Report Finds Anthrax Contamination at U.S. Institute

A new report has indicated that there were multiple incidents of anthrax contamination outside biocontainment areas in 2001 and 2002 at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Maryland, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Oct. 14, 2004).

The report exposed careless practices by workers at the site as they dealt with an influx of samples submitted for testing. The contamination did not cause any infections, AP reported.

The Army tightened security at the facility after acknowledging an accidental release in April 2002. No additional leaks have been reported since.

The report, first obtained by The Frederick News-Post, states that anthrax spores appear to have contaminated areas months before the April 2002 incident. This occurred while the facility was processing tens of thousands of items and environmental samples, including letters carrying anthrax that were sent to two U.S. senators.

One employee in December 2001 told institute microbiologist Bruce Ivins that she might have been exposed to anthrax while handling a letter. Ivins found what appeared to be traces of the agent on her desk, and decontaminated the area without alerting his superiors. 

Ivins told investigators that he treated the area because he was concerned that the substance might not be contained. 

Two researchers in April 2002 reported to Ivins that anthrax had leaked from two flasks. Ivins reported this incident to higher-ups, who then discovered anthrax on nasal swabs of one of the workers. This person had been vaccinated against the agent and did not become ill.

Ivins conducted additional unauthorized sampling of noncontainment areas on April 15, AP reported. He discovered spores in his office area, in a pass box and in a changing room. All three tested positive for a disease-causing form of the pathogen, and the changing room was found to be contaminated with two pathogenic forms.

The amounts detected were not enough to endanger the public or workers at the site, according to C.J. Peters, biodefense director at the University of Texas Medical Branch Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases. Peters was deputy commander at the Army institute until 2000.

According to the report, there were probably several instances of anthrax contamination. It found that the likely cause of the leak was the use of old, ineffective bleach in cleansing the pass box, which is used to move materials from laboratories through noncontainment areas.

The report also found that the pass box contamination might have occurred after a letter from the 2001 anthrax attacks was opened. It might have contaminated plastic bags used to transport material.

Institute Commander Col. George Korch Jr., who served as deputy commander in 2002, said no disciplinary action has been taken against individuals named in the report.

“One thing you really want to avoid is, if you find a safety violation, you want to make sure there is an openness and acceptance about not being too punitive. You want to make people feel that they are openly contributing in a way that is not going to shut down (their) inclination to say ‘Hey, this happened,’” Korch said (Associated Press/WTOP, April 19).

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Georgia Conducts Public Health Preparedness Tests

Exercises conducted last year in Georgia tested the state’s ability to respond to acts of biological terrorism and other public health threats, the Nuclear Threat Initiative reported yesterday (see GSN, April 18).

The exercises determined what individuals, business and governments need to do to improve defenses against biological terrorism. Official said the tests can be used as a model for other states to improve public health readiness, according to a release.

The NTI Global Health and Security Initiative and the Woodruff Foundation funded the exercises. The RAND Corp., the Georgia Human Resources Department’s Public Health Division, and the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University developed and coordinated the tests.

There were seven tabletop tests last year — six local exercises and one statewide event. Local exercises included two smallpox outbreak simulations, one avian flu outbreak and three botulism outbreaks. Locations for the drills were based upon population, geography, and the region’s perceived preparedness.

“The multiple exercises proved invaluable is assessing the readiness of state emergency response plans generally and identifying specific challenges that might arise when responding to different types of emergencies,” said Stuart Brown, Public Health Division director. “Putting a plan down on paper is really only the first step. Putting that plan through a test exercise really allows you to see what works well and what doesn’t.”

“It doesn’t matter whether a disease outbreak is naturally occurring or caused by terrorists — major health threats are also security threats, and they have been for as long as we’ve recorded our history,” said former Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. “This puts us in a race between cooperation and catastrophe. We must win that race through the kind of planning and cooperation among government leaders, health officials and the private sector to identify and quickly contain an epidemic that we’ve seen with these exercises here in Georgia. As these exercises demonstrate, the cooperation and planning that is essential must start locally and move quickly, in real time, to state, federal and international coordination and communication.”

Following the tests, RAND recommended improvements in communication plans and interoperability among first responders, assurances that surge capacity plans are ready, integration of outside partners into response plans, improvements in worker training, and clarification of responsibility for special need populations (Nuclear Threat Initiative release, April 18).

[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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California Governor Supports Public Health Agency

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday that he supports legislation that would create a new state Public Health Department to better deal with threats such as biological terrorism and pandemic flu, the Los Angeles Times reported (see GSN, March 6).

A 1998 report prepared by former Governor Pete Wilson said that “the new administration [of then-incoming Governor Gray Davis] will need to immediately begin working with Congress and the federal government” on bioterrorism preparedness.

San Mateo County health officer Scott Morrow praised Schwarzenegger’s decision. He said that a state public health official would help coordinate medical responses across California (Dan Morain, Los Angeles Times, April 19).

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Senior Officials Continue Iran Nuclear Talks

High-level talks to strategize the international response to Iran’s controversial nuclear activities continued today in Moscow, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, April 18).

Representatives from the permanent U.N. Security Council members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — and Germany met yesterday. There were joined in today’s session by Group of Eight members Canada and Italy, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

A working dinner at a Russian Foreign Ministry residence late last night yielded no breakthrough, a source close to the talks told Interfax.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the U.S. delegate to the meeting, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, discussed “the need for some form of sanctions” on Iran.

“This meeting was not intended to reach decisions on a specific course of action,” Casey said. He added that officials at last night’s dinner meeting agreed that Tehran “has crossed the line laid out by the international community.”

French President Jacques Chirac, traveling in Egypt, told the daily Al-Ahram today that it was “unacceptable” for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, April 19).

Burns said diplomats at last night’s meeting recognized the “need for a stiff response to Iran's flagrant violations of its international responsibilities.” He added that sanctions had been discussed, the Associated Press reported today.

“Iran’s actions last week have deepened concern in the international community and all of us agreed that the actions last week were fundamentally negative and a step backward,” he told AP, referring to the announcement by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Iran had enriched uranium to industrial levels for the first time (Henry Meyer, Associated Press I/The Plain Dealer, April 19).

“Iran must heed the call to stop work linked to uranium enrichment,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to ITAR-Tass (Associated Press II/Yahoo!News, April 19).

U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday would not rule out using nuclear weapons to end Iran’s suspected arms drive, the Washington Post reported.

When asked whether U.S. options for Iran “include the possibility of a nuclear strike,” Bush replied: “All options are on the table.  We want to solve this issue diplomatically, and we’re working hard to do so.”

“That’s why we’re working very closely with countries like France and Germany and Great Britain,” he said.

Bush added that he intends to “bring the subject up of Iranian ambitions to have a nuclear weapon” during a meeting tomorrow at White House with Chinese President Hu Jintao (William Branigin, Washington Post, April 18).

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said today that the United Kingdom does not anticipate that Iran will comply with U.N. demands to halt uranium enrichment by the end of the month, Reuters reported.

“We are working on the basis that Iran will not meet the proposals from the Security Council on the 30-day deadline,” Straw told BBC Radio Four.

“What is most likely to happen is that the matter will move back to the Security Council and there will then be discussions about the next steps which the international community will take,” he said.

Straw also addressed again the issue of using force to end Iran’s nuclear program.

“I have always acknowledged that the United States government formally is in a different position from that of the European governments upon this theoretical issue about the use of force,” he said.

“But in practice both the Americans and the Europeans, and Russia and China, are committed to finding a diplomatic solution to this issue,” he added (Reuters/Washington Post, April 19).

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to make a one-day visit to Turkey on April 26 to discuss Iran and Iraq, a Turkish diplomat said today, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse II/IranMania.com, April 19).

Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Department is planning to conduct an Iran-related war game on July 18, USA Today reported.

The exercise at the National Defense University’s National Strategic Gaming Center is expected to include U.S. lawmakers and senior military and civilian officials. 

The war game is one of five scheduled for this year. Such events involve official discussions of how to react to various events rather than simulated combat by military personnel.

Tehran, however, could see the exercise as an indicator of a planned attack, warned Khalid al-Rodhan, an Iran expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Anything the U.S. will do in the region will be seen as further provocation,” he said. “Given what’s happening in Iraq, it’s clear the Iranians are afraid of U.S. intentions.”

The Pentagon is also continue intelligence collection pertaining to Iran’s nuclear facilities and developing weapons to attack hardened targets in case of a possible decision to conduct a military strike, Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, told Congress (Matt Kelley, USA Today, April 18).

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China Rebuts U.S. Criticism on North Korea Talks

China yesterday refuted a U.S. statement urging Beijing to be more assertive in reviving six-nation negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, April 18).

“Either within the framework of the six-party talks or outside, on various occasions, we made active efforts to push forward the process and strive for positive progress,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

“Our active efforts have been recognized by all the parties concerned,” he said (Agence France-Presse, April 18).

Meanwhile, a top South Korean official said today that Seoul during Cabinet-level bilateral talks this week would try to persuade Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons program, the Associated Press reported.

The official said the objective of the talks, scheduled to begin on Friday, is to promote peace and cooperation with North Korea (Associated Press, April 19).

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U.S.-Indian Nuclear Deal, Iran Expected to be Discussed in Talks Between Pakistan and Germany

Pakistani Foreign Minster Khurshid Kasuri expects to discuss the U.S.-Indian nuclear deal and Iran’s atomic program next week with officials in Germany, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported (see GSN, April 18).

Kasuri is expected to arrive in Germany on April 24. 

“As Germany is a leading member of [the] Nuclear Suppliers Group, the minister will, therefore, share Pakistan's perspective with Foreign Minister Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the recent U.S.-India deal on civil nuclear energy cooperation,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry Director General Khalid Mehmud said.

Pakistan says the deal has “implications” for stability in Southeast Asia, DPA reported.

Iran is also expected to be discussed.

“Iran will top the agenda of discussion with the German leadership as Berlin is an important member of the European Union,” Mehmud said (Deutsche Presse-Agentur/newKerala.com, April 19).

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Saudi Arabia Denies Seeking Nuclear Weapons

Saudi Arabia yesterday again rejected rumors that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, March 30).

“We in the kingdom do not need (nuclear weapons). ... We do not approve of nuclear weapons or their proliferation,” said Crown Prince Sultan, the country’s defense minister.

Sultan also said that Riyadh hopes to avoid a clash with Iran.

“Our hope is that Iran will be reasonable and steer the country away from trouble,” he said.

“It is not in (our) interest to be put now in a position against Iran while Israel possesses such (nuclear) weapons,” the state news agency quoted him as saying.

A Russian diplomat said last week that Riyadh had asked Moscow to block any potential move by Washington to secure U.N. backing for military intervention in Iran (Agence France-Presse/IranMania.com, April 18).

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Three Uruguayan Nationals Extradited to Chile for Alleged Role in Pinochet-Era Murder

Three Uruguayan military officers were extradited to Chile yesterday to face charges in the kidnapping and murder of a Chilean secret police agent, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Sept. 16, 2004).

Retired Col. Tomas Casella, Col. Wellington Sarli and Capt. Eduardo Radaelli are accused of conspiring with their Chilean counterparts in the 1990s to prevent biochemist Eugenio Berrios from testifying at a human rights trial.

Chilean military officers reportedly escorted Berrios to Uruguay. He escaped, but local authorities turned him over to Casella and other Uruguayan military personnel in November 1992, court records state. His body was discovered in 1995, and authorities believe he was killed between March and June of 1993, according to AFP.

Berrios was believed to have prepared sarin-laced explosives for planned assassinations during the rule of former Chilean President Gen. Augusto Pinochet, AFP reported.

His disappearance is linked to “Operation Condor,” a plot by South American dictators beginning in the 1970s to do away with political opponents. This is the first time Uruguay has extradited military officials connected to the operation, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse, April 18).

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U.S. Plans Basic Missile Defense Interceptor Tests

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has scripted a series of flight tests this year for its vanguard national missile interceptor that are easier than previous tests, as the agency hopes to convince U.S. war-fighters and Congress that the multibillion-dollar system has some minimal capability and should be declared operational, according to officials and government reports (see GSN, April 5).

The agency plans three similar test scenarios as it attempts to demonstrate a new interceptor — consisting of a booster missile and “exoatmospheric kill vehicle” — capable of striking targets in space. Only the third test might use a target that will use techniques, known as countermeasures, that are intended to make the interceptor miss its target, an official said.

A slower prototype reportedly intercepted targets five times from 1999 to 2002 while facing countermeasures. The new interceptors already are being deployed in Alaska and California. 

“While we’ve demonstrated technology for hit-to-kill [with the prototype], we haven’t done it on the operational booster and operational kill vehicle,” Defense Department acting Operational Test and Evaluation Director David Duma said at a March 9congressional hearing.

Through “this test that’s unfolding this year, we will get a better understanding of just exactly the effectiveness of the EKV in an endgame, and the interceptor,” Lt. Gen. Larry Dodgen, commander of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said at the hearing.

President George W. Bush in December 2002 directed that the military deploy an initial missile defense capability by the end of 2004, but commanders have yet to present a formal assessment concluding that the developmental system might provide even an elementary defense. Such an assessment would help the defense secretary decide whether to declare the system fully operational.

Officials have said the Missile Defense Agency would add complexity this year to the testing of its Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, including by incorporating operationally active systems and using real military crews to fire the interceptors, which they said could make an intercept test more challenging.

“We have resumed an aggressive test program that includes up to three more flight tests planned this year, beginning this summer. These will include realistic targets, operational sensors, operational crews and operational interceptors from operational silos, with two of them planned as intercepts,” said agency director Lt. Gen. Henry Obering at an April 4 hearing.

Agency spokesman Richard Lehner said recently by e-mail that he was prohibited from discussing whether countermeasures would be used in testing, but said “the tests will be very challenging.”

“They are all tough, and they haven’t been simplified,” he said. “They are very operationally realistic, or as much as we can make them with the operational components that are available to us this year.”

Critics say demonstrating the operational capability of the system would require multiple tests using operational systems and different scenarios against complex countermeasures and challenges such as tumbling warheads, multiple targets, and nighttime intercepts.

The Missile Defense Agency is planning three key flight tests this year, in May or early June, late summer, and late fall, officials said.

The kill vehicle should see the same basic scenario in these tests, giving it essentially three tries to hit a target under similar conditions. A single target is to be launched from Kodiak, Alaska, fly past an upgraded early warning radar in northern California, and face an interceptor launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The first two planned tests will be “risk reduction flights,” apparently intended to ensure that the system’s sensors can accurately identify and track the target, in preparation for an “operationally realistic” flight test toward the end of the year, Duma said at the April 4 hearing.

In all three tests the interceptor’s separating “kill vehicle” will attempt to hit the target, although agency officials have said that would not be the primary objective of the first test. “Target characterization” is the goal of the first exercise.

“We’d like to know how does the target appear to the [early warning] radar,” a defense official told reporters at a briefing in February.

The system, though, will definitely try to hit the target in the first test, the official said. “You better believe it, but the primary objective is radar target characterization.”

In addition, in at least the first two tests and possibly the third, the interceptor is not to face countermeasures, Duma said at the hearing, such as decoys that an attacking country might use to fool the interceptor, which were seen in earlier testing.

“What we’re looking at to declare the limited defensive operations is … a single incoming missile … a simple missile, if you will,” he said.

He added that officials are considering adding countermeasures to the testing if the three tests are successful, and “maybe even [to] that third test in that series.”

“We’ll probably make the target more sophisticated. … Because the flight in May and the flight in August will be identical,” the unidentified official said in February.

The interceptor’s kill vehicle underwent a number of changes from the prototype kill vehicle used in earlier successful intercepts, officials have said.

Among other modifications, the interceptor’s front-end sensor was redesigned to withstand greater forces in flight from more powerful boosters than used in the prototype tests.

The changes have required the Missile Defense Agency to demonstrate as it did with the prototype that the deployed interceptor is capable of hitting a target.

“The fundamental technical unknown at this point is to demonstrate the intercept capability on the ground-based interceptor,” Duma said.

The agency had planned four tests with the current kill vehicle during fiscal 2005, with several primary objectives, including demonstrating “the interceptor’s ability to hit and kill the target,” a Government Accountability Office report said last month.

Testing was suspended though after the interceptors failed to leave their silos during tests in December 2004 and February 2005. The failures were attributed to quality control problems.

A Missile Defense Agency audit last year raised questions about whether the kill vehicles used in the testing and deployed in Alaska and California also have flaws resulting from poor quality control, the Government Accountability Office report said.

The auditors found evidence that the “reliability of the EKV’s design cannot be determined, and any estimates of its serviceable life are likely unsupportable,” the report said.

They concluded also, “The contractor’s production processes are immature, and the contractor cannot build a consistent, reliable product.”

The report said the agency had taken a number of steps to address quality control issues, including increasing contractor surveillance and restructuring the program’s test plan to make it more systematic for the tests this fiscal year.

“The first flight tests have simple objectives,” it said, stating that a December 2005 test was intended to demonstrate that the interceptor could be successfully launched, and that the kill vehicle could successfully separate from it.

By the third test this year, “MDA expects to be ready to demonstrate that the GMD system is capable of hitting an operationally representative target. Tests that follow will become progressively more difficult,” it said of the tests planned for this year.

Officials expressed optimism that the planned testing this year would be successful. “I maintain we’re going to hit the target in May. I have great confidence if we fire, we will hit the target,” the unidentified official said.

“We’re going to fire when we’re satisfied that we’ve given it every opportunity for a successful flight,” the official added.

Obering pointed to the reportedly successful tests of the prototype interceptor from previous years.

“The basic functionality, the basic technology, we believe we’ve proven,” he said.

“We have the processing power, we have the margin on the divert system, we have demonstrated the algorithms, we have demonstrated that when we put this [prototype] kill vehicle in its terminal game, it does a pretty good job,” he said.

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Japan, U.S. to Sign $2 Billion Missile Defense Deal

The United States and Japan are expected sign an agreement next month for joint development of a $2 billion sea-based missile defense system, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, April 7).

The two countries plan to develop an enhanced version of the Standard Missile 3 interceptor for deployment by 2014, said David Altwegg, operations director at the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

The planned “full caliber” version of the interceptor would have the capability to bring down enemy warheads in their downward flight path before they re-enter the atmosphere, Altwegg said.

“I can’t emphasize how big a deal this is,” he told Reuters. He added that if Washington were to develop the interceptors alone, “I’m not sure when we would do this.”

The Missile Defense Agency and the Japan Defense Agency have not yet decided how to split the development work, Altwegg said. Work is to include preparation of an enhanced interceptor booster and modifications to the Aegis ballistic missile defense system.

Japan is also preparing to place the U.S.-made Aegis system on the second of potentially four Kongo-class destroyers, Reuters reported.

Japan is the main international partner in the U.S. missile defense effort, spurred by a North Korean missile threat, according to Reuters.

Tokyo’s involvement also reflects concerns about China’s military development, according to a report on missile defense in Asia released last month by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The most significant technical gap in Japanese defenses is a lack of capability against Chinese ICBM-class weapons,” the report says (Jim Wolf, Reuters, April 18).

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