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Look at your activities and business and decide for yourself if you are at risk.
—CDC Emergency and Environmental Health Services Director Patrick Meehan, advising businesses to assess whether they are potential bioterrorist targets.
The first confirmed non-U.S. anthrax incident occurred last week in Pakistan, a Pakistani newspaper editor said today. Meanwhile, anthrax spores were discovered in new locations throughout the United States, according to reports...Full Story
The strain of anthrax that killed Kathy Nguyen this week in New York City (see GSN, Oct. 31) was the same as those used in tainted letters sent to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and media companies in Florida and New York, health officials said yesterday...Full Story
The United Nations could play a significant role in helping Afghans create a new government if and when the ruling Taliban is ousted by U.S. strikes on the country and opposition offensives, but will not set up a U.N. protectorate in the country, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday in Geneva...Full Story
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The United Nations could play a significant role in helping Afghans create a new government if and when the ruling Taliban is ousted by U.S. strikes on the country and opposition offensives, but will not set up a U.N. protectorate in the country, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday in Geneva.
"It is quite likely that the Security Council may give us an expanded mandate in the sense of requiring me and the Secretariat to use our good offices and encourage Afghans to form a broad-based government," Annan said, adding that the world body has been working with the Afghan people "over a long period of several years" to this end.
"We do not know how the situation will evolve, but if a new Afghan government were to emerge, we are prepared to assist them and work with them and promote a broad-based government," Annan said. "The United Nations will be prepared to assist and give them technical assistance, but at this stage I do not see the U.N. going in to run Afghanistan as a protectorate."
Annan said discussions on peacekeeping in the country are also under way (U.N. Newservice, Nov. 1). For the full text of his remarks, click here.
The secretary general's senior envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, has been in Central Asia all week to meet with players and interested neighbors in the Afghan conflict. Brahimi was to travel today from Pakistan to Iran (Bokhari/McGregor, Financial Times, Nov. 2). Brahimi echoed Annan's words at a press conference yesterday in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
"A time will come, we hope very soon, when Afghans will reconstruct their country with the assistance and advice of the United Nations. It will be a task of mammoth proportions, requiring this financial effort and the support of all those countries which have failed Afghanistan for all these years. They have promised not to repeat the mistakes of the past. That is very encouraging," Brahimi said.
Brahimi added that the United Nations has no "mandate to form a government" in the country. "We are not constructing a government. We were not in the past, and we are not now," he said. "What makes us more optimistic now than in the past is the fact that there is a very strong international political will that was not there in the past. The international community, the biggest countries in the world, recognize publicly that they failed Afghanistan in the past, that they left the Afghan people to themselves, and they are saying -- and I think we should give the benefit of the doubt -- that they want to now help the people of Afghanistan."
The special envoy said the Taliban could be involved in talks on humanitarian aid and on ending conflict -- "we will see if there is any benefit and also if they are interested in talking to us" -- but that "there is no interest or benefit for anybody" in discussing international terrorism further with the regime. He declined to express a preference for a new government headed by deposed King Zahir Shah or any other of the "number of processes" he said are ongoing to try to plan the country's future (U.N. release/ReliefWeb, Nov. 1).
"Stresses" in Coalition Likely as Bombing Continues, Annan Says
Annan also addressed the U.S. strikes yesterday, reiterating his call for bombing to end "as soon as possible" for humanitarian and political reasons. He cautioned against endangering the fragile international coalition against terrorism by continuing strikes too long.
"In every coalition of this kind, you do have tensions. And the longer it goes on, the greater the likelihood that there will be more tensions and more stresses," Annan said. "It is extremely important for us to stay together in this struggle."
The secretary general did not, though, call for a pause in bombing for relief reasons, and one official said Annan is frustrated over calls by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and other U.N. officials for a halt to the strikes. "It has been the policy of the U.N. not to call for a pause," the official said (Carola Hoyos, Financial Times, Nov. 2).
U.S. forces have made "measurable progress" in the campaign, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday, cautioning nevertheless that "instant victory" should not be expected. "We are now fighting a new kind of war. It is unlike any America has ever fought before," he said. Rumsfeld added that Washington is deploying more special forces units to opposition-controlled areas of Afghanistan to help Northern Alliance forces with supplies and U.S. planes with targeting (U.S. State Department release, Nov. 1). Rumsfeld defended the controversial use of cluster bombs by U.S. forces. "They're being used on frontline al-Qaeda and Taliban troops to kill them, to be perfectly blunt," he said (Oliver Moore, Globe and Mail, Nov. 1).
Officials at a hospital in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier province told Integrated Regional Information Networks Wednesday that about 200 Afghans wounded in U.S. air strikes were brought to the hospital. IRIN gave no word on whether the wounded are civilians or soldiers (IRIN, Nov. 2).
Southern Uprising Reported
Anti-Taliban Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai, the chief of the Popalzai tribe, has launched the first known armed revolt against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan since U.S. strikes began Oct. 7, the Washington Post reports. Karzai is close to the deposed king and has been a vocal proponent of convening a traditional grand council of tribes and factions to decide the country's future.
Karzai said his forces have captured 12 Taliban soldiers and fought off a Taliban attack (Marc Kaufman, Washington Post, Nov. 2). Afghan Islamic Press, though, reports that the Taliban has captured 25 of Karzai's men and plans to execute some of them today (Zeeshan Haider, Reuters/Yahoo! News, Nov. 2).
Bin Laden Appeals to Pakistanis
Osama bin Laden, a guest of the Taliban and the leader of the global al-Qaeda terrorist network blamed for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, has called on Pakistan's Muslims to defend Islam, al-Jazeera reported yesterday. "Muslims in Afghanistan are being subjected to killing, and the Pakistani government is standing beneath the Christian banner," bin Laden reportedly wrote in a letter.
U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair replied by defending Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's backing of Washington's campaign, a stance that has led to riots and demonstrations in Pakistani cities. "We should be very clear, I believe, in our support for President Musharraf at this difficult time, who is trying to do his best for the people of Pakistan," Blair said. "I hope that people realize that the desire of bin Laden is to create Taliban-type states all over the Arab and Muslim world" (Oliver Moore, Globe and Mail II, Nov. 1).
U.S., Russia Stress U.N. Charter, World Unity, Afghan People's Primacy
A U.S.-Russian working group on Afghanistan yesterday in Moscow issued a statement calling for the world to unite its efforts against terrorism, "guided by international law and, in particular, the U.N. Charter." The group called for a "broad-based, multiethnic government" in a "peaceful and independent Afghanistan," calling the U.N. role in the process "central."
"Determining the country's future," the group added, "is an exclusive prerogative of the Afghan people" (U.S. State Department release II, Nov. 1).
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is to leave Sunday for Russia for talks on a post-Taliban Afghanistan. He will then travel to the United States and the United Kingdom (Penny McRae, Reuters, Nov. 2).
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The U.N. First Committee on Disarmament passed a draft resolution Wednesday relating to the Biological Weapons Convention asking the general assembly to ask the U.N. secretary general to continue to provide the necessary assistance to the convention’s depositary governments and any services that may be required to implement the decisions of the review conferences and the 1994 Special Conference. The draft passed the committee without a vote.
Pakistan, China, Russia, Cuba and Iran each stated they were supporting the resolution to maintain consensus on such an important issue but expressed displeasure that the draft was less substantive than originally hoped.
Missiles
The committee also approved a draft resolution on missiles, which would call on the secretary general to consult with states on the issue of missiles and submit a report to the assembly at its next session. The resolution was passed on a vote of 88-0 with 57 abstentions (U.N. release, Oct. 31).
ABM Treaty Resolution Change
Anatoly Antonov, the Russian representative to the committee, announced Wednesday a new amendment to the draft resolution on the preservation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. He said the revision would ask the general assembly to express support for the “ongoing dialogue between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on a new strategic framework [between the two countries]” and “substantial reduction in offensive nuclear forces.” Antonov emphasized that his amendment did not dramatically alter the draft resolution.
Other Resolutions
The committee also passed several resolutions on disarmament Wednesday.
The committee approved a resolution to urge states to establish guidelines through multilateral negotiations for international transfers of dual-use goods and technologies with military purposes, recognizing that new technologies could help upgrade weapons of mass destruction. The resolution passed 86-42 with 16 abstentions.
A resolution calling on states to devote part of the resources gained from disarmament and arms limitation agreements to economic and social development passed without a vote. The U.S. representative said the United States considered development and disarmament separate issues and would not consider itself bound by the resolution. The Belgian representative, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said he did not vote for the document because there was no simple link between disarmament and development.
The committee approved a resolution on a vote of 141-0 to call on countries to observe environmental protections when drafting and implementing arms control legislation. France, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States abstained. The U.S. representative said there was no connection between general environmental agreements and arms agreements. He said environmental concerns would always naturally be considered when negotiating arms agreements, so he was unsure of the resolution’s purpose.
The following resolutions were passed without a vote:
A resolution to call on states to conclude agreements on nuclear nonproliferation, disarmament and confidence-building measures.
A resolution to reaffirm the vital importance of effective verification measures in arms control agreements, including the importance of the United Nations in such a role.
A resolution to reiterate support for the U.N. Regional Center for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (see GSN, Oct. 30).
A resolution asking states of the Mediterranean region (see GSN, Oct. 30) to comply with all multilateral disarmament and nonproliferation agreements (U.N. release, Oct. 31).
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U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice contested reports yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 1) that the United States planned to offer Russia a specific proposal on strategic nuclear warhead reductions (see related GSN story, today). President George W. Bush had ordered a review of U.S. strategic nuclear weapons upon taking office in January, and “that review is nearing completion,” Rice said in a White House press briefing yesterday (U.S. State Department release, Nov. 1).
A senior White House official, however, confirmed yesterday that the Bush administration was proposing that the United States and Russia limit themselves to no more than 1,750 to 2,250 strategic warheads each (Barry Schweid, Associated Press, Nov. 2).
As to the presidential review, Rice said Bush “believed that American offensive nuclear force levels were probably too high for the task of post-Cold War deterrence.”
The issue was “not a matter of negotiation,” Rice said. The Pentagon would “review America’s needs for deterrence and move America’s forces to a level that is appropriate,” Rice said.
“This is not an arms control negotiation in which we and the Russians need to try to match warhead for warhead how many we have or how many we don’t have,” she said (U.S. State Department release, Nov. 1).
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States increased the risk terrorists might try to conduct nuclear terrorism, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday. "The willingness of terrorists to commit suicide to achieve their evil aims makes the nuclear terrorism threat far more likely than it was before Sept. 11," ElBaradei said (John Tagliabue, New York Times, Nov. 2).
"We don't want to alarm anybody, but we now have to prepare for the worst-case scenario: a terrorist who obtains some kind of nuclear weapon," he said, adding that in the past, officials at nuclear installations often thought terrorists would avoid handling radioactive material because of its dangers, "but if the terrorist is willing to die, that changes the security equation drastically."
ElBaradei mentioned three ways terrorists could use nuclear materials. First, he said, they could obtain enough material to construct a nuclear bomb. An IAEA expert, though, said that would be very difficult to accomplish.
Another option, the director general said, would be for terrorists to use a "dirty bomb" -- a conventional explosive laced with nuclear isotopes that would spread radiation around an area. The IAEA expert said such a weapon would probably not result in large numbers of casualties but could create panic.
A third possibility, according to ElBaradei, would be an attack on a nuclear plant with an airplane or truck bomb that could breach the plant's walls and cause radiation leaks. Such an attack poses the greatest risk of nuclear terrorism, according to George Bunn of Stanford's Institute for International Studies. Nuclear reactors are shielded, but their walls are not designed to withstand terrorist attacks, Bunn said, adding, "If you had an Oklahoma City kind of truck bomb at a reactor or a spent-fuel pond, you'd be releasing some very radioactive stuff into the atmosphere" (T.R. Reid, Washington Post, Nov. 2).
There have been 175 cases of nuclear material trafficking and 201 cases of trafficking in other radioactive sources since 1993, although only 18 of the cases involved highly enriched uranium or plutonium, according to the IAEA. Security at nuclear facilities is usually high, but security of medical or industrial radiation sources is weak in some countries. "The controls on nuclear and radiation sources are uneven. Security is as good as its weakest link, and loose nuclear material in any country is a potential threat to the entire world," ElBaradei said.
IAEA Meets on Nuclear Terrorism
The IAEA is holding a special meeting today in Vienna with international experts to discuss combating nuclear terrorism as part of a five-day international symposium on nuclear security. The agency has said at least $30 million to $50 million is necessary in the short term to enhance nuclear counterterrorism programs (IAEA release, Nov. 1).
Meanwhile, several countries have tightened nuclear security. The United States established no-fly zones Wednesday over nuclear installations, and France has installed anti-aircraft missiles to protect a spent nuclear fuel storage pond (Reid, Washington Post).
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization announced this week it planned to complete preparations for an inlet by March 2002 for North Korea’s nuclear reactor project (Reuters/IAEA press review, Nov. 1).
The ability to complete the inlet in 2002 is “an important milestone,” according Mark Vogelaar, KEDO public affairs director. The completion of the inlet will allow KEDO to transport materials close to the reactor site, rather than moving materials from the Yangwha port 10 miles away. The close proximity to the site is increasingly important as KEDO plans to begin using larger materials for the construction of the reactor, Vogelaar said.
KEDO also announced it would complete construction of a discharge outlet in May, which Vogelaar said would be needed in the future (Kerry Boyd, GSN, Nov. 2).
KEDO was established by the Agreed Framework negotiated in 1994 between the United States and North Korea. In exchange for certain North Korean actions, KEDO is responsible for financing and supplying a light-water reactor project in North Korea with two reactors (KEDO Web site).
Russia successfully tested a nuclear-capable SS-25 ICBM Thursday (see GSN, Oct. 4), an army spokesman said. The missile was fired from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia, according to ITAR-Tass news agency (Deutsche Presse-Agentur/European Internet Network, Nov. 2).
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The first confirmed non-U.S. anthrax incident occurred last week in Pakistan, a Pakistani newspaper editor said today. Meanwhile, anthrax spores were discovered in new locations throughout the United States, according to reports.
White powder in a hand-delivered envelope to the Pakistani newspaper Daily Jang tested positive for anthrax spores, said Daily Jang Editor Mehmood Sham. "We received a press envelope which contained white powder ... and it has tested positive for containing anthrax spores," Sham said. Six workers were present when the letter was opened, according to Reuters. The workers were immediately placed on antibiotics, but not tested for anthrax. Another 60 to 80 of the staff may also be given antibiotics, Sham said.
There have been two other cases of anthrax in Pakistan, an official closer to the investigation said, but to avoid panic, news of the other incidents was not made public. Positive tests for anthrax may come back on suspicious substances from a bank in Karachi and a computer import firm, according to the official. "Yes, this is what we believe.”
Employees at the Habib AG Zurich Bank are still awaiting written results of tests conducted on a white powder the bank received on Oct. 18, said a senior bank official. "They are not going to confirm in writing anything," the official said. "Sometimes they say negative, sometimes they say positive, we just don't know where to go," he said.
The senior official was present when the white powder was discovered, he said, and along with several others tested negative for anthrax exposure. "I was advised for seven days [of antibiotics] but now they are saying 60 days," the official said. All 300 employees of the bank have been instructed to take antibiotics, but only 20 have done so, the official said. "The person who opened the letter is working. I was the second nearest person ... and we are all fine," he said (Reuters/New York Times, Nov. 2).
Anthrax Discovered in New U.S. Locations
About 250 people were taking preventive anti-anthrax antibiotics today while officials confirmed that anthrax spores are present in a Kansas City, Missouri, postal center (see GSN, Nov. 1), according to Knight-Ridder. Initial tests came back positive for anthrax. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was conducting further tests by growing cultures from samples taken at the center. Health officials yesterday interviewed nearly 250 people who worked in the center or visited it recently. "No one who went through that screening process was thought to be at an increased risk,” said Kansas City Health Director Rex Archer. "We have not had to send anyone off for a diagnostic testing" (Knight-Ridder Newspapers/RealCities.com, Nov. 1).
Anthrax spores were found at a sixth post office in Palm Beach County, Florida, officials said yesterday. The post office served as the "dead letter" office for the old address of the National Enquirer and other tabloids run by American Media Inc., the site of the first anthrax incidents. A single anthrax spore was found in a manual mail sorting area at the post office, said Palm Beach County Health Department spokesman Tim O'Connor. No people were infected with the disease at the site, O'Connor said. Cleanup crews from the Environmental Protection Agency planned to decontaminate the area with heavy-duty bleach, and the post office was scheduled to reopen today (Lebowitz/Reinhard, Knight-Ridder Newspapers/RealCities.com, Nov. 1).
Anthrax spores were detected in four out of five mailrooms of the Food and Drug Administration in Montgomery County, Maryland, FDA officials said yesterday. About 120 FDA workers have begun taking antibiotics and all five mailrooms have been closed. Tests have detected three possible anthrax-tainted areas at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Crystal City, Virginia, according to an announcement sent to employees yesterday, which added that additional testing would be needed to confirm the presence of anthrax.
In Washington, there have been no new cases of inhaled or skin anthrax in more than a week and no reports of tainted mail in about two weeks, according to the Washington Post. Washington Health Commissioner Ivan Walks said the Washington area may be "on the downside" of the anthrax incidents. Recent tests of an additional three postal facilities and four Washington government offices have found no anthrax spores, and no private business or residence have found signs of contamination, according to the Post.
Washington officials announced that workers at only certain companies needed to continue taking precautionary anti-anthrax antibiotics (see GSN, Nov.1). The only private sector workers who should stay on antibiotics are those who work at companies with ZIP codes that begin with 200 and companies that are likely terrorist targets or that use mechanized mail-sorting equipment, officials said yesterday.
Companies that are potential bioterrosim targets should consider being checked for the presence of anthrax spores, officials said. They added that any employees taking antibiotics should continue to do so until those tests have been made. “Look at your activities and business and decide for yourself if you are at risk,” said CDC Emergency and Environmental Health Services Director Patrick Meehan.
Some companies have complained that it is difficult to find testing firms. “There’s a complete vacuum,” said Glenn Gerstell, managing partner of the Washington office of the law firm Milibank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy. “It’s disconcerting. We take our employees’ health very seriously, and the same day we’re arranging flu shots for people, I’d like to be able to offer assurances that our mailroom is not affected” (Twomey/Goldstein, Washington Post, Nov. 2).
Capitol Hill Returning to Normal
The Supreme Court building was scheduled to reopen today but the building would still be closed to the public, said a court spokeswoman. Small amounts of anthrax had been discovered in a basement mailroom and at an offsite mail facility (see GSN, Oct. 29). Tests elsewhere in the Supreme Court building came back negative, said spokeswoman Kathy Arberg. The EPA was working to clean up the basement mailroom last night, Arberg said (Associated Press/Washington Post, Nov. 1).
A new method for decontaminating buildings from anthrax is being tested for potential use on the Hart Senate Office Building, the Washington Post reported today. In an effort to “scope” the gas’s effectiveness, the EPA is pumping chlorine dioxide gas into a sealed trailer at the contaminated Brentwood Road postal facility at concentrations many times higher than those considered dangerous to humans, said EPA spokesman Peter Boyle. “This has never been used in a large application,” Boyle said. “They know it will kill spores, but no one has tried to apply it to a room. There are issues of temperature and humidity, of whether we should do it in stages or all at once.”
The process that the EPA will likely use to clean the Hart building will take about two weeks, said EPA consultant Paul Schaudies. Hazmat teams would seal off the building with duct tape and plastic and place chlorine dioxide generators inside. Using the ventilation system, the generators would raise the gas concentrations to about 400 parts per million and hold them there for two to three days, according to the Washington Post. The effective ness of the gas would be measured via spore strip “markers” laced with a harmless bacterium that would be placed around the building, according to the Post.
It may be difficult, however, to completely decontaminate a large building, according to experts. For example, workers at a contaminated New Hampshire textile tried to clean the building by spraying formaldehyde. When the mill went bankrupt, federal officials in 1971 demolished the building, doused the rubble with bleach and then buried it, the Post reported. “You can clean up a laboratory, perhaps, but labs don’t have things like rugs and computers,” said Meryl Nass, a biowarfare investigator for the Federation of American Scientists. “You’re not going to get every last spore” (Gugliotta/Warrick, Washington Post, Nov. 2).
Following the announcement this week of the death of a New York hospital worker diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, 16 people have been diagnosed with anthrax infections since the first case was announced in Florida (see GSN, Oct. 5), according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
| | Deaths (From inhalation anthrax) | Inhalation Anthrax Infections | Skin Anthrax Infections | | Florida ú Bob Stevens, Inhaled, American Media Inc. building, Died Oct. 5 ú Ernesto Blanco, Inhaled, American Media Inc. building | 1 | 1 | 0 | | New Jersey ú Unnamed woman, Inhaled, Hamilton mail center ú Unnamed woman, Inhaled, Hamilton mail center ú Patrick O’Donnell, Skin, Hamilton mail center ú Teresa Heller, Skin, West Trenton post office ú Non-postal worker, Skin, Trenton | 0 | 2 | 3 | | New York ú Kathy Nguyen, Inhaled, Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, Died Oct. 31 ú Erin O’Connor, Skin, NBC ú 7-month-old boy, Skin, ABC ú Claire Fletcher, Skin, CBS | 1 | 0 | 3 | | Washington ú Thomas L. Morris Jr., Inhaled, Brentwood mail center, Died Oct. 21 ú Joseph Curseen Jr., Inhaled, Brentwood mail center, Died Oct. 22 ú Leroy Richmond, Inhaled, Brentwood mail center ú Unnamed man, Inhaled, Brentwood mail center ú Unnamed worker, Inhaled, U.S. State Department mail center | 2 | 3 | 0 | | Total | 4 | 6 | 6 |
(CDC release, Nov. 1; Washington Post, Nov. 1)
In a statement by President George W. Bush, the United States yesterday released more information on its proposals to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention (see GSN, Oct. 25). U.S. representatives have been consulting with European allies and Canada during the last two weeks (see GSN, Nov. 1) on the U.S. plans for an alternative to the verification protocol that Washington rejected in July.
“The United States is committed to strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention as part of a comprehensive strategy for combating the complex threat of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism,” Bush said.
Foremost, his plan called for BWC parties to enact “strict national criminal legislation against prohibited biological warfare activities with strong extradition requirements.” In addition, Bush called for establishing “an effective United Nations procedure for investigating suspicious outbreaks” of disease and “procedures for addressing BWC compliance concerns.”
Other measures included improving international response to disease outbreaks, establishing oversight mechanisms for the security of pathogens and devising a code of conduct for biological scientists (U.S. State Department release, Nov. 1).
The U.S. proposal had been under development since this summer, according to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. It was necessitated by the administration’s view that the long-negotiated verification protocol “was not addressing the problems that biological weapons pose,” Rice said in a press briefing yesterday. “For instance, we have not believed that the kind of inspection regime that was there under the Biological Weapons Convention made sense.”
Rice said the administration wanted to present its proposals to the treaty review conference that is to begin meeting Nov. 19.
“We now think that if [we] can move toward a system of strengthening the convention that focuses on criminal activity and underground activity, that can make more effective the kinds of things that we’re doing,” Rice said (U.S. State Department release, Nov. 1).
The Bush proposal is an “ad hoc” solution that “would not be part of a formal treaty with rights and obligations,” according to Jonathan Tucker of the Monterey Institute of International Studies. The proposal was better than nothing, Tucker said, but the Bush plan for U.N. inspections would only work “when the country hosting the inspection is cooperative.”
Nevertheless, many countries would regard the U.S. plan “as a good faith effort by the administration to come up with an alternative,” said Robert Einhorn, a former U.S. State Department proliferation specialist now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, Nov. 2).
The strain of anthrax that killed Kathy Nguyen this week in New York City (see GSN, Oct. 31) was the same as those used in tainted letters sent to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and media companies in Florida and New York, health officials said yesterday. “As far as the organism itself, we did have a number of cultures from the patient and it is what we call indistinguishable from all of the others, said U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist Stephen Ostroff (Jennifer Steinhauer, New York Times, Nov. 2).
Investigators looking into Nguyen’s death said there was no evidence that it could be connected to anthrax-tainted mail. Anthrax also had not been detected in her home, or at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital where Nguyen worked, investigators said. One of the few clues investigators thought they had—spores found on Nguyen’s clothing (see GSN, Nov. 1)—has turned out to be of little use because all of her possessions were grouped together in one bag that tested positive, according to the Washington Post. This meant there was no way to determine if the spores had recently landed on the clothing or if they had been there for weeks. “It’s not that great of a clue, said CDC National Centers for Infectious Diseases acting Deputy Director Julie Gerberding (Ceci Connolly, Washington Post, Nov. 2).
Nguyen’s delay in seeking care may be a main factor in her death, federal health officials said. “She arrived in the hospital late in the course of her illness,” Gerberding said. “It’s probably early treatment that accounts for survival.” Still, Nguyen’s death may help discover the cause of the recent anthrax incidents, according to experts. “She’s got the key to it,” said Martin Hugh-Jones, an epidemiologist at Louisiana State University. “She did something that got her infected and, if they can find out what that is, it will open a lot of doors” (Merzer/Moritsugu, Miami Herald, Nov. 2)
U.S. Extremist Groups Long Interested in Biological Warfare
One possible source of the recent anthrax incidents being investigated is militia groups, who have long had an interest in biological warfare, according to experts. “One individual, working alone and in secret, can create a weapon of mass destruction, wrote Martin Lindstedt, editor of The Modern Militiaman’s Internet Gazette. “The resistance needs to develop some of this weaponry in order to deal with the current ruling criminal regime.”
The domestic terrorist group Army of God had mailed more than 250 anthrax hoax letters to Planned Parenthood offices and abortion clinics shortly before the tainted letter to Daschle was discovered, according to the New York Times. Planned Parenthood had received 171 letters from different states, but none had anthrax, said Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt.
White supremacist groups, among others, have shown an interest in biological weapons, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Two examples are the self-published books by Timothy Tobiason entitled “Biotoxic Weapons” and “Advanced Biological Weapons Design and Manufacture.” While they say they are “for academic purposes only,” these books have detailed instructions on making anthrax and other biological weapons, according to the New York Times. The books have some flaws, but, “[Tobiason] does give some accurate information on how to process spores that I have not seen anywhere else in the open literature,” said Raymond Zilinskas, a senior scientist at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
Zilinskas said the sale of such literature deeply disturbed him. “It’s really irresponsible for us as a nation to allow this kind of information to get out,” Zilinskas said.
Experts who track domestic extremist groups said they have seen no evidence that any domestic groups are involved in the anthrax. “It seems clear that the anthrax production is at least somewhat sophisticated,” said Southern Poverty Law Center spokesman Mark Potok. “We’ve seen no evidence that any group on the American radical right has those kinds of possibilities.”
The timing of the anthrax incidents so soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may mean the two are linked, said Cooper. Such a link would mean that “we’re looking at three possible sources,” Cooper said, “Osama bin Laden, individuals and extremists living here who are from that part of the world, and subcontracting to the lunatic fringe here.”
He said they are “the same individuals who privately applauded what happened on Sept. 11,” because they hate the federal government. “Even though they want to throw every non-Aryan out of the United States, they have to hand it to Osama bin Laden.”
Messages posted on the Internet soon after the Sept. 11 attacks show that some U.S. hate groups agreed with bin Laden, according to the Times. “The enemy of our enemy is, for now at least, our friend,” wrote Billy Roper, deputy membership coordinator of the National Alliance, a white supremacist group. “We may not want them marrying our daughters, [but] anyone who is willing to drive a plane into a building to kill Jews is all right by me” (Jo Thomas, New York Times, Nov. 2).
Reports that the United States rejected a French proposal for a U.N. Security Council resolution on anthrax and the Biological Weapons Convention (see GSN, Nov. 1) were “not accurate,” U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in yesterday’s State Department briefing.
“We have talked to the French. We certainly appreciate the spirit in which they put forward this proposal. We are in the process of studying it,” Boucher said. “We find the proposal interesting, and we will consult further with the French government once we have had a chance to study it” (U.S. State Department release, Nov. 1).
Although engineers are successfully dismantling the former Soviet bioweapons factory in Stepnogorsk, Kazakhstan (see GSN, Oct. 15), efforts to convert the plant for civilian use and provide jobs for former bioweapons engineers (see GSN, Oct. 31) have dwindled, the Associated Press reported today.
The plant employed about 500 bioweaponeers in 1990. Today, only about 152 employees work there, and many are mechanics and technicians who are dismantling the equipment. Most of the scientists left for Russia in 1992 and 1993, said Vladimir Bugreyev, a former director of the plant.
Many former bioweapons engineers in Kazakhstan go unpaid for months, according to the AP (Associated Press/South China Morning Post, Nov. 2).
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The Czech Republic plans to deploy a 160-member antichemical platoon to aid the U.S.-led war against terrorism, Defense Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik announced yesterday. He said the platoon is part of a battalion of 300 troops that are to be deployed in response to a U.S. request, but he did not say where they would go.
Both Czech parliamentary chambers were expected to overwhelmingly approve the deployment, which will cost $810,000 per month, the Associated Press reported. The battalion could be ready within days. During the Gulf War, the then-Czechoslovakian antichemical unit was the only one to detect trace amounts of nerve gases in the Saudi desert (Associated Press, Nov. 1).
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The Bush administration yesterday played down expectations that a strategic weapons and missile defense agreement might be finalized (see GSN, Nov. 1) when U.S. and Russian Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin meet later this month in Washington and Crawford, Texas (see related GSN story, today).
“I would caution against expecting any particular deal at any particular time,” U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters at a White House press briefing.
Rice said the United States was not negotiating with Russia, but was trying to communicate “a matter of principle.” The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was problematic because it restricted U.S. missile defense testing and it was a Cold War relic, Rice said.
“Both presidents have made clear that they want to come to an agreement, that they want to move forward together, but we haven’t come to an agreement on what the form of that would be,” Rice said (U.S. State Department release, Nov. 1).
U.S. and Russian officials were meeting yesterday and today to continue preparatory discussions for the summit. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov met in Washington yesterday and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was to travel to Moscow today to meet Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov.
Foreign Minister Ivanov yesterday reiterated Russian support for the ABM Treaty: “Progress towards a reduction in nuclear arsenals … is possible only in the context of strategic stability. That’s the gist of this interrelationship. And it is the ABM Treaty and other related disarmament agreements that give us this stability” (ITAR-Tass, Nov. 2).
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Recent intelligence information has raised concerns in the Bush administration that Osama bin Laden, suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 and previous terrorist attacks, is actively seeking an explosive device to spread radioactive material (see GSN, Oct. 23), according to today’s Wall Street Journal. Sources said recent information indicated such attempts but warned the information was unconfirmed.
The FBI and other U.S. agencies have been preparing plans to respond to an explosion involving radioactive material, said a senior U.S. official, adding that contingency planning has been “ongoing” and is not in response to any hard evidence of a specific threat.
U.S. concerns have increased since Pakistani authorities detained several nuclear scientists to question them about their activities in Pakistan (see GSN, Nov. 1), according to Journal sources (King/Rogers, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 2).
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