U.S. Helps Secure Former Soviet “Antiplague” Sites

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department has been increasingly engaged in efforts to secure from proliferation dozens of former Soviet pathogen collection and research stations, a senior U.S. official said recently (see GSN, Aug. 22).

Still, most of the “antiplague system” institutes and regional and field stations across 11 former Soviet states lack sufficient safety and security and their scientists on average are poorly paid, a nongovernmental expert said.

The Pentagon has budgeted $61 million for security at facilities in six countries in fiscal 2006, Andrew Weber, senior adviser for Cooperative Threat Reduction policy at the Office of Secretary of Defense, said this month at a panel discussion on the antiplague sites.

By comparison, the Defense Department provided only $2 million toward the effort in 1998, he said. 

“We have now a much more comprehensive program than when we started in the mid-1990s and we have an extraordinary team of experts both directly working for the DOD team, and other U.S. government agencies, and also in the NGO community,” he said.

The annual amount significantly increased following the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, he said. Other U.S. and foreign agencies also assist in securing the facilities, he said.

The antiplague system facilities, 88 sites established by czarist Russia and Soviet Union as a means of detecting, assessing and thwarting the spread of dangerous diseases and most still existing today, are viewed today as potential proliferation and public health threats.

Located in regions where many dangerous diseases such as anthrax, bubonic plague and tularemia are endemic, or through which exotic diseases might spread, some facilities also fed deadly pathogens into the Soviet Union’s biological weapons program and continue to collect and retain such material.

While viewed a proliferation risk today, the stations with improvements could provide an effective network for early detection and prevention of the spread of infectious disease, though such activities have been decreasing due to insufficient funding, staff and equipment, experts say.

Security concerns regarding the facilities are described in a draft report prepared by the Monterey Institute’s Center for Nonproliferation Studies that was funded by the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Problems identified included improperly stored samples, aging research facilities, weak or nonexistent security, and underpaid scientists with expertise in biological weapons-related work who might sell their expertise for cash. 

U.S. funding, Weber said, supports physical security upgrades, biosafety improvements, modernization of research and storage equipment, consolidation of research and storage activities, and collaborative research programs intended to engage former military scientists in peaceful work.

Assistance efforts have been under way for several years in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Russia, and new programs began this year in Azerbaijan and Ukraine, he said.

He noted the program is funding in Georgia construction of a central, national reference laboratory, where all of the country’s dangerous microorganism specimens will be relocated.

Collaborative activities are somewhat limited in Russia for lack of a U.S.-Russian government bilateral agreement, Weber said.

“We’ve made some progress but it’s been difficult,” he said. “We need an authorized executive agent from the central government so we … can better meet Russian Federation priorities and better understand Russian Federation priorities at the government level,” he said.

Despite efforts so far, much work needs to be done to secure antiplague system facilities, according to panel speaker Sonia Ben Ouagrham, co-author of the Monterey Institute study.

“One of the main proliferation threats is the risk of brain drain,” she said.

Salaries of facility scientists now average from $20 to $100 per month, varying by country, Ben Ouagrham said.

The potential diversion of pathogens is another main threat, she said.

“Most of the facilities we visited have extensive collections of pathogens that are highly dangerous. These pathogens … most of them have been isolated from nature. But in some cases they are highly virulent, naturally highly virulent, and antibiotic resistant. They also have pathogens that were engineered for BW [biological weapons] purposes during the Soviet times,” she said.

“Very few of the facilities have a sufficient security system,” she said, citing for instance insufficient personnel and upkeep of facilities.

Ben Ouagrham said the study’s authors found no evidence of proliferation since the Soviet network broke apart. She said, though, that good information would be difficult to obtain because of poor security and record keeping, and perhaps because of facilities’ interest in avoiding negative attention.

The Defense Department does not yet have programs in five of the former Soviet states with facilities — Moldova, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Weber said he anticipates more U.S. funding in the future could go to securing the stations as work is completed on other Cooperative Threat Reduction programs.

“I think as some of the legacy programs, really high-ticket programs in the area of nuclear disarmament and nuclear security finish some of their major infrastructure investments … in future years the portion of overall funding that goes to biological threat reduction will continue to increase,” he said.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nuclear Threat Initiative is the sole sponsor of Global Security Newswire, which is published independently by the National Journal Group.]

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CDC Proposes New Quarantine Rules for Travelers

Federal health officials hope that proposed rules for tracking travelers and expanding the health conditions under which they could be placed in quarantine would help slow the spread of a natural or bioterror-related disease outbreak, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Nov. 7).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the regulations yesterday. Final rules will be issued following a 60-day comment period.

Federal law allows authorities to place into quarantine or isolation anyone “reasonably expected to be infected with or exposed to” any of the nine following diseases: cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola, SARS and pandemic influenza. 

Quarantine is used to describe the detention of people who might have been exposed to a disease but show no symptoms, while isolation is used for people who are clearly ill and potentially infectious.

The criteria to suspect illness would be expanded under the new rules to include a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher in combination with other symptoms, the Post reported. That would help ensure people suffering from pandemic flu do not slip by authorities.

Quarantine would be used only if no other options exist. The strategy could be crucial in preventing the spread of infection from a bioterror agent that has been engineered for heightened contagiousness and resistance to drugs or vaccines, according to CDC documents.

“We’re not talking about quarantining anybody for a sniffle or a cough,” said Martin Cetron, CDC global migration and quarantine chief.

People could be detained for three days without a hearing under the proposed order, and possibly longer depending on the outcome of medical testing. Detention would last no longer than the time it takes for the threat of infection to pass, a period usually less than a month, the Post reported.

The new rules would also require and airlines flying out of major airports and major cruise ship firms to ask passengers for their phone numbers, e-mail addresses and other information. That information and each traveler’s seat location would be maintained for no less than 60 days and would be passed onto the Centers for Disease Control upon request.

Having easy access to passenger information would allow CDC officials to quickly contact anyone who might have been exposed to an infectious disease during travel.

Anyone who refused to disclose the information would not be blocked from a flight or cruise. All information would be destroyed after one year.

Ship and airplane captains under the new rules would also have to report deaths or serious illnesses, hopefully before reaching their destination, to the Centers for Disease Control.

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Anthrax Scare Prompts School Lockdown

An eighth-grade student yesterday intentionally exposed classmates to an inert sample of anthrax, forcing a New Hampshire high school to be locked down for several hours, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 19).

Officials said the 25-year old slide being used in a science class contained a preservative that would kill the agent.

The boy took the slide apart and rubbed it on other pupils as a prank, said one student at Wilton-Lyndeborough High School

“He was kind of joking around, saying that he was going to give everybody anthrax and stuff like that,” Amanda Pelletier told WMUR-TV.

Administrators learned of the incident at 10:50 a.m. Hazardous materials crews sealed the building, forcing 500 students and faculty to remain inside between 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., AP reported.

“It was really scary,” said student Tanja Pellerin. “When I heard it was anthrax, I was, like, ‘Oh my God. I just want to go home’ because I know I'm safe there.”

It took some time to determine the source of the anthrax and whether it was dangerous, said Wilton Police Chief Brent Hautanen. Students who came into contact with the pathogen were instructed to wash their forearms, hands, face and neck, AP reported (Associated Press/Boston Globe, Nov. 23).

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No Quick Victory Against Terror, U.S. Official Says

It will take decades to win the war against terrorism, the U.S. State Department’s top official in that battle said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 15).

Department counterterrorism chief Hank Crumpton said the effort would “last a couple of decades, a generation — (or) longer — and we have got to think in those terms.”

“That’s sometimes hard for us to do but I have no doubt that’s what we are looking at,” Crumpton said while in Australia for meetings with counterterrorism experts there, The Australian reported.

The likelihood that terrorists would obtain plutonium or highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon is “not great, but a possibility,” Crumpton said.

“If there is one specific area of concern it would be Iran. Iran remains the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism,” he said (Patrick Walters, The Australian, Nov. 23).

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New Talks with Iran Tentatively Scheduled for December

Diplomats said yesterday that representatives from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Russia are considering a meeting with Iranian officials in an attempt to convince Tehran to conduct uranium enrichment to Russia, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 22).

A meeting is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 6. It would be the first session since talks between Iran and the EU-3 ended in August, according to AP.

Officials said that the talks would occur only if Iran did nothing before that date to raise international worries that it is pursuing nuclear weapons (George Jahn, Associated Press, Nov. 22).

A senior U.S. official said yesterday the United States hopes that involving Russia and other nations in the negotiations would push Iran away from its “dangerous course,” Agence France-Presse reported.

“It is our hope that the engagement of other countries like Russia, like China, will make it more likely that the leadership in Iran listens to the international community, shifts off the dangerous course it's on,” said Gregory Schulte, U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Schulte also said that talks to date have not proven effective in stopping Iran’s nuclear activities. “I have to say that progress has been disappointing,” he said.

The recent revelation that Iran has documents on nuclear weapon production raised “a whole series of questions,” he added (see GSN, Nov. 18; Agence France-Presse I/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 22).

While dismissing the possibility of military action against Tehran, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that a nuclear-armed Iran would endanger global stability, the Associated Press reported.

“If Iran was to develop nuclear weapons capability then I think it would pose a very serious threat to world stability and peace,” he said.

“There are three issues that worry people: there is their nuclear weapons capability and their refusal to cooperate properly with the atomic energy authority; there is their support of terrorism around the Middle East; and there is their meddling in Iraq,” Blair said. “On each of those three issues we have real genuine cause for concern.”

“Now no one is talking military action or any of the rest of it,” he added. “It may well be that the change in Iran comes from within ultimately” (Associated Press, Nov. 22).

Meanwhile, a senior Russian official said yesterday that the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran is not prepared to accept shipments of nuclear fuel, Agence France-Presse reported.

First deliveries of fuel to the Russian-built facility were expected to occur in late 2005 or early 2006, Moscow had said. However, “the Bushehr plant is not at present technically ready to receive nuclear fuel,” said Alexander Shmygin, a high-level official with the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency. He added that it would be “very difficult” to store the fuel in the Gulf region until the plant was online.

“We will ensure the fuel remains secure in a Russian facility,” Shmygin said (Agence France-Presse II, Nov. 22).

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North Korea Reactor Project Terminated

The United States and its partners in the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization have terminated a 10-year-old project to build a light-water reactor in North Korea, U.S. envoy Joseph DeTrani said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 22).

Washington had been pushing the partners to drop the energy-production project for two years. South Korea agreed last summer, while Japan and the European Union had long agreed with the U.S. position.

The project had been frozen since the United States in 2002 charged that Pyongyang was conducting a secret program to produce nuclear weapons using highly enriched uranium, the Associated Press reported. North Korea would have had to eliminate its nuclear weapons program and allow U.N. inspectors back into the country for work to resume

However, with contract deadlines looming on the $4.6 billion effort, including an agreement with primary contractor Korean Electric Power Co., the partners agreed to end the project, according to AP.

Former KEDO Executive Director Charles Kartman said Pyongyang would not have been surprised by the death of the project.

“There's no surprise here for North Korea. They've been setting up their obstacles” for weeks and in September renewed the call for light-water reactors, he said.

Kartman said the Bush administration had always planned to abolish the 1994 Agreed Framework that called for North Korea to disarm in exchange for receiving the reactor. Communication channels existed in 2002 between Pyongyang and Washington that could have led to negotiation rather than confrontation.

“In my mind, the right thing to have done in 2002 was to go back to the North Koreans and ask them if they wanted to preserve the Agreed Framework,” Kartman said, adding that the U.S. strategy was “clumsy” (Peter James Spellman, Associated Press, Nov. 23).

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Indian Ambassador Says Changes to Nuclear Agreement With U.S. Would Undermine Deal

Indian Ambassador to the United States Ronen Sen said Monday that changes to New Delhi’s nuclear technology sharing deal with the United States could upset the “finely balanced” agreement, Reuters reported (see GSN, Nov. 22).

India has been denied access to U.S. nuclear technology because it developed and tested nuclear weapons. Critics of the planned agreement said that the deal would hurt nonproliferation efforts.

“It there's any loading on of what are seen to be additional obligations or changes, it could cause a sort of imbalance, which would undermine the very basis of the agreement (which is) finely balanced in terms of reciprocal obligations and benefit,” Sen said.

Sen said that India has made little progress in separating military and civilian nuclear facilities, a key component of the deal. 

“It's very complicated. It's not that easy.  We have to work it out. We are going to work it out,” he said. “It's going to be in phases.”

He said, however, that New Delhi would meet its obligations.

“Since independence we have never ever violated an agreement. ... We proceed with due deliberation and when we undertake a commitment we keep to that commitment,” Sen said.

Congressional action on the plan is not expected until next year. U.S. officials said lawmakers would not be asked to act until India formalizes its separation plan, which requires India to tag nuclear facilities for either civilian or military use.

Civilian facilities would be open to International Atomic Energy Agency inspections (Reuters/New York Times, Nov. 22).

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Iran Pushes for Hussein to Face CW Charges

Iran yesterday pressed Iraq to accept its indictment charging former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein with using chemical weapons and committing other crimes when the two countries went to war in the 1980s, the IRNA News Agency reported (see GSN, Oct. 19).

The indictment includes “the crimes the Iraqi dictator perpetrated against Iranian soldiers through violation of [the] Geneva Convention concerning Iranian prisoners of war, and use of unconventional and chemical weapons against Iranian solders,” according to Iran’s judiciary.

Iran alleges: that Hussein’s forces bombed houses, schools and mosques; used chemical weapons; committed genocide and crimes against humanity; violated international treaties and Islamic ethics and principles; and killed women, children and clerics, IRNA reported (IRNA News Agency, Nov. 22).

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani pledged that Hussein would face charges for crimes committed against Iran, Agence France-Presse reported, citing reports from IRNA.

“I promised to look into the charges being put on the tribunal’s agenda,” Talabani said yesterday on the last day of a visit to Iran (Agence France-Presse, Nov. 23).

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Padilla Indicted Without “Dirty Bomb” Allegation

The federal indictment released yesterday against U.S. “enemy combatant” Jose Padilla includes no charges related to previous allegations that he planned to detonate a radiological weapon within the United States, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 28).

Padilla and four other men were charged with supplying funding and recruits to “murder, main and kidnap” for Islamic causes in Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia and other locations, according to the indictment. 

“The indictment alleges that Padilla traveled overseas to train as a terrorist with the intention of fighting a violent jihad,” said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Padilla could face a life sentence if convicted, along with 15 years each for separate charges of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy. His trial is set to begin in September in Miami.

Gonzales declined to say why the indictment did not include the “dirty bomb” allegations or claims that Padilla had planned to use conventional explosives against U.S. hotels and apartment buildings.

Padilla had been held as an “enemy combatant” for three years without facing charges. His lawyers last month filed documents to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Departing Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, in a separate case last year, wrote that a “state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation’s citizens.”

The White House filed the charges “to avoid an adverse decision of the Supreme Court,” said Eric Freedman, a constitutional law professor at Hofstra University in New York.

“There’s no guarantee the government won’t do this again to Mr. Padilla or others,” said Stanford University law professor Jenny Martinez, who is representing Padilla before the Supreme Court. “The Supreme Court needs to review this case on the merits so the lower court decision [upholding detention] is not left lying like a loaded gun for the government to use whenever it wants” (Mark Sherman, Associated Press/San Marcos Daily Record, Nov. 23).

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