Top Iranian nuclear official Hassan Rohani (shown in a March 5 photo) has said Tehran will not permanently halt its uranium enrichment program (AFP photo/Henghameh Fahimi). Iran, European Nations Set for Next Round of Nuclear Talks Iranian and European officials are preparing to open a fourth round of nuclear negotiations Wednesday in Geneva, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, March 4). Iranian officials maintain that they will never permanently halt uranium enrichment. “We cannot have and we will not have negotiations with the Europeans if what they want is an end” to uranium enrichment, said top Iranian nuclear official Hassan Rohani. Such statements are the norm for Tehran, according to a diplomat close to the talks. The Europeans “are waiting to see what it really means,” when talks resume, the diplomat said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, March 6)...Full Story

Patriot Act Needed to Prevent Attacks, Gonzales Says By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The United States must maintain new powers under a controversial 2001 law in order to help foil al-Qaeda’s plan to carry out an attack that would be worse than those of Sept. 11, 2001, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said here today (see GSN, March 2)...Full Story

Television Turns Terror into Thrills By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Nonproliferation and health experts are tuning in or even offering guidance as an increasing number of television shows use weapons of mass destruction as plot devices (see GSN, Sept. 28, 2004)...Full Story

	Monday, March 7, 2005

Patriot Act Needed to Prevent Attacks, Gonzales Says By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The United States must maintain new powers under a controversial 2001 law in order to help foil al-Qaeda’s plan to carry out an attack that would be worse than those of Sept. 11, 2001, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said here today (see GSN, March 2). The USA Patriot Act, which expands certain powers of law enforcement agencies such as the FBI in cases related to terrorism and immigration, has drawn fire from civil libertarians and faces a reauthorization battle this year in Congress. In defending the act today at a National Association of Counties meeting, Gonzales devoted considerable time to discussing al-Qaeda’s alleged intent to carry out massive new attacks on the United States. The terrorist group believes “it is legitimate to kill all” Americans, Gonzales said, citing the words of an unnamed senior al-Qaeda member. The United States must not give in to the temptation to view the 2001 attacks as an isolated event, Gonzales said. “Based on the intelligence that we have collected, we know that our enemies do not view Sept. 11 that way,” he said. “They remember, and they want to do worse.” Gonzales dismissed critics’ charges that the law has led to violations of civil liberties. “There has not been one verified civil rights abuse under the Patriot Act,” he said, invoking statements by the American Civil Liberties Union and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) indicating they knew of no such abuses. Gonzales asked the gathered county officials for suggestions for improving the act, but added, “I will not support changes that would make America more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.” President George W. Bush used Gonzales’ swearing-in ceremony last month to express his own continued support for the act. Back to top

Inspected Sites in Iraq Have Been Looted, U.N. Says About 90 Iraqi sites that were once monitored by U.N. weapons inspectors prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom have been looted since the war began, according to a report released Friday by the U.N. Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (see GSN, March 4). “The continuing examination of the [satellite] imagery has revealed that approximately 90 of the total 353 sites analyzed containing material of relevance have been stripped and/or razed,” chief U.N. weapons inspector Demetrius Perricos said in the report. He also said that new construction has begun at 10 of the 90 sites, according to Reuters. The report adds that while Iraq provided inspectors with more than 90 unopened vials of biological agents following the 1991 Gulf War, 13 containers of “seed stock” had been used, some for weapons programs. “The issue remains as part of the residue of uncertainty with respect to the continued existence in Iraq of seed stocks that could possibly be used in the future for the production of biological weapons agents,” Perricos said in the report (Evelyn Leopold, Reuters, March 5). Back to top       Saudi Arabia to Create Nonproliferation Commission Saudi Arabia plans to set up an independent WMD nonproliferation commission and to implement agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Arab News reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 7). “The new commission is planned as part of the Kingdom’s efforts to make the Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction,” the Al-Madinah Arabic daily quoted high-level sources as saying (see related GSN story, today). Nuclear, biological and chemical weapons monitoring committees established in 1995 are expected to merge to form the new body, according to the report (P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News, March 6). Back to top

Iran, European Nations Set for Next Round of Nuclear Talks Iranian and European officials are preparing to open a fourth round of nuclear negotiations Wednesday in Geneva, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, March 4). Iranian officials maintain that they will never permanently halt uranium enrichment. “We cannot have and we will not have negotiations with the Europeans if what they want is an end” to uranium enrichment, said top Iranian nuclear official Hassan Rohani. Such statements are the norm for Tehran, according to a diplomat close to the talks. The Europeans “are waiting to see what it really means,” when talks resume, the diplomat said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, March 6). Rohani warned yesterday that sending Iran’s case to the U.N. Security Council could prompt an oil crisis, the Australian Daily Telegraph reported. “The first to suffer will be Europe and the United States themselves, this would cause problems for the regional energy market, for the European economy and even more so for the U.S.,” Rohani said. “Iran will retract all the decisions it has made and the confidence-building measures it has taken” if it is referred to the Security Council for possible sanctions, Rohani said (Siavosh Ghazi, Daily Telegraph, March 7). There is still hope for Iran to give up its nuclear work in exchange for political and economic incentives, some analysts told AFP. Any agreement must be a “win-win deal — where Iran has to be able to come back to its people with victory,” said Joseph Cirincione, senior associate and director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He said he was “optimistic” despite the fact that Iran and the Bush administration remain “undecided” on the matter. “I think the EU has a real chance of reaching an agreement with Iran,” he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, March 6). Iran has completed work on a heavy water production facility, according to satellite imagery obtained by the Institute for Science and International Security, AFP reported Saturday. “It looks like the plant is completed,” said institute president David Albright. According to the think tank, the heavy water would supply a 40-megawatt reactor that could be used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. “Adjacent to the reactor construction site is the heavy water production plant, which is anticipated to supply the necessary heavy water for the heavy water reactor,” the institute announced Friday (Agence France-Presse/Khaleej Times, March 5). Iran’s former president said yesterday that U.S. and European sanctions forced his country to develop its nuclear program in secret, the Associated Press reported. “True. There was secrecy,” said former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. “But secrecy was necessary to buy equipment for a peaceful nuclear program.” “If sanctions had not been imposed on us, we would have declared everything publicly, but we had problems buying metal.” “Definitely we can’t stop our nuclear program and won’t stop it. You can’t take technology away from a country already possessing it,” he added. Iran’s parliament would not approve the Additional Protocol to its safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency if negotiators from France, Germany and the United Kingdom insist that Tehran undertake a permanent end to its uranium enrichment suspension, said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 6). Back to top       China Doubts U.S. Intelligence on North Korean Nuclear Program, Says Bilateral Discussions Needed The United States will have to conduct bilateral talks with North Korea to resolve nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, a senior Chinese official said yesterday, adding that his country is skeptical about U.S. intelligence on the Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, the New York Times reported (see GSN, March 4). “[North Korea and the United States] are both sovereign countries,” said Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing. “They are the two major parties concerned. So it is for those two countries to increase trust and build mutual understanding.” U.S. President George W. Bush last month sent an envoy to Beijing to present U.S. intelligence indicating that Pyongyang has a uranium enrichment program and that it has been exporting nuclear materials (see GSN, Feb. 9). “Concerning whether North Korea already has nuclear weapons or anything about the question of uranium enrichment, I think that here you may know more than I do,” Li told reporters yesterday. “Or to put it another way, I definitely don’t know any more than you do.” China has consistently said it wants a “nuclear free” Korean Peninsula. Accepting the U.S. case that North Korea might have upwards of nine nuclear weapons could force China to press harder on Pyongyang, one Chinese analyst told the Times. Li also said the North Koreans had assured Beijing they intend to rejoin six-party talks. “There is some news I can announce, which is that the North Korean side indicated that it remains willing to continue participating in the six-party talks and that the respective sides can demonstrate sufficient sincerity,” he said (Joseph Kahn, New York Times, March 7). Back to top       ElBaradei, Arab States to Push for Talks on Middle East Weapons-Free Zone During NPT Review Conference A nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East is expected to be among the topics of discussion at a meeting of Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty members set to be held in May, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 16, 2004). International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei and representatives from several Arab states plan to promote the zone during the treaty review conference in New York, according to the Post. “One goal of this dialogue,” ElBaradei has said, “would be to make the Middle East a nuclear weapons-free zone.” Arab countries have seen the proposed zone as a way of illustrating that Israel’s long-suspected possession of nuclear weapons has helped to spur other Middle East countries to follow suit, as well as a perceived U.S. double standard toward Israel’s arsenal, the Post reported. “Iran is always mentioned but no one mentions Israel, which has (nuclear) weapons already,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Faisal said in an interview with Newsweek. “We wish the international community would enforce the movement to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone.” While agreeing that the proposal is an issue for discussion, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon last week also noted that 22 Arab countries, “many of them hostile,” surround Israel A nuclear weapon-free Middle East, Ayalon said during an appearance on John McLaughlin’s One on One television program, “will be viewed very favorably by Israel once we have a comprehensive peace in the area and there are no dangers of attacks or delegitimization by any other country” (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, March 6). Back to top       Battelle Drops Los Alamos Contract Bid Battelle Memorial Institute has decided not to seek the contract to operate the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 25). Battelle officials said they abandoned their bid because of concerns that managing Los Alamos would divert too much attention away from other facilities operated by the institute, such as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. “It would take significant resources for Battelle to play a major management role at Los Alamos, and I have great concerns whether that would jeopardize the great performance we have at our other laboratories,” Battelle Executive Vice President Bill Madia said (Associated Press/San Luis Obispo Tribune, March 6). Back to top

U.S. Hospitals, Emergency-Response Agencies Weigh Costs and Benefits of Biohazard Detectors Hospitals and emergency-response agencies in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have been forced to look at buying costly biohazard detection equipment in preparation for a possible terrorist attack, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Feb. 24). “Since 9/11, we’ve obviously been told, for good reason, that we don’t know what threats might be lurking out there, and obviously we need to be prepared,” said Stephen Morse, director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness at Columbia University. “But at the same time, if you buy such a machine, it should have a broader function. It shouldn’t be used for some special purpose, in which you may never even use it. It promotes a false sense of security.  The money could be better spent on something for daily use.” Last month, Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey purchased a $69,000 portable machine that can identify the presence of anthrax, botulinum neurotoxins, ricin, and staphylococcal enterotoxins in substances within 15 minutes, according to the Post. “We had to have it,” said Robert Torre, vice president and chief operating officer of the Hackensack University Medical Center Foundation. “We knew right away that this hospital needed it, and this community needed it. We hope they sell a hundred of these things and nobody ever needs to use them.” Cepheid Inc., a manufacturer of anthrax detection devices, saw its sales increase from $16 million in 2003 to expected $46 million to $48 million in 2004, the Post reported. Potential customers include airlines, transportation hubs and sports arenas or other sites where large numbers of people congregate, said Scott Gottlieb, a biotechnology company analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. The Homeland Security Department has spent more than $35 million with six companies to update air sampling in 30 metropolitan areas. “Now is a very critical time, but this is also an opportune time,” said Jane Alexander, a Homeland Security Department official overseeing the project. “The technology is mature enough where we can now do these things” (Michael Rosenwald, Washington Post, March 7). Back to top

Pentagon Extends Study of Moving Chemical Weapons The U.S. Defense Department has directed the Army Chemical Materials Agency to move ahead with its study of weapons relocation and other options for meeting the 2012 deadline for destroying the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile, the Army announced Friday (see GSN, March 2). “The options that were announced earlier, to include relocation of some of the stockpile, remain a part of the team’s evaluation of options,” agency official Kevin Duvall said in a press release. The agency received a two-week extension to complete the assessment, Duvall added (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, March 4). The final report is expected in April, the Birmingham News reported Saturday. Opponents of the plan criticized the study. “It appears as though the Pentagon is willing to continue to waste taxpayer dollars studying something that is illegal and repulsive to any of the political players involved in this process,” said Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Kentucky (Katherine Bouma, Birmingham News/al.com, March 5). Back to top       Microbe Could Aid Toxic Cleanup, Scientists Say Russian scientists have discovered that a microorganism could be used in cleaning up toxic byproducts of mustard agent destruction, NewsWise reported Friday (see GSN, Feb. 7). The researchers considered whether Pseudomonas putida could be used to transform byproducts created by chemical detoxification or mustard agent, Inna Ermakova and colleagues at the Russian Academy of Sciences wrote in this month’s Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology. “Bioutilization of organic compounds of reaction masses is a biotechnological method that provides maximum environmental safety, since the pollutants are naturally degraded to innocuous products such as carbon dioxide and water, as well as microbial biomass,” Ermakova said (NewsWise, March 4). Back to top

Bush Calls Canadian Leader to Improve Relations U.S. President George W. Bush called Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin on Saturday to help improve relations following Ottawa’s decision to not participate in U.S. missile defense efforts, according to the Toronto Star (see GSN, March 1). “The president and I agreed and he said it: the BMD [ballistic missile defense] decision has been taken and it is now time to move on to other things,” Martin told his Liberal Party on Saturday during its annual convention. During the call, Bush told Martin that he understood Canada’s decision, said White House spokeswoman Erin Healy. “The president underscored the importance of redoubling the security cooperation efforts on the continent and the importance of ongoing cooperation between the two countries in NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command],” she said (Susan Delacourt, Toronto Star, March 6). In an interview with Canadian television broadcast yesterday, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci said that Martin had earlier indicated he would agree to participate in missile defense, according to the Associated Press. “We were given that impression in a very direct way for a long time,” Cellucci said. Martin said he had never committed to having Canada support the U.S. missile shield, and indicated that a lack of information on what might be involved in such participation over time led to his final decision. “We didn’t want to get involved with something today and find out that things might change in two or three years,” he said. “It’s much better to say this is where our interest lay now” (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 6). A draft Canadian government document prepared last May also suggests that Ottawa was leaning toward joining the U.S. missile defense system, according to the Ottawa Citizen. The international policy statement contains a list of things “Canada will do” to improve relations with the United States. Among them is “participate in the BMD program, and seek to ensure that NORAD’s existing missile warning and attack assessment role is fully incorporated into the BMD mission.” The statement was written within brackets, indicating that the Canadian government had not at the time decided whether to join missile defense efforts, the Citizen reported (Mike Blanchfield, Ottawa Citizen, March 7). Back to top       United States, India Hold Missile Defense Talks U.S. and Indian officials Friday completed two days of talks on missile defense cooperation, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Feb. 24). “The two sides continued discussions on issues related to missile defense and highlighted the security contribution that missile defenses can make,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said. U.S. Defense Department officials highlighted developments in the missile defense system during the meeting in the Indian city of Hyderabad, Sarna said (Neelesh Misra, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 4). Back to top

Television Turns Terror into Thrills By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Nonproliferation and health experts are tuning in or even offering guidance as an increasing number of television shows use weapons of mass destruction as plot devices (see GSN, Sept. 28, 2004). Fiction makers have regularly turned the fears of the day into entertainment, and this new century’s threat of WMD-armed terrorists has proven no different During the Cold War, the threat was nuclear — played satirically as Slim Pickens rode an atom bomb to armageddon in Dr. Strangelove, or dead serious in the aftermath of a nuclear strike in The Day After.  Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, weapons of mass destruction turned up in filmed entertainment as agents of national blackmail or in futile attacks on aliens. Unconventional weapons today are used in stories across the entire entertainment media spectrum, but the menu is perhaps largest on television. Shows and movies in recent years have depicted the threat or aftermath of terrorist attacks involving nuclear weapons, nuclear reactors, radiological “dirty bombs,” anthrax, smallpox, tularemia, sarin and unidentified biological agents. These offerings have increased alongside heightened fears of terrorist attacks, particularly in the wake of the Sept. 11 strikes, the U.S. anthrax mailings and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, experts said. “The popular media is going to draw on anything that’s going to draw an audience, and this area right now is getting a lot of attention,” said Greg Evans, director of St. Louis University’s Center for the Study of Bioterrorism and Emerging Infections. Not just from viewers — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted a Web page to point out “misconceptions” viewers might derive from watching fictional televised representations of smallpox events. The Council on Foreign Relations and Washington’s public television station WETA both this year organized screening events for the BBC film Dirty War, and invited public health, homeland security, law enforcement and media heavyweights afterward to discuss the threat of a dirty bomb attack. There’s also the possibility that terrorists themselves are watching, said Gary Ackerman, director of the WMD Terrorism Research Program at the Monterey Institute’s Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Producers say their work is meant only for good, to provide entertainment or to raise awareness. Some aim for realism, while others play a bit looser. “We’re not looking for documentary-style precision, but we don’t want to be ludicrous,” said Bob Cochran, co-creator of Fox Broadcasting Co.’s 24. WMD Danger by the Hour 24 has made the threat of nuclear or biological events the core plot lines of its last three seasons, following a comparatively quiet first season involving the attempted assassination of a presidential contender. This year, terrorists armed with an “override” device threatened to cause meltdowns at six U.S. nuclear reactors. “The override that they describe is totally fictional,” said Scott Burnell, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees all private nuclear reactors in the United States. “It simply is not possible to affect the operation of the control room from outside the plant.” Burnell said the show’s producers contacted the agency last year seeking basic details on reactor operations and safety measures, enough to give the plot a “touchstone of reality.” However, they designed their own threat in order to avoid giving anyone ideas on things that could actually be done, he said. The show focuses on weapons of mass destruction because that is now the world’s great terrorism fear, Cochran said. However, the specificity of the threats is less important than how the characters respond to the events, he said. “In the end when the NRC said that couldn’t happen in real life, we said that was fine with us,” Cochran said. “We didn’t want to give any blueprints or ideas.” Producers similarly hedged their bets in the previous season of 24, in which the Los Angeles area was threatened with a genetically engineered biological agent. The powdered weapon was fictional, allowing it to be more contagious and have a shorter incubation period than something like smallpox. “It wasn’t inaccurate because it was a made-up agent,” said Vicki Beck, director of Hollywood, Health & Society, which helps provide accurate health information to television producers. Fictional Realism The BBC has produced two WMD movies in recent years with an eye more toward awareness than escapism. Smallpox 2002: Silent Weapon, which was slightly revised and renamed simply Smallpox when it aired in the United States, was shot documentary-style to tell the fictional story of an act of bioterror that leads to an outbreak. Before filming the movie, the filmmakers spent six months researching smallpox outbreaks, interviewing doctors and scientists who had worked to eliminate the disease and speaking with survivors and family members of victims, producer and co-writer Simon Chinn said on the BBC Web site. Filming began in June 2001, and the movie was first shown in the United Kingdom the following February, said director and co-writer Daniel Percival. By that time, the Sept. 11 attacks and U.S. anthrax mailings had already occurred. “Reality started overtaking the fantasy,” Percival said. A CDC official said she saw the movie two years ago and noted some “scientific inconsistencies.” Those led the U.S. health agency to post a Web page addressing smallpox facts and the movie when it came to the United States this January on the FX Network. The movie shows one carrier infecting 20 people, each of whom infected another 20 people, the CDC said. By the fifth generation of infection, 3.2 million people would have contracted smallpox. The federal health agency believes a more accurate estimate would be that each victim would infect five other people, so by the fifth generation there would be 3,125 smallpox patients. Fictional smallpox victims in the movie are shown transmitting the disease even through brief physical contact with others, while some people become infected by entering a space where a victim had been several hours earlier.  “The disease is not that contagious,” said D.A. Henderson, who led the World Health Organization campaign to eradicate smallpox. Transmission of the disease generally requires contact that is direct and extended, up to three hours, according to the CDC. Henderson consulted with the Smallpox filmmakers in the early stages of script development and said they made changes based on his input. While he took issue with some representations of the outbreak in the end product, he said the portrayal of people’s reaction to the epidemic was “well done.” The CDC Web page is meant to supply information on smallpox rather than as a critique of the movie, said Varian Brandon, CDC long-lead media manager. “It is not our mission to make a judgment call on anything the entertainment industry does,” she said. Percival said he believes the movie is an “accurate prediction” of a smallpox outbreak on an unvaccinated populace able to reach all corners of the globe. There is disagreement within the health community on the results of an outbreak, the director said. He acknowledged, though,  that advances made in prevention and preparation for an outbreak since filming would slow the spread of infection shown in the movie. Smallpox is “a very visceral depiction of the consequences of being unprepared,” Percival said. The movie was shown at a meeting of the G-7 health ministers and is used by the World Health Organization as a training model for epidemiologists, Percival said. “The core conceit of the film was to be as realistic as possible,” he said. “It’s not just designed to scare people, it’s designed to do a job of work.” Dirty War, also directed by Percival, is similarly a depiction of a WMD event launched at an unready public and emergency response system. The movie depicts the detonation in London of a radiological weapon, and the deaths, chaos, sickness and financial devastation that follow. Research on the film, developed by the BBC with HBO, took 14 months. Experts on terrorism, biological weapons, police response and other areas were consulted, and provided guidance during filming, research producer Stephen Barrett told the BBC. Experts questioned some of the details — one saying the initial radiation fallout from the bomb was larger than might be expected from such a weapon, another that the movie possibly underestimated the panic that would result from an attack — but said the film is a generally realistic portrayal of what might occur if a dirty bomb were detonated in a city center. “It was sobering, it was realistic, it was well done and obviously food for thought for us,” New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said last month following a showing of the film in Washington (see GSN, Feb. 14). Percival said his movies are meant to “rattle the cages,” and make the case for more protection and response spending, training, medicine distribution systems and better public information against the WMD threat. “I hope that what it does is put it high on the public agenda and high on the political agenda,” he said. Who’s Watching and What Are They Learning? The potential exists in WMD television for good information to go to bad people, or for bad information to go to good people. There is possible danger, but also opportunity. The Monterey Institute’s Ackerman is preparing a research project examining how WMD terrorist events are depicted in fiction — from novels to television — how accurate the portrayals are and what effects they might have on terrorists. There are known cases in which actions by terrorist groups have closely followed fictional representations of events, Ackerman said. Al-Qaeda initiated its chemical and biological weapons development program after seeing the attention such weapons received in the Western media, he said. The novel The Turner Diaries has been cited as an inspiration to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Television and film are not terrorists’ “only, or primary, source for information,” Ackerman said, but the media’s ability to influence action can’t be quickly dismissed. While Ackerman said he would oppose any governmental restrictions on media, the planned study is expected to consider whether there is value in organizing a voluntary set of guidelines for representations of terrorist events. “You want to give them a case that is completely infeasible, you don’t want to give them ideas that could be done,” he said. “You can still tell a very engrossing story without telling anybody how to build a nuclear bomb.” Percival said he considered during the making of both Smallpox and Dirty War whether the movies might give ideas to terrorists and whether they might expose weaknesses in authorities’ capabilities. It’s clear now that terrorists have already considered using biological or radiological weapons, and sources such as the Internet provide far more information than might be gleaned from the BBC films, he said. The need to inform the public and press for safety improvements outweighs the minor risks of showing the movies, Percival added. “The horse has bolted already, so let’s not put our head in the sand and hope it won’t happen,” he said. Everyday viewers can also be affected by fiction representations of health issues. A survey by the Harvard School of Public Health and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that regular viewers of the hit television hospital drama ER who saw the television show’s 2002 smallpox episode were less likely to say they would visit an emergency room if they had symptoms of infection than regular viewers questioned before the episode aired. Regular viewers who had seen the show also appeared more knowledgeable about smallpox vaccinations than those surveyed before the episode aired, according to the survey. Nonproliferation and health experts said they don’t expect dramatic television to be fully true to life. However, viewers often talk about shows that catch their attention, creating the chance for bad information to spread, Beck said. “We know there will be dramatic license, but where we get concerned is where that could be harmful to the public through misinformation,” she said. “We want accurate information because we know … that people pay attention to the information that’s on television.” Screening of movies can be an opportunity for education — the HBO and FX Network Web sites for Dirty War and Smallpox both offered links to Web pages offering information on their respective topics. Public and private screenings of Dirty War have also helped spread its message, Percival said. Hollywood, Health & Society connects television writers and producers with health professionals who can provide accurate information for their plots.  CDC official Mitchell Cohen consulted with the producers of 24 in the show’s third season. They accepted his recommendation to have an infection outbreak in a hotel switched from a depiction in which all guests die to a portrayal of a response by law enforcement and health personnel that saves lives. “It was potentially a vehicle by which we could educate the public about bioterrorism and preparedness,” said Cohen, director of the CDC Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases. Hollywood Health also collaborated with the CDC on informational online “tip sheets” on anthrax, smallpox, bioterrorism and a host of other health topics. Percival probably won’t need that sort of guidance on his next film. He is working with his Dirty War co-writer Lizzie Mickery on a political thriller set in the British Embassy in Washington. “I’m very happy to back off from disasters right now.”   Back to top

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