International Response: Security Council Wary of U.S. Plans

U.N. Security Council members have expressed "anxiety" over a letter to the council in which U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte referred to the potential for U.S. military action in countries other than Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday.

"We may find that our self-defense requires further actions with respect to other organizations and other states," Negroponte wrote -- "the one line that disturbed some of us," according to Annan.

Although Negroponte gave no specifics, Bush administration officials have reportedly sought to bring the campaign to Iraq, which figures on a U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism.  Iraqi U.N. Ambassador Muhammad Duri, though, said Baghdad remains unafraid because "we are not involved in what happened on Sept. 11."

Sources said Negroponte met with Duri Sunday, the day U.S.-British attacks on Afghanistan began, to warn him not to take advantage of the focus on Afghanistan by targeting opposition groups in Iraq or acting against neighbors (BBC Online, Oct. 10).  Duri reportedly responded Monday with a letter from Baghdad.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Negroponte's letter to the council "explained what we did and said we reserve the right to do other things as necessary.  But it did not in any way forecast particular further action" (Associated Press/Times of India, Oct. 10).  Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has also entered the fray, warning Iraq yesterday that if it is found to be linked to anthrax cases in the United States, direct U.S. action could follow (Engel/Sampson, London Guardian, Oct. 10).

"Americans are so arrogant," Duri told AP, "so they feel they can always use power -- weapons and force -- and not wisdom.  For no reason, they attack so we have to prepare ourselves for such eventuality, and, certainly, we will defend ourselves.  We hope, at the same time, nothing will happen, and the Americans, for once, will be wise enough not to attack Iraq" (AP/MSNBC.com, Oct. 9).

British U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said that because the al-Qaeda network of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, a guest of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, is "a very widespread organization," the world community "has to have regard to its effect way beyond Afghanistan" (AP/Times of India).   The New York Times reports that U.S. officials have said covert and overt U.S. action is likely in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, where al-Qaeda members are believed to be based (Tim Weiner, New York Times, Oct. 10).  Inter Press Service reports that Lebanon, concerned it, too, may become a target, has been trying for three weeks to obtain information about U.S. plans while expressing support for anti-terror efforts (Kim Ghattas, IPS/TerraViva, Oct. 10).

Chinese Foreign Ministry officials have said a wider war would require new U.N. approval, the South China Morning Post reports (Torode/Hirst, South China Morning Post, Oct. 10).

The Security Council yesterday released a new list of 13 people, 11 organizations and three companies allegedly involved with international terrorism, telling countries to freeze the assets of those on the list.  Al-Qaeda topped the list.

The United States Sept. 24 ordered the freezing of funds belonging to the same 13 people, 11 organizations and three companies (Press Trust of India, Oct. 10).  According to the U.S. State Department, the council's new list contains six additions compared with previous U.N. lists.  U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the council added to the list (U.S. State Department release, Oct. 9).

U.S. President George W. Bush is slated today to go to FBI headquarters to release a new "most wanted" list including bin Laden and other terrorists.

Following Rumsfeld's assertion yesterday that the allies have conquered the Afghan skies and can conduct strikes "more or less around the clock," U.S.-led strikes are continuing today.  Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef denied that Taliban air defenses have been destroyed and that the opposition Northern Alliance, now backed by Washington, has made advances.  Bin Laden and Taliban Supreme Leader Mohamed Omar are alive, he said.

The first strikes were 85 percent successful, U.S. defense officials said yesterday (CNN.com, Oct. 10).  Releasing aerial photographs of buildings in ruins, the Defense Department said U.S. planes obliterated at least seven of al-Qaeda's major terrorist training camps (Judith Miller, New York Times, Oct. 10).  Washington is now preparing to begin using low-flying helicopters to attack Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, according to the Times.  Meanwhile, the U.S. special forces presence in Uzbekistan and elsewhere is growing, and the United Kingdom has said deploying ground troops in Afghanistan is an option (Steven Myers, New York Times, Oct. 10).

Zaeef said the United States is not safe as long as it attacks Afghanistan (Reuters, Oct. 10).  Taliban Deputy Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Zahid, though, yesterday told Qatari television station al-Jazeera he has asked the Organization of the Islamic Conference, now meeting in Doha, Qatar, and other Muslim countries "to urge the Western world -- Britain and the United States -- to resort to reason and to negotiations" (Reuters/Kuala Lumpur Star, Oct. 10).

Reuters reports that the Taliban has lifted all restrictions on bin Laden's activities in order to let him better wage his "holy war" against the West.  "With the start of the American attacks, these restrictions are no longer in place," Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen said.  "Jihad is an obligation on all Muslims of the world.  We want this, bin Laden wants this and America will face the unpleasant consequences" (Salahuddin/Ferreira, Reuters, Oct. 10).

In a videotape broadcast yesterday by al-Jazeera, bin Laden aide Sleiman Abou-Gheith said the Sept. 11 hijackers did a "good deed," adding that the "storm of airplanes will not stop, and there are yet thousands of young people who look forward to death like the Americans look forward to living."  Abou-Gheith called for a global Islamic uprising (John Burns, New York Times, Oct. 10).  A Kuwaiti, Abou-Gheith is wanted in his native country, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sabah Sabah said Monday after Abou-Gheith appeared with bin Laden in a prior al-Qaeda videotape, broadcast Sunday.  "What he did is not only an act of treason but a crime against his country," Sabah said (Fiona Macdonald, Agence France-Presse/Cyberpresse.ca, Oct. 8, UN Wire translation).

Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah yesterday said some 1,200 Taliban troops, by defecting to the opposition, have effectively closed the only road between northern and southern Afghanistan.  Besides cutting off a vital supply route, the defections would weaken Taliban power in northern cities where their support is relatively low, Reuters reports (Peter Graff, Reuters/Boston Globe, Oct. 10).  Aided by the U.S. strikes, the opposition is reportedly about to launch a major offensive on important northern cities (Julius Strauss, London Telegraph, Oct. 10).

Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar said today that the Taliban could bring an end to the strikes by handing over bin Laden as called for by the Security Council.  "I think the door is not closed," Sattar said at the OIC meeting.  "If the Taliban government wants to make a decision, announce a decision, that it will comply with Security Council resolutions, I think there will be no justification left for any further attacks" (United Press International, Oct. 10).

Also at the Doha meeting, Qatari Amir Hamad Thani called on Washington to target only those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.  "Although we firmly declare our condemnation of the anti-American terrorist attacks, we believe the reprisals should not affect innocent civilians and should not go beyond the real authors of these attacks," said Thani, who is also president of the OCI (RTL.be, Oct. 10, UN Wire translation).  Thani called for a U.N. conference "to draw up an international agreement with an aim of fighting against terrorism, which affects all its member states" (AFP, Oct. 10).

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa expressed concern over the possible expansion of the U.S. theater of operations.  "We have discussed this as part of the statements issued and we have taken a clear position, which is that we reject it," Moussa said.  "It is not possible that we become part of any coalition against an Arab country" (Rawhi Abeidoh, Reuters/Boston Globe, Oct. 10).  Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat expressed support for international anti-terrorism action but said Israel "is exploiting the American tragedy and the world's preoccupation with it to escalate its aggression against our land and to re-occupy large parts of our liberated land" (Reuters, Oct. 10).  Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak expressed support for "all measures taken by the United States because we suffered from terrorism before" (Daniel Williams, Washington Post, Oct. 10).

In Iran, 150 members of the Iranian Parliament today condemned the "blind bombardment" of Afghanistan.  "We ask the United Nations to prevent the killing of innocent people and to provide guidelines for the fight against terrorism," they said (AFP II, Oct. 10).

Protests continued around the Muslim world yesterday.  Egyptian students burned U.S. and Israeli flags, while Indonesian police turned a water cannon on demonstrators at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.  Five thousand protested in Marawi, the Philippines, chanting "Death to America" and "Long Live Osama bin Laden" (Chris Fontaine, AP/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 10).

U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair  arrived today in Oman to begin a three-day tour to shore up Arab countries' support for the U.S.-led campaign.  Blair met with United Arab Emirates President Zayid Nuhayyan yesterday (CNN.com II, Oct. 10).

Bush and Annan met separately yesterday with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who said Germany is ready to provide military support to Washington and help out in U.N. humanitarian efforts.  Schroeder toured the ruins of the World Trade Center with New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Oct. 10).

Pope John Paul II Monday asked Catholics to pray for peace, calling on them to "entrust in God the anguish and the worry that this delicate moment in international relations has aroused in all of us."  Religion cannot be used to justify conflict between peoples, the pope said.  The Vatican said last month that it would understand if Washington resorted to force in the interest of self-defense (Lagos Guardian, Oct. 9).

Ukraine announced yesterday that U.S. transport planes will be allowed to use its airspace (AFP/Cyberpresse.ca, Oct. 9, UN Wire translation).  Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov today said the U.S.-led strikes should be "surgical" (AFP/TF1.fr, Oct. 10, UN Wire translation).

Calling himself "the first African head of state to react," Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said Sunday that the U.S. strikes are legitimate.  Wade, whose country is almost entirely Muslim, also rejected the idea of a religious war.  "I would like to say to those who call themselves Muslims and who, in the name of religion, use violence, that we Senegalese do not acknowledge anyone's right to interpret religion for us. We have read the Quran, we have read the hadith, and as far as the Muslim religion goes, Islam is a religion of peace, and it's a religion of persuasion" (A.B. Thiam, Sud Quotidien, Oct. 9, UN Wire translation).

China has deployed forces in regions bordering Afghanistan (Willy Wo-Lap Lam, CNN.com, Oct. 9).  Official Chinese media said today that China and Russia support the formation of a post-Taliban coalition government in Afghanistan and share views on anti-terrorism.  The People's Daily reported that Ivanov called for a greater U.N. role in the campaign (Reuters/South China Morning Post, Oct. 10).

TF1.fr reports that citizens of Jalalabad today threw rocks at Paris-Match reporter Michel Peyrard, called a spy and detained yesterday by the Taliban, as he was exhibited in the streets of the city.  Peyrard had entered Afghanistan dressed as an Afghan woman.  The Taliban has vowed he will enjoy "no clemency" (TF1.fr, Oct. 10, UN Wire translation).

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U.S. Response: FBI Makes Preventing Terrorist Attacks Top Priority

The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI have ordered agents to curtail investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks and to focus instead on preventing future terrorist attacks.  Officials said investigation of the attacks on New York and Washington continues aggressively and is the most exhaustive investigation in FBI history, but officials said that preventing future attacks has been given a higher priority.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller have ordered agents to drop any assignment if they learn of a potential terrorist threat and focus on preventing that threat.  Ashcroft and Mueller have also ordered agents to arrest a number of terrorist suspects immediately rather than to continue tracking them.  Some FBI agents objected to the order because they said continuing surveillance might uncover evidence to prove who conducted the Sept. 11 attacks. 

“The investigative staff has to be made to understand that we’re not trying to solve a crime now.  Our No. 1 goal is prevention,” an official said.

Ashcroft said the FBI has advised 18,000 law enforcement organizations and 27,000 corporate security managers to be on the “highest state of alert” (Shenon/Johnston, New York Times, Oct. 9).

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U.S. Response: Office of Homeland Security Fills Two New Positions

The Office of Homeland Security, formally established by President George W. Bush Monday (see GSN, Oct. 9), added two new officials yesterday: Dick Clarke as special advisor to the president for cyberspace security and Gen. Wayne Downing as national director for combating terrorism (White House release, Oct. 9).

Clarke will be responsible for coordinating efforts to secure U.S. information systems and restore them in the event of an attack.  Clarke will also head a governmentwide board that will coordinate the protection of critical information systems.  Bush is expected to issue an executive order that will establish the board.  Downing will be Bush’s advisor on global terrorism issues and efforts to destroy global terrorist organizations.  Both will report to Tom Ridge, the newly appointed assistant to the president for homeland security (White House release, Oct. 9).

Downing previously had second thoughts about taking his position because the powers he expected were reduced, Defense Department sources said.  Downing will likely not receive the staff of 30 or $10 million budget he had expected.  The new office “is being set up for failure,” said a senior Bush administration aide (Douglas Waller, Time, Oct. 15).   

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U.S. Response: Funding Sought to Protect U.S. Water Supply

More funding is needed to assess the threat terrorists pose to the U.S. public water supply and to upgrade facilities, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies today told a U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment hearing.

John Sullivan, chief engineer of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission and testifying for the association, said Congress should increase Environmental Protection Agency funding by $100 million to conduct an assessment of U.S. water supply systems’ security and by $55 million to improve emergency response plans, designed to handle natural disasters and accidents but not terrorist attacks. 

Sullivan also recommended an extra $5 billion to the Bush administration’s proposed economic stimulus package to improve the U.S. public water infrastructure.  “Infrastructure rehabilitation helps national security by providing better treatment, better storage, better transmission and better distribution,” Sullivan said.  “We are asking Congress to provide $5 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure to both improve our infrastructures but to also create many new jobs” (AMWA release, Oct. 10).

The subcommittee hearing was called to explore the vulnerability of U.S. water supplies at dams and reservoirs, wastewater treatment plants, hazardous chemical operations and federally owned power plants.  “The safety and security of the water infrastructure has not been a high priority in the past,” said subcommittee chairman John Duncan (R-Tenn.).  “We hope to get some of the cities and water agencies to look more seriously at this” (John Heilprin, Associated Press, Oct. 10).  

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Canadian Response:  Environmentalists Attack Nuclear Plant Security

Canadian environmental activists the country’s nuclear power industry after reports that two men and a dog entered a power plant undetected soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.  “This confirms our belief that security at Canadian nuclear facilities is appalling,” said Sierra Club of Canada’s nuclear policy advisor David Martin.

Two men and their dog made it to the shore of Lake Huron near the Bruce Power nuclear plant just after midnight on Sept. 23, after clinging to their boat, which had capsized five hours earlier.  The men sneaked under a locked gate and made it to an office building, undetected by the security guards, where they telephoned for help.  “The security of the nuclear stations was not compromised.  The men were nowhere near the generating stations,” said Bruce Power spokeswoman Susan Brissette. 

Bruce Power is planning to install telephones along the shore near the plant, according to Brissette.  “That way, if anyone is in trouble they can call and be hooked up to our security people,” Brissette said (Roberta Avery, The Star/Nuclear Control Institute, Oct. 8).

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Pakistan: British Nuclear Smuggler Walks

Convicted smuggler Abu Siddiqui received a suspended sentence from a British court Monday, following his conviction for smuggling about $3 million of materials to Pakistan’s nuclear weapon program.  Siddiqui, who has dual British and Pakistani nationality, had lied to evade export controls to ship a furnace and aluminum bars to a friend who worked in a Pakistani nuclear lab, according to the London Mirror.

In issuing a 12-month suspended sentence, Judge George Bathurst-Norman said Siddiqui would normally have received a “very substantial” jail term, but in this case Siddiqui’s motives were not sinister and he was too naively trusting of others (Lucy Rock, London Mirror, Oct. 9).

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Anthrax: Florida Investigation Continues as Officials Calm Public

The anthrax strain involved in the Florida episodes is likely to be man-made (see GSN, Oct.9), according to the FBI, since it does not match any known naturally occurring strain (Ananova/London Guardian, Oct. 10).  Using data from an Arizona repository, federal investigators said they were able to match characteristics of the strain taken from the deceased Florida man to a strain that had been harvested at an Iowa facility in the 1950s (Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 10).

No further signs of anthrax have been found in the American Media Inc. office where the two Florida men worked and there have been no signs of additional cases, health officials said.  A love letter to singer Jennifer Lopez that had been mailed to AMI and had been reported to include a “soapy, white powder” was ruled out as a possible anthrax source, according to FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela (Amanda Riddle, Associated Press, Oct. 9).  Terrorists might have chosen AMI as a target because of its name, which is similar to American Airlines, company executives said today.  They also fear that consumers will not buy their newspapers because of concerns they may be tainted with anthrax (Canedy/Altman, New York Times, Oct. 10).

A possible third anthrax infection in Virginia turned out to be a false alarm after tests on the patient did not show the presence of anthrax bacteria, Prince William Hospital doctors said yesterday (Wolffe/Kirchgaessner, Financial Times, Oct. 10).  The case had worried the hospital because the patient said he had worked in a Virginia building owned by AMI.  “That’s what triggered our attention, was the connection with AMI,” said Robert Strobe, Virginia state epidemiologist.  By 2 a.m. yesterday, tests had showed no signs of anthrax, Strobe said.  The results of another set of tests to see if the bacterium will grow in a culture are expected tomorrow.  “If the culture comes back negative, then we’ll stop treatment,” said Thomas Ryan, medical director of the emergency department at Prince William Hospital (Lisa Rein, Washington Post, Oct. 10).

Anthrax infects about 5,000 people a year worldwide, according to Martin Hugh-Jones, a member of the World Health Organization’s Anthrax Research and Control Working Group.  About 95 percent of the cases involve infection through the skin after a person handles an infected animal or animal product, according to Hugh-Jones.  A small number of cases involve the eating of infected meat.  Inhaling the spores, which is almost always fatal and is believed to be the means by which the two Florida men were exposed, is very rare, according to Hugh-Jones.  The last reported case of pulmonary anthrax in the United States was over 25 years ago, according to the Wall Street Journal.  Between 700 and 1,000 people die each year from anthrax (Gautam Naik, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 10).

Obtaining anthrax, for a potential biological warfare attack for example, is not difficult, according to experts.  There are more than 1,500 facilities that maintain microbe strains, including deadly ones such as anthrax, for researchers.  The World Federation for Culture Collections, an organization of such facilities, has 472 members in 61 countries.  Forty-six offer anthrax strains free or in exchange for other microbes, according to the New York Times.  In the United States there have been efforts to tighten access to pathogens from germ bank facilities.  American Type Culture Collection, the largest U.S. germ bank, has not shipped any pathogens that could be used as a weapon since 1997, said Raymond Cypees, the company’s president (William Broad, New York Times, Oct. 10).

It may be easy for terrorists to obtain deadly diseases, but using them as weapons is much more difficult, according to terrorism experts.  “An attack of the type down in Florida could probably have been pulled off by a single individual.  It was very low-tech, very small scale,” said Jonathan Tucker, a Center for Nonproliferation Studies bioterrorism expert. “If you’re talking about a mass casualty event capable of inflicting casualties on the scale of Sept. 11, that would require a high level of sophistication,” Tucker said.

First a terrorist group would have to obtain samples of a disease such as anthrax and then cultivate large quantities, according to Jonathan Ban, a Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute analyst.  Terrorists would then need to know how to disperse it effectively.  Using a cropduster, as some had feared after earlier reports, would require detailed knowledge of weather and environmental conditions, as well as modifications to the sprayers, said Ban.  Dispersing anthrax through a building’s ventilation system would take knowledge on airflow and engineering, Ban said, and would require grinding up the spores to precisely the right size so they can be inhaled into the lungs (Mittelstadt/Loftis, Dallas Morning News, Oct. 10).

Scientists have played down the level of threat anthrax poses to the general public.  “Man is fairly resistant to anthrax,” said Harry Smith, the chairman of the British Royal Society’s working group on biological weapons.  Journalists have misused reports of monkey experiments that show 45 pounds of anthrax spread over Washington could kill 3 million people, according to Smith, adding that monkeys are much more susceptible than humans.  “Unlike nuclear warfare, high explosives and chemical warfare, the biological weapon has never been shown to be effective in the field,” Smith said (Roger Highfield, London Telegraph, Oct. 10).

BioPort Corp., the only domestic producer of anthrax vaccine, has been under contract to produce vaccine for the military but has been unable to ship the product for more than three years, according to the Associated Press.  The delay partly results from being unable to meet Food and Drug Administration requirements on shipping.  BioPort has failed FDA inspections in 1999 and 2000, mainly for packaging problems, according to the AP.  Some have criticized the Defense Department’s exclusive contract with BioPort.  “It’s very expensive to do this right.  Nobody wanted to pay what it was worth,” said Tara O’ Toole, deputy director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies.  BioPort officials said they have made the necessary changes to produce the vaccine and plan to submit the new information Monday to the FDA, which will have six months to review the information (Kathy Hoffman, Associated Press, Oct. 10).

Other companies are trying to develop their own version of an anthrax vaccine in the meantime.  Vaxin is working on a genetically engineered version that could be administered through a skin patch.  Corixa Corporation, with a $3.5 million Pentagon grant, has been developing drugs to fight anthrax, along with other diseases, that could be given through an inhaler or nasal spray.  University of Texas Health Center, Brooks Air Force Base and Southwest Foundation for Biomedical research scientists are studying salmonella for potential use in developing an oral vaccine.  EluSys Technologies is developing an anthrax antidote soldiers could inject before combat.  A Los Alamos National Laboratory biologist is working on “decoy molecules” that could fool anthrax into latching onto the decoy, giving the body’s immune system time to fight off the disease (Associated Press, Oct. 10).

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U.S. Response: U.S. Unprepared for Bioattack, Experts Tell Senate

The United States is seriously unprepared to respond to a biological attack, experts told members of a U.S. Senate panel on public health yesterday. 

D.A. Henderson, chairman of a new federal advisory council on bioterrorism, testified that the quick response to a recent anthrax case in Florida (see GSN, Oct. 9) did not indicate that the United States is prepared for a biological terrorist attack.  “If we got 500 cases, it would be a totally different story.  We would be overwhelmed,” he told reporters after the Senate hearing, adding, “It is difficult for me to exaggerate the deficiencies of our present public health capacities.”  Henderson said the government should create “a single, centralized medical and public health strategy” overseen by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to respond to an attack (Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times, Oct. 10).

Janet Heinrich, director of public health issues for the General Accounting Office, told the Senate panel that despite improved recent efforts, coordination between government agencies and departments is “fragmented.”  She said over 40 federal departments and agencies have a role in combating terrorism, and 20 have a role in responding to a biological attack.  She said the high number of different institutions involved “limits accountability and hinders unity of efforts,” adding that several key agencies have not been included in terrorism-response plans.  The GAO recommended that President George W. Bush consolidate some of the Justice Department’s programs under the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  Heinrich suggested the federal government conduct risk assessments to “properly focus programs and investments in combating terrorism” and address “the fragmentation that is evident in the different threat lists of biological agents developed by federal departments and agencies.” 

Heinrich said other problems included insufficient local and state planning for a terrorist attack, lack of attack response training for hospital personnel, communication gaps and insufficient laboratory and hospital capacity, including treating mass casualties (GAO release, Oct. 9). 

Mohammad Akhter, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told the subcommittee that only half of U.S. states employ experts trained to prevent and contain biological attacks.  Akhter urged lawmakers to provide better access to vaccines and information to local officials (Anjetta McQueen, Salon.com, Oct. 9).

Akhter also said U.S. citizens, especially firefighters and emergency responders, should be vaccinated against anthrax and smallpox.  He said the United States should appoint a panel of experts to reassess the risk of anthrax and smallpox outbreaks.  “We discontinued smallpox immunizations because the threat was low.  Now the threat has risen to higher levels once again, and it is time to reexamine that policy,” Akhter said (Audrey Hudson, Washington Times, Oct. 10).

The Senate is considering legislation to add $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion to the $350 million the federal government currently has allotted to spend this year on bioterrorism (New York Times, Oct. 10).

Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) announced a bill at the hearing yesterday that would provide state governors with at least $5 million each to improve their states’ abilities to respond to biological attacks.  Under Bayh’s proposal, each state would receive $5 million with an additional $200 million reserved for states with larger populations (Associated Press, Oct. 10).

Meanwhile, computer experts said an attack on U.S. computer networks could be devastating.  In testimony prepared for a U.S. House of Representatives hearing today, Terry Benzel, vice president of Network Associates Inc., said the a worst-case scenario would be a physical terrorist attack combined with a cyber attack, such as a chemical weapons attack combined with an attack on computerized water control supply systems.  “What if the terrorists were also able to impact our communications system, thus hampering the rescue and recovery efforts?” Benzel asked.  She suggested that the new Homeland Security Office include computer security in its efforts to combat terrorism (Larry Margasak, Associated Press/RealCities.com, Oct. 10).

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U.S. Response: Security Tightens at Chemical Weapons Depots

Pilots risk being shot down over the Newport, Indiana, chemical depot because of a newly established no-fly zone, which gives the U.S. military the authority to shoot down any unauthorized plane, according to Federal Aviation Agency spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory.  Air traffic controllers will advise pilots to steer away from the depot and if they refuse, military officials will be alerted, Cory said.  The no-fly zone was approved at the request of U.S. Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) to reduce the risk of an air attack by terrorists (Associated Press, Oct. 10).   

The chemical weapon depot at Pine Bluff, Arkansas (see GSN, Sept. 27), has been on high alert for over three weeks and has no plans to change, according to spokeswoman Barbara Slifer. “We’re still at Force Level Charlie around the perimeter.  The chemical stockpile is always at Force Level Delta,” Slifer said.  The heightened security includes the closing of one of the depot’s four gates and having only one remain open 24 hours.  Vehicles will be inspected before being allowed onto the depot and two forms of identification, rather than just one, will often be required, according to Slifer.  “If you don’t have business to do on the installation or live on the installation, you’re not coming onto the installation,” Slifer said (Associated Press, Oct. 10).    

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Iran: Iran Producing Shahab-3 Missile

Iran has begun serial production of its Shahab-3 ballistic missile with a range of 1,300 kilometers, according to U.S. and Israeli officials cited in today’s Jane’s Defence Weekly.  Production began earlier this year and includes subsystems and assembly of the missile.

The Iranian missile is based on North Korea’s Nodong missile, and officials said it could deliver chemical weapons, although such a capability has not been flight tested.  Intelligence officials said Iran is using about 20 Nodong engines it obtained from North Korea in 1999 to build the Shahab-3, since Iran is unable to produce the engines indigenously.  Iran successfully tested the Shahab-3 in July 2000 after two earlier tests failed (Andrew Koch, Jane’s Defence Weekly, Oct. 10). 

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Russia: Moscow to Keep Control of Former Soviet Radar, Reports Say

Azerbaijan and Russia will likely sign a pact to allow Russia’s continued access to the Gabala early warning radar station in Azerbaijan, according to Noviye Izvestia in today’s Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press.  The station began operating in 1985 as part of the Soviet Union’s antiballistic missile program.

Negotiations over operating the radar station have been underway since the Soviet collapse in 1991, but a final hurdle appears to have been overcome recently when a bilateral commission concluded that the radar posed no threat to the public or the environment.  Azerbaijani President Geidar Aliyev is expected to sign the accords in Moscow later this year, according to Noviye Izvestia.

For the rights to continue operating the station, Russia will reportedly provide several services to Azerbaijan, including providing air traffic information about the skies over Iran, Turkmenistan and the Caspian Sea; modernizing Azerbaijani weapons; and training Azerbaijani military personnel (Aleksandr Plotnikov, Noviye Izvestia/Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, Oct. 10).

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