a Nov. 24 IAEA Board of Governors meeting (George Jahn, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 2). Iran’s parliament yesterday delayed a move to retaliate against a September IAEA board resolution critical of its nuclear activities, Agence France-Presse reported. The lawmakers had threatened to halt Iran’s adherence to the Additional Protocol to its nuclear safeguards agreement, which would have hampered investigations in the country by agency inspectors. The parliament’s foreign policy commission changed the bill so that it now calls for action only if Tehran “is reported or referred to the U.N. Security Council,” AFP reported (Agence France-Presse I/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 1). Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said yesterday that Iran should be referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear efforts, AP reported. A nuclear-armed Iran would be a “grave danger not only to Israel but to the international community, and from here stems our position that the Security Council must deal with this as soon as possible,” Fini said yesterday in Jerusalem. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Iran is “very close” to acquiring the knowledge needed to manufacture nuclear weapons, AP reported (Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Associated Press, Nov. 1). Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday that his government does not have a policy of regime change against Iran, AFP reported. “I have to say to you that regime change in Iran is not part of the policy of Her Majesty’s Government, nor do I think it would be wise,” Straw said (Agence France-Presse II/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 1). Back to top       North Korea Nuclear Talks to Resume Next Week Multilateral negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program are expected to resume next week, a top South Korean official confirmed today (see GSN, Nov. 1). “The six-way talks are supposed to be held around Nov. 9,” said Unification Minister Chung Dong-young. Chung said Seoul has submitted to the United States a proposal for implementing an agreement reached at the last round of talks, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 19). South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said next week’s negotiations were likely to recess quickly ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, scheduled for Nov. 18-19 in Busan, South Korea (Kwang-Tae Kim, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 1). Pyongyang today accused Washington of endangering the talks by freezing assets of North Korean firms suspected of illicit WMD-related activities, Agence France-Presse reported. “The U.S. behavior is little short of hamstringing the sincere efforts made by the D.P.R.K. for the success of the fifth round of the six-party talks,” the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 2). Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that he saw no signs of North Korea’s willingness to end it nuclear weapons program while traveling last month in China and South Korea, AP reported (Associated Press/Daily Journal, Nov. 1). Japanese officials said that bilateral talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang, scheduled to begin tomorrow in Beijing, would address North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, AP reported. Resolving the dispute over Japanese citizens kidnapped by Pyongyang during the Cold War also remains a top priority. “Of course, we hope the talks are aimed at a full resolution of the abduction issue, and we hope that such a result will be achieved,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe (Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press/Times of India, Nov. 2). Back to top       U.K. Must Retain Nuclear Arsenal, Official Says The United Kingdom still has use for its nuclear arsenal, a top British official said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 1). “We face a range of threats at this moment — running from individual acts of terrorism through to nuclear threats. We need a range of responses that include special forces right through to nuclear threats,” said Defense Secretary John Reid. Reid responded to critics who have said nuclear weapons are not effective in fighting the United Kingdom’s main external security threat, international terrorism. “It is equally true that you can’t use special forces to deter a nuclear attack,” Reid told a House of Commons committee. “As long as (a) potential enemy has a nuclear weapon we will retain ours,” he said. While the United Kingdom has reduced its nuclear arsenal to an “absolute minimum,” according to Reid, other countries have continued building their stockpiles. “Probably more worrying, some countries have been trying to develop nuclear weapons by deceiving the world, not complying with their obligations under the [Nuclear] Nonproliferation Treaty, for instance in Iran,” he said. The Blair administration has agreed to conduct a parliamentary debate on replacement of the British Trident missile arsenal, the London Guardian reported today. However, it has not agreed to schedule a vote on the matter. Reid said London was considering whether to replace the Trident with another submarine-launched nuclear missile system, or with a ship-, air- or land-based weapon (Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, Nov. 2). Back to top       Russia Tests ICBM Russia has successfully test-launched an SS-25 ICBM, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 21). The missile was fired from northern Russia and hit its target in Kazakhstan, Strategic Missile Forces spokesman Col. Alexander Vovk told Interfax. The launch was intended “to confirm the flight characteristics of the [Soviet-era] missile under an extended service-life,” Vovk said (Associated Press/MosNews.com, Nov. 1). Back to top

Homeland Security Threat Priorities Draw Criticism By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The Homeland Security Department is focused on protecting the United States against acts of catastrophic biological terrorism that would be difficult to pull off, a senior official said here yesterday, renewing questions about whether the Bush administration is directing resources toward exotic, unlikely threats (see GSN, June 30, 2004). Some critics have said that planned U.S. research on threats such as smallpox and genetically engineered biological weapons is unnecessary, draws billions of dollars in funding that could be used to prepare defenses against near-term threats, and could lead to the development of new types of biological weapons in the name of defense. Homeland Security is focusing its efforts on catastrophic threats, said Maureen McCarthy, director of the department’s Research and Development Office. In a presentation at the Center for Strategic and International Security, McCarthy said the agency’s highest bioterrorism priority is on developing defenses against longer-term threats that could cause “national scale” devastation. She added, however, that such attacks would be “generally really hard [for terrorists] to do.” In a slide presentation, McCarthy identified smallpox and genetically engineered biological weapons — pathogens potentially made more lethal, more stable or more resistant to countermeasures — as such threats. “We are most concerned and will focus a majority of efforts on things that can have massive national disruption,” she said. “We are plagued by the notion that we have to be anticipating what might happen in the future,” McCarthy also said.  The department has been generating risk assessments of potential biological weapons threats to guide government-wide research and development and other efforts to field countermeasures.  In particular, it has begun producing in the past year “material threat assessments” that are required by law to justify the release of major “Project Bioshield” funds for drugs and vaccines against specific threats. As of July, assessments were made that three classic biological weapons agents — anthrax, smallpox, and botulinum toxin — pose a material threat to the United States. Critics Challenge Focus McCarthy’s presentation drew criticism from Milton Leitenberg, a senior research scholar at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, who argued that program decisions should be guided by assessments of what terrorists are believed capable of achieving. “There are no indications that terrorists are doing work on those high-end things,” Leitenberg, said in an interview after the event. Policy should be guided by “validated threats,” he said. McCarthy said Homeland Security risk assessments are informed by “threat,” as well as by “vulnerability and consequence.” “We do explicitly fold in intelligence information from risk assessments,” she said. McCarthy also said, though, that the department’s focus should not be limited by what terrorist capability has been demonstrated to date.  “We cannot be beguiled by the risks of events that have happened in the past. … But we have to be concentrating our efforts on understanding new and emerging threats, things that may be threats to this nation in the future, not just six months from now, or two years from now, but out five, 10, 20 years in the future.  That’s a driving factor of what sets up our programs,” she said. Leitenberg said that approach could lead the Bush administration to invest in a research and development program for expressly defensive purposes that would replicate large portions of the offensive biological warfare work the Soviet Union conducted in the 1980s that were banned by the Biological Weapons Convention. He said government officials have suggested they might develop genetically engineered agents — as the Soviet Union was believed to have done — citing Col. Gerald W. Parker, former director of the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center at Fort Detrick, Md. “We’ve got to leave open the possibility [that] fabricating” a pathogen might be necessary for defensive research if the government believes another country has developed such a pathogen, Parker was quoted as saying in a September 2004 Congressional Quarterly article. “That sounds to me an open invitation to replicate the Soviet BW program rather than the terrorist one,” Leitenberg told McCarthy at the CSIS event.  “Certainly no terrorist groups have gotten to that stage. They haven’t even gotten to the stage of making classic agents,” Leitenberg said in the subsequent interview. McCarthy suggested that technological advances could make new types of weapons possible in the future. Department threat assessments “take into account not only what we understand about threats but technical feasibility,” she said. Leitenberg in the interview said research to assess potentially feasible weapons could drive an arms race. “We will drive the process by what we do ourselves. Not because someone is going to leak it. But because it is going to come out in the literature,” he said. Lt. Col. George Korch, the current director of the countermeasures center, ignited the debate by disclosing plans last year in a presentation for possible research on various aspects of biological weapons development, production and delivery, including “genetic engineering,” to understand how terrorists might pose a threat. Leitenberg and two other nongovernmental experts subsequently published a commentary piece in the journal Politics and the Life Sciences, which said such activities “may constitute development in the guise of threat assessment, and they certainly will be interpreted that way.” Parker, in the Congressional Quarterly article, said that Korch’s statement had been “taken out of context” by critics and that the department would be “BWC-compliant.” Back to top       White House Seeks $7.1 Billion for Flu Preparedness The White House is seeking $7.1 billion to develop vaccines, stockpile drugs, track diseases and meet personnel needs in preparation for a potential influenza pandemic, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 28). Of the money sought from Congress, $2.8 billion would go toward the development of cell-based vaccine technology. Up to $1.5 billion would be used to stockpile 20 million doses of an experimental avian flu vaccine. Another $1 billion would be used for antiviral medicines, while $800 million would go toward development of new flu treatments and local government would receive $644 million for their preparedness efforts. Speaking at a National Institutes of Health event, President George W. Bush said he also wants lawmakers “to remove one of the greatest obstacles to domestic vaccine production — the growing burden of litigation. … Congress must pass liability protection for the makers of life-saving vaccines.” Internationally, 122 cases of avian flu have been detected since December 2003. Of these, 62 have been fatal.  The third case in a month in Thailand was reported yesterday, according to the Post. The avian flu cannot be transmitted from person to person, but scientists fear that it could mutate.  Public health officials praised the president for addressing pandemic flu. “For me personally, this is a historic day in public health,” said Julie Gerberding, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief. “We have worked hard for a decade to put influenza on the table.” “State and local governments, academia, health systems, the private sector — they all have a part to play. If they're waiting for someone to come and rescue them, that's the wrong answer,” said Michael Osterholm, a former state health official from Minnesota. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said the president was responding to a Democratic call for flu preparedness. “The president's announcement is a long-awaited first step toward a comprehensive pandemic flu plan,” he said. “Democrats have sounded the call … and today the president answered.” The Health and Human Service Department is today expected to release its flu preparedness plan, a document that has been in the works since the 1970s, the Post reported. Experts said the best way to prevent the spread of the flu in the years before a vaccine can be distributed widely would be to wash hands frequently, restrict travel during outbreaks, and keep sick patients at home (David Brown, Washington Post, Nov. 2). Back to top       Delivery of New Anthrax Vaccine Delayed Pharmaceutical company VaxGen Inc. said yesterday that delivery of a new anthrax vaccine to the U.S. government would be delayed until late 2006, Reuters reported (see GSN, June 17). VaxGen attributed the delay to tightened requirements for the product. Delivery of the vaccine for U.S. emergency stockpiles is now expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2006, the company said. Original delivery was scheduled for the first half of next year. “We are revising methods for assessing product quality. We also will be making improvements in the raw materials prior to manufacturing the vaccine,” said company spokesman Paul Laland, who said the vaccine has performed “very well” in animal and human tests. VaxGen said it plans dosing trials early next year (Reuters, Nov. 1). Back to top

Russia Boosts Chemical Weapons Storage Site Security Russia has increased security around chemical weapons storage sites over the last four years to combat threats of terrorism, State Commission on Chemical Disarmament Secretary Alexander Kharichev said (see GSN, Oct. 27). “We are modernizing the protection system of all our sites,” he told Agence France-Presse, adding that work on security improvements is expected to be completed by the end of 2005. “Today all the sites are sufficiently protected” after Russia in 2003 decided to triple funding for security systems at the facilities. “In 2001, only two [of seven] sites were sufficiently protected from the threat of terrorism,” he said (Agence France-Presse, Nov. 1). Back to top       U.S. Dumped Chemical Weapons in International Waters The U.S. Army in the wake of World War II dumped chemical weapons off the coasts of 11 countries, The Daily Press of Newport News, Va., reported Monday (see GSN, Oct. 31). From 1944 to 1970, weapons were deposited near Italy, France, India, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, Denmark, Norway and other nations, according to a 2001 Army report. Some of these weapons have washed up or been discovered by fisherman. The munitions have harmed at least 200 people, according to the Daily Press. The United States has dumped weapons at more than 30 sites around the world, the report said.  “It's a disaster looming — a time bomb,” said Gert Harigel of the Geneva International Peace Research Institute. “The scientific community knows very little about it. It scares me a lot.” The United States in 1975 signed a treaty barring chemical weapons from being left in oceans, but the pact does not address munitions abandoned before its signing. As the weapons dumps are in international waters, the United States is not legally responsible, said Peter Kaiser, spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. “Legally, nothing can be done,” Harigel said. “But from a humanitarian point of view, they need to be pressured to do something.” Documents reviewed by the Daily Press indicate that the United States also left chemical weapons near New Zealand, China, the former Soviet Union and undisclosed Latin American countries. The documents suggest that Panama is one of the Latin American countries (see GSN, Aug. 13, 2004). The United States has informed these countries about the leftover bombs, rockets and grenades, but asked the governments not to comment publicly on the matter, according to the Daily Press. Czech scientist Jiri Matousek, in a 2004 study found that the submerged munitions were probably leaking. The hazard caused by these leaks would continued for “another tens to hundreds of years. It is also without doubt that long-term monitoring at areas of concern is needed as a categorical imperative,” according to Matousek. The U.S. Army has admitted that only four of the 26 dumpsites off the U.S. coast have been inspected, according to the Daily Press.   Inspections last occurred in 1975. Some countries were not told of the weapons dumps. An official Japanese inquiry determined in 1973 that weapons left by the United States or Japanese military upon the close of World War II had injured more than 85 fishermen. Australia discovered 60 million pounds of U.S. chemical weapons off the Brisbane coast in 2003. It has marked the area as off-limits, according to the Daily Press. Canada’s National Defense Department has worked for three years to locate U.S. or Canadian dumpsites. The United States is thought to be responsible for one of the three sites found. Canada is looking at another 1,200 underwater locations that could be dump grounds, including sites 100 miles off Vancouver Island in British Columbia.  “I won't say there's nothing there that belongs to us,” said William Brankowitz, deputy project manager in the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency. Two chemical weapons dumpsites in Canada are near Sable Island and Nova Scotia. The sites span at least 30 nautical miles and are thought to have been created by the Canadian government after World War II. “Fisheries are dying. The sea bottom is going bare. It's terrible,” said Nova Scotia-area antiques dealer Myles Kehoe. “We are finding crab mutations that no one can explain. Cod are dying at their larval stage. Most of that stuff is starting to leach now.” Over the years, leaking weapons have injured fishermen. “Around the world, accidents have happened,” Brankowitz said. “Fortunately, there has been nothing I would call colossal or catastrophic accidents.” Denmark has estimated that British and U.S. weapons have hurt 150 mariners and have washed ashore. In 1984, mustard gas burned 11 fishermen. Danish fishermen have taken to wearing protective suits when near the dumpsites. Ships in some areas of the Baltic Sea must carry gas masks and special medical kits. Sunken mustard gas has killed five Italian fishermen have died and injured 232 since 1946, according to scientists at the University of Bari. The Army does not challenge these findings (John Bull, The Daily Press I, Oct. 31). The Army’s chemical weapons abandonment program ended when Congress learned that a dump was planned near New York City, according to the Daily Press. After learning that a ship carrying nerve gas encased in concrete was to be scuttled near the city in the late 1960s New York Congressman Richard McCarthy asked the National Academy of Sciences to study possible effects. “That dump could have killed everyone in Manhattan,” said Harvard professor Matthew Meselson, who testified at a congressional hearing on the matter. “The Army had maintained this was very far into the sea, and they maintained it was very deep — too deep for fish. That wasn't right.  Our report put the kibosh on the Army's plan.” Meselson said that scientists were afraid that increased pressure on the ship would set off an explosion and blow up the ship, sending toxic gas into the air toward New York. The Army following the hearing canceled the program. Congress two years later passed a law banning dumping of chemical munitions in the ocean (John Bull, The Daily Press II, Oct. 31). Back to top

Dirty Bomb Most Likely WMD to be Used, Experts Say A U.S. Senate survey found that 85 government officials and U.S. and international experts believed a radiological “dirty bomb” is the weapon of mass destruction most likely to be used, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 28). Forty percent of those surveyed last summer believed an attack with such a weapon would occur in the next 10 years. However, many experts said that a weapon combining radioactive material and conventional explosives would not cause mass casualties and that the media oversells the possibility of such an attack. “It's not a trivial thing to do, build a dirty bomb. It's not simply a matter of tying a rod of cesium to a couple of sticks of dynamite and running away,” said physicist Benn Tannenbaum.   Three Chechens died of radiation exposure in 1999 after trying to steal radioactive rods from a laboratory, AP reported. Cesium 137, cobalt 60 and other radioactive isotopes are stored in rods, powder and pellet form in common equipment used for radiation therapy, food irradiation and industrial purposes.   Russia has recovered 72 strontium generators and 1,000 other abandoned radioactive sources. The United States has recovered about 11,000.  The International Atomic Energy Agency has found 100 radiological sources in former Soviet republics. Agency program chief Vilmos Friedrich called these sources “the highest priority only. The job is not complete by any means.” The United States has approximately 500 radiation sensors operating around the country to detect radiological materials and is working to expand this network to international ports. Participation has been limited in the Megaports program, AP reported. Some ports shy away from the extra costs and potential for cargo delays. At Rotterdam’s port, which is Europe’s busiest, harmless items such as vegetables, dishware and juice have set off alarms.  “They talk about our ‘false’ or 'innocent' alarms,” said Dutch Customs official Bert Wiersema. “It doesn't matter.  We want to detect everything.” No bombs have been detected since the sensors came online 18 months ago, AP reported (Charles Hanley, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 1). Back to top       Colorado Springs to Install Radiation Detectors Officials in Colorado Springs, Colo., are preparing to test radiation detectors at roadway intersections to protect the city and local military bases against terrorist attacks with radiological “dirty bombs,” the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 7). Four detectors would be installed on traffic-signal poles for an initial round of tests, said lead traffic engineer John Merrick. If the trial is a success, Merrick said he would propose the U.S. Homeland Security Department fund a $2.5 million project expanding the network to 100 intersections. He said the area’s five military bases, particularly the U.S. Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base, could be terrorist targets (Associated Press/GJSentinel.com, Nov. 1).     Back to top

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