By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire
The Bush administration further distanced itself from a major international arms control initiative yesterday, indicating it opposes mandatory inspections for suspected biological weapons programs worldwide.
Arms control advocates said the move would harm international efforts to catch and deter banned biological weapons programs.
At a treaty review conference in Geneva to consider, among other items, an enforcement protocol for the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton said the protocol, which would require the mandatory inspections approach, is “flawed” and would create a “false sense of security.”
He said the United States favors setting up a “voluntary cooperative mechanism for clarifying and resolving compliance concerns by mutual consent, to include exchanges of information, voluntary visits, or other procedures to clarify and resolve doubts about compliance.”
The treaty bans the development, production, and stockpiling of biological weapons but currently lacks any mechanisms for verification and enforcement.
Called a Weak Substitute
Arms control experts say the U.S. proposal is a weak substitute for mandatory inspections.
“There is already language in the biological weapons treaty itself which allows for these sort of voluntary conversations with respect to compliance concerns,” said Elisa Harris, a research fellow at the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies and a former Clinton administration National Security Council official.
“If the administration doesn’t have confidence in Iran or others abiding by the protocol, why would they for a moment believe such countries would participate in voluntary arrangements by mutual consent?” Harris said.
Bolton’s statement reflected a significant change in U.S. government policy regarding international efforts to curtail biological weapons proliferation (see GSN, Nov. 2). The Clinton administration had worked for six years to negotiate the protocol with parties to the convention.
Representatives from China, Russia and Japan on Monday indicated their continued support for the protocol.
“The recent tragic events in the United States and the continuing danger of terrorism involving the use of weapons of mass destruction have only reinforced our belief in the need to strengthen the operation of the convention by ratifying a multilateral and legally binding document,” said Leonid Skotnikov, head of the Russian delegation to the conference.
Jonathan Tucker, a chemical and biological weapons analyst at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, however, said the U.S. position effectively kills the protocol effort, though perhaps not the review process.
“I think countries debated back in July whether to proceed without the U.S. and it was recognized that even if a protocol were to enter into force without the U.S. it would be meaningless, since the U.S. has by far the largest biotechnology industry in the world.”
An Alternative Approach
The Bush administration first signaled it would oppose the protocol in July, arguing would be too weak to catch cheaters, but would put at risk sensitive U.S. commercial secrets and biological defense activities.
Michael Moodie, president of the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, said the new policy reflects a recognition that a mandatory verification mechanism would probably not work on countries like Iraq or Iran, and so some alternative approach is needed.
“It’s based on the premise that we don’t see a way to verify compliance,” he said.
Moodie said the administration has begun developing an alternative approach toward curtailing banned biological activities, which involves creating “an environment in which the misuse of the life sciences is not acceptable within the scientific community first of all and within the broader community of governments and with the public more generally.” A core component of that would be an agreement to enact national legislation criminalizing activities banned by the convention.
“It’s certainly not traditional arms control,” he said.
Bolton’s speech also seemed to indicate an increased focus on rogue countries suspected of pursuing biological weapons program. In a novel move for a diplomatic conference, it named five countries the United States believes has biological weapons programs: Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya, and Syria (see related GSN story, today).
The University of Maryland’s Harris said there were other countries Bolton should have named, noting that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told a congressional hearing last summer that at least 13 countries were believed to have biological weapons programs.
“The courageous thing for the United States to do today would be to name friends and allies as well as rogues,” she said.
Monterey’s Tucker, however, said naming names probably increased bitterness over the U.S. rejection of the protocol. “From a diplomatic standpoint, I don’t think it was constructive.”
Strong Words
Bolton prefaced the U.S. proposals with strong words calling for action in curtailing the development and use of biological weapons.
The time has come for “straight talk about BWC compliance,” he said, and called on signatories to the convention to be “courageous, unflinching, and timely” in fighting the proliferation of biological weapons.
Bolton listed some other proposals for strengthening the convention, including:
ú Adopting strict standards for the security of pathogenic microorganisms;
ú Establishing a mechanism for international investigations of suspicious disease outbreaks and/or alleged BW incidents and
ú Adopting and implementing strict biosafety procedures based on World Health Organization or equivalent national guidelines.
The U.S. proposal should not be considered “a complete package, or a package that totally gets the job done,” said Moodie.
He added, “when you are trying to create new mindsets and new ways of doing business in a community that is not necessarily known for its flexibility, you’ve got to take some small beginning steps and I think this represents a potential basis on which to move forward.”
The United States yesterday charged several nations with violating the Biological Weapons Convention (see GSN, Nov.19). U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton charged Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria with pursuing biological weapons programs in a speech to the treaty’s fifth review conference in Geneva. In addition, Bolton said the al-Qaeda terrorist network had tried to acquire biological weapons, possibly with state assistance.
“While the United States is not prepared, at this time, to comment on whether rogue states may have assisted a possible al-Qaeda biological weapons program, rest assured that the United States will not rely alone on treaties or international organizations to deal with such terrorist groups or the states that support them,” Bolton said.
After al-Qaeda, Iraq causes the most concern for the United States, Bolton said, adding that the country produced biological weapons after signing the treaty in 1972 and ratifying it in 1991. Iraq has probably continued to improve its biological weapons program since U.N. on-site inspections ended three years ago, Bolton said.
The United States also believes North Korea and Iran have produced biological agents and may have weaponized the material in violation of the convention, Bolton said. In addition, the United States believes Libya and Syria are conducting biological weapon research and development programs, Bolton said. Libya is a party to the treaty, but Syria, while a treaty signatory, has not ratified the pact. Bolton expressed concern that Sudan, which has not signed the treaty, has also shown interest in developing biological weapons.
The United States believes several other countries are also pursuing biological weapons programs and U.S. officials plan to contact them privately, Bolton said.
“The BWC has not succeeded in dissuading these states from pursuing [biological weapons] programs,” Bolton said, adding that the proposed protocol to the convention (see related GSN story, today)—which the United States rejected earlier this year—would also have failed. (U.S. State Department release, Nov. 19).
Kofi Annan Urges States to Fully Implement BWC
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday urged countries to implement the BWC to the fullest extent possible.
In remarks delivered by U.N. Undersecretary General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala, Annan said that recent events such as the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States showed the importance of controlling the threat of biological weapons. He suggested that countries find ways to improve transparency and confidence-building measures and to promote the universality of the convention.
Annan also asked countries to work to tighten national legislation related to biological agents and to criminalize the use of biological weapons. “The international community also has to be prepared to assist member states, should prevention fail,” he said. “The United Nations, for its part, stands ready to play a coordinating role in this regard” (U.N. release, Nov. 19).
South Korea Says North Korea Has Biological Weapons
“North Korea stockpiles between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of biochemical weapons in six different facilities and has the capability to wage germ warfare,” South Korean Defense Minister Kim Dong-shin said yesterday. North Korea’s stockpiles include anthrax, smallpox and eight other types of diseases, he said.
Kim added that no clear evidence existed to link North Korea with terrorist networks (Associated Press/South China Morning Post, Nov. 20).
The suspicious letter sent to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) tested positive for anthrax spores similar to the potent ones mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), law enforcement officials said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 19). Meanwhile, belief is growing that a domestic source is responsible for the anthrax incidents, according to reports.
A search of the quarantined Congressional mailbags had found six out of 600 that contained moderate amounts of anthrax, investigators said. One bag, however, tested positive for about 23,000 anthrax spores—1,000 times more than the number found in any of the other mailbags examined, FBI scientists said yesterday. Investigators removed the highly contaminated bag, searched it and found the Leahy letter wrapped in plastic tape, an official said. “I saw someone’s hands go up in the air,” said an FBI microbiologist who was at the scene. “They were looking for a letter that looked just like the others, and there it was.”
The high number of spores found in the mailbag was sufficient to cause two cases of inhalation anthrax, making the bag itself hazardous, an FBI microbiologist said.
The discovery of the Leahy letter may explain the anthrax contamination and infection at a U.S. State Department offsite mail facility, postal investigators said. An optical scanner misread the ZIP Code on the Leahy letter (20510) as the 20520 ZIP code for the State Department, Postal Inspectors spokesman Daniel Mihalko said yesterday. “The one [on the Leahy letter] was made in such a way with a serif on the bottom that it was read by the optical character reader as a two,” Mihalko said, and added that postal inspectors believed that the letter was sent to the State Department offsite facility (Miller/Johnston, New York Times, Nov. 20).
Investigators have devised a plan for examining the Leahy letter—which remained unopened as of yesterday—that would “maximize” the amount of evidence drawn from the letter, the FBI said yesterday. “FBI and [U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] investigators hope that this careful, scientifically agreed upon approach will yield clues that will help identify the source,” an FBI statement said.
It’s more important to go slow when examining the Leahy letter since it could contain a “wealth of other evidence,” a government official said (Pete Yost, Associated Press/Miami Herald, Nov. 20).
Domestic Source Likely Responsible
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson yesterday said a domestic terrorist is likely responsible for the anthrax incidents (see GSN, Nov. 2). “Hopefully we will be able to bring this nightmare to an end, but at this point in time we do not know if it’s connected with al-Qaeda,” Thomspon said at another event. “It’s appearing … more and more likely that it’s an individual in America, or individuals” (CNN.com, Nov. 20).
More Spores Found in Washington
Investigators discovered traces of anthrax yesterday at the Bureau of Prisons headquarters, according to the Justice Department. Six sites in the building were tested, and two in the mailroom came back positive. “The [CDC] has characterized the positive test results as ‘scant contamination’ with a minimal risk of inhalation anthrax disease,” a Justice Department statement said (Reuters, Nov. 20).
Congressional Offices Reopening Slowly
Officials reopened the Dirksen and Russell Senate office buildings yesterday. The two buildings were closed Saturday after the Leahy letter was discovered, the Washington Times reported. “All offices in the Russell and Dirksen building were tested for anthrax spores and reopened,” said Capitol Police spokesman Lt. Dan Nichols. “I’ll have the results of the environmental testing in the next two days.”
The Hart Senate Office Building remained closed, however, while officials considered how to decontaminate sections of the building (see GSN, Nov. 7), according to the Times. A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plan would pump chlorine dioxide gas into the neighboring offices of Daschle and Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wis). “Until the plan is approved, we won’t know how long it will be before the Hart building reopens,” Nichols said.
Postal Service officials are also examining the chlorine dioxide gas method as a way to decontaminate the Brentwood Road postal facility in Washington, according to the Times. Officials have been wary of using gas to clean tainted mail-sorting machines, but if it is effective in the Hart building, then it will probably be used at Brentwood, said Postal Service spokeswoman Deborah Yackley. “We’re waiting to see how [the gas] works,” Yackley said. “This whole thing is experimental, it’s not a simple matter” (Guy Taylor, Washington Times, Nov. 20).
CDC Steps Down Efforts
The CDC has downsized its anthrax investigation corps from 500 to about 125 because of the lack of new cases, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported today. The CDC also reduced the number of people it had in the field from 200 to 50 and cut the number in its operations center to about 75, according to the Journal-Constitution.
“There are projects and activities that are high priorities that were put on temporary hold,” said CDC Deputy Director for Science David Fleming. “Now our job is to get back to those and recoup as much of the lost time as possible” (M.A.J. McKenna, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 20).
Anthrax Confirmed in Chile
Anthrax spores were discovered on a letter sent to Chile from Florida, Chilean health officials said yesterday. “The Public Health Institute has confirmed the presence of anthrax spores in an envelope which came from abroad,” said Chilean Health Minister Michelle Bachelet.
The letter was sent to a private office in Santiago and carried a Swiss stamp, but also a Florida postmark, Bachelet said. She added that 13 people who might have been exposed to anthrax were on preventive antibiotics and none had shown any signs of infection (Reuters/New York Times, Nov. 19).
A reporter for the London Mirror visited an anthrax facility in Kabul (see GSN, Nov. 12), the newspaper reported yesterday.
“There’s no doubt the Taliban were planning chemical or biological warfare against the West. I believe anthrax might have been first on their list,” a worker at the facility told the Mirror.
Researchers at the facility developed bacteria strains and created vaccines from highly dangerous wild bacteria, the Mirror reported. The supervisor of the facility, religious leader Qari Abdullah, and about half of his staff have disappeared (Gary Jones, London Mirror, Nov. 19).
The facility was originally a veterinary laboratory in the northern town of Charikar that produced millions of doses of vaccine, according to the New York Post. Taliban leaders began overseeing operations in 1996 and moved the lab to Kabul.
“…[The] Taliban superiors were interested in the technical detail of what happened here, although they had no background in science,” said Abdul Quader Raoufi, the director of the facility (Tracy Connor, New York Post, Nov. 19).
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