Threat Assessment: States Help Terrorists Seek WMD

By Greg Seigle

Global Security Newswire

Now that senior U.S. officials have publicly fingered six countries for aggressively pursuing biological weapons (see GSN, Nov. 20), Bush administration officials recently said it is no coincidence that the accused also top the U.S. State Department’s list of nations that harbor terrorists.

Regimes in Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria and Sudan are not only pursuing deadly chemical and biological weapons, they are simultaneously backing terrorist groups with track records of committing vicious mass-casualty attacks among innocent civilians, according to U.S. officials and documents.

“These are state sponsors of terrorism and they are also pursuing, or may already possess, chemical and biological weapons,” said Sean McCormack, spokesman for the National Security Council. “We’ll do everything we can to prevent terrorist groups from acquiring or developing chemical or biological weapons.”

Although McCormack and others in the Bush administration have stopped short of connecting terrorist groups to the chemical and biological weapons programs of the six countries, national security analysts said the process began last week in Geneva when Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton delivered an unusually blunt speech during a conference on the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention that accused the six nations of seeking to acquire biological arsenals.

“The states who are fully engaged in weapons of mass destruction are the same countries that, almost without exception, are facilitating, harboring and supporting terrorists,” Jack Spencer, a defense analyst with the Heritage Foundation, said Tuesday. “That’s an important link to make.”

“There is the possibility that those states have transferred, may have transferred or will transfer [chemical or biological] technologies to terrorist groups or other second-hand outfits who act on their behalf,” added Cheryl Loeb, a research associate with the Monterey Institute for International Studies.

While a vocal minority of U.S. analysts believe that rulers in Baghdad, Tehran, Pyongyang or elsewhere would be foolish to help terrorists launch large-scale strikes against the United States—after all, each regime seeks to survive, not to be hunted like Osama bin Laden and former Taliban rulers in Afghanistan—most agree it is plausible that these nations or wayward elements within them may share their lethal arsenals with terrorist groups that offer large sums of cash, including desperate remnants of al-Qaeda.

“The possibility is very real and very frightening that some of these countries may provide global terrorist groups chemical or biological weapons—or at least the know-how,” said Dan Gore, a senior fellow at the Lexington Institute. “That allows these guys to leap-frog the [acquisition and development] process.”

While the administration officials appear to be taking a cautious, deliberate approach to the war on terrorism by accusing suspects one at a time, they are preparing to tackle aggressively a variety of terrorist groups capable of launching chemical or biological attacks in the United States or elsewhere, analysts said. In order to dismantle these terrorist networks, analysts added, the United States would likely be forced to confront the nations that host them.

Highlighting Iraq and Libya

“There is no question [Iraq] sponsors terrorism,” said Charles Duelfer, who from 1993 until last year was a top leader of the U.N. special commissions that probed Iraq for evidence of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

“There is no doubt that they are pursuing weapons of mass destruction,” Duelfer continued. “Are you then going to trust [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein, with his track record, and believe that he wouldn’t share his weapons of mass destruction with terrorists who would use them? Weapons that, quite conceivably, could never be traced back to Baghdad?”

Some analysts, however, believe that Iraq and other enemies of Washington are more interested in their own long-term survival than in helping terrorists lash out at U.S. interests.

“They’re dangerous but they’re not stupid,” said Harlan Ullman, a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies who teaches at the National Defense University.

Arnaud de Borchgrave, director of the CSIS Global Organized Crime Project, said a high-level CIA official recently told him that Iraq has been supplying useful information on al-Qaeda since the attacks in New York City and Washington.

“Of course there is a link” between major terrorist groups and various countries, said de Borchgrave, a 55-year veteran journalist who has interviewed both Saddam Hussein and Libyan President Muammar Qadhafi a few times each. But the states and terrorist groups simply swap favors by exchanging information and safe houses, not by working in concert together, he added.

The Bush administration would be naive if it thinks it could “kill two birds with one stone” by attacking countries that harbor terrorists under the guise that the host countries could supply the terrorists weapons of mass destruction, he said.

De Borchgrave, however, conceded that there is a history of states hiring terrorists to carry out attacks on their enemies—in many cases the target being the United States—a tactic that dates back to the early stages of the Cold War. Often those who carry out the attacks do not have direct contact with those who ordered them, he noted.

For example, he said, the attack on Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988, was in retaliation for the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 by the USS Vincennes earlier that year. The Pentagon said the shooting of the Airbus 300 was accidental and paid reparations to the families of the deceased.

According to de Borchgrave, who obtained his information from Qadhafi during a 1995 interview in Tripoli, the Iranians hired Syrian intelligence agents who in turn subcontracted the Libyans to blow up a plane full of Americans. The Libyans suspected the Iranians were behind the contract but never asked many questions, he said.

“You use second or third parties precisely to offer some insulation,” explained Gore, a former Pentagon adviser. “For Iraq [such] terrorist missions are no different than the United States flying a B-2 [bomber] raid from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.”

Besides using chemical or biological weapons hand-delivered by hired hit men, countries such as North Korea, Iraq, Iran and others do not have the resources or many other means of carrying out attacks against the United States, said Spencer, the Heritage Foundation analyst.

“They don’t have the aircraft carriers [or] the air forces to lash out at the United States, so they turn to terrorists to strike,” Spencer said. “It could [occur] today, a week, a month, a year.”

“If a state chooses to use terrorists to strike at the United States, those terrorists will certainly have access to all the capabilities that the states possess,” Spencer continued. “That includes chemical and biological weapons, possibly even nukes.”

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Threat Assessment:  Al-Qaeda is But One Target

By Greg Seigle

Global Security Newswire

Although the White House has openly declared al-Qaeda public enemy No. 1, U.S. intelligence agencies are quietly investigating dozens of other terrorist groups that could be just as deadly, officials recently told GSN.

The CIA, the Pentagon and other intelligence and investigative organizations have been tight-lipped about which terrorist groups may be targeted, but officials quietly acknowledged they are looking into dozens of groups capable of conducting mass-casualty attacks.

“Sometimes we work with friendly foreign governments to target groups of mutual interest,” a CIA official said today. “We look to disrupt their activities any way we can.”

In addition to Islamic groups, U.S. officials are scrutinizing terrorist outfits based in Cuba, Colombia and other typically Christian nations, the official said. Groups in the Philippines are also under scrutiny, the official added.

Now that members of the al-Qaeda network appear to be on the lam, U.S. analysts have speculated that the Bush administration may next go after a non-Islamic terrorist group in an effort to demonstrate that the war on terrorism is not a crusade against Islam. However, because extremist Islamic groups have often issued threats against the United States—and such groups have a track record of actually attacking U.S. interests—probes of these groups remain a top priority, officials said.

In an updated report released Oct. 5, the U.S. State Department listed 28 foreign terrorist groups considered to be the biggest threats. More than half are Islamic groups. The others range from the Japanese Red Army to Peru’s Shining Path.

U.S. officials have declined to specify which groups are undergoing the most intense investigations, but terrorism experts say three groups with links to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network top the list of priorities. These groups include the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Gama’at al-Islamiyya and the Harakat ul-Mujahidin.

*         The Egyptian Islamic Jihad has threatened to retaliate against the United States for jailing its blind spiritual leader, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Abdel-Rahman was convicted in 1995 of plotting attacks across the United States that never materialized and is serving a life sentence.

*         Gama’at al-Islamiyya has launched vicious attacks against western tourists in Egypt since 1992, most notably the 1997 assault at Luxor that killed 58 foreigners. The group signed bin Laden’s 1998 proclamation to kill Americans and attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1995.

*         Harakat ul-Mujahidin operated terrorist training bases in eastern Afghanistan and suffered casualties in 1998 when the U.S. Navy fired 68 Tomahawk missiles at the camps in retaliation for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Its leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, has vowed revenge on U.S. targets.

Other radical Islamic terrorist groups that could attack U.S. interests include the following:

*         Hamas—A hardcore Gaza Strip-based organization that has initiated many assassinations of Israeli political and military leaders and conducted numerous large-scale suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. Hamas is believed to receive support from Iran.

*         Hezbollah—An Iranian-backed militia from the Bakkar Valley of Lebanon that conducted the 1983 and 1984 suicide bombings of the U.S. Marine barracks and the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut. Hezbollah is believed to be backed by Syria.

*         Saudi Hizbollah—Composed mostly of Shi’ites and Saudis sympathetic to the Iranian revolution of Islam and believed to be responsible for the 1996 bombings at Khobar Towers, which killed 19 Americans and wounded 372. Its funding comes from wealthy Saudis sympathetic to its views.

*         Mujahedine Khalq Organization—An Iraqi-based, anti-Iranian army of several thousand soldiers that launched attacks in 1992 on Iranian embassies in 13 countries, exemplifying the group’s ability to mount large-scale assaults abroad.

*         Palestinian Islamic Jihad—Has threatened to retaliate against the United States and Israel, blaming the countries for the assassination of its leader, Fathi Shaqaqi, in Malta in October 1995. It is believed to receive backing from Iran.

*         Palestine Liberation Front—Lead by Abu Abbass, the Front has mostly attacked Israeli targets, although in 1985 one of its members executed Leon Klinghoffer, a passenger aboard the hijacked cruise ship Achille Lauro. The Front is believed to have been holed up in Iraq since 1998.

*         Abu Nidal Organization—Abu Nidal’s group of hardened terrorists spent much of the 1970s and 1980s hijacking planes and conducting other terrorist operations in the name of Palestine. Although the group has not attacked Western targets for over a decade, experts have said it remains lethal, training in Iraq.

Non-Islamic terrorist groups under close scrutiny are the following:

*         United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia—Created in 1997, the UAC is the most recent group to be added to the list by Secretary of State Colin Powell. With an army of 8,000 supported by drug trafficking, the group has been accused of 804 assassinations, 203 kidnappings and 75 massacres that killed 507 people—all within the first 10 months of 2000. While the paramilitaries have not taken action against U.S. interests, officials believe the chances are higher now that the United States is pumping more money into Colombia’s military.

*         National Liberation Army—This Colombia-based Marxist group was formed in 1965 by urban intellectuals inspired by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, and continues to receive substantial support from Cuba. After a series of kidnappings in 1999, each involving at least one American, ELN has begun dialogue with Bogota officials, although the two sides cannot agree on where to meet for peace talks. It is believed to have up to 6,000 combatants ready to strike U.S. or other targets.

*         Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—Established in 1964 as the military wing of the communist party, it has a long and bloody history of kidnappings, hijackings, murders and guerilla and conventional combat campaigns against the Colombian government. In 1999 the FARC executed three U.S. civilians.

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Food Safety:  United States Considers Restructuring Agencies

Federal officials are examining proposals to tighten security on the U.S. food supply, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Bush administration officials are considering consolidating federal food inspection responsibilities under one agency. The Times reported that about a dozen agencies currently inspect food, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Agriculture Department, the Customs Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“For security enhancement, we ought to at least take a look at whether or not we need to merge functions, merge agencies,” said Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge.

Ridge’s comments echoed other signals of the administration’s growing interest in consolidation, the Times reported. U.S. President George W. Bush voiced support in his election campaign, and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has repeatedly voiced concern about the food supply.

U.S. lawmakers also are considering proposals to enhance security for the nation’s food supply. Provisions in a new Senate bioterrorism bill would provide an additional $500 million for food safety, tighter requirements for food processors and greater authority for federal food regulators (Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 24).

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Al-Qaeda:  Taliban Sought Scientists Help

Gul Nazir, head of organic chemistry at Kabul University, said last week he repeatedly turned down offers from the Taliban and Pakistani and Arab delegations to produce substances that could be used in chemical weapons and to help mine uranium.  Nazir and Ahmed Massoud, another chemist, said six delegations of Pakistani scientists visited them in the last three years with offers from the Taliban’s Defense Ministry to fund chemical weapons programs and efforts to purify heroin. 

One delegation from the Taliban defense minister offered to renovate Nazir’s and Massoud’s laboratories in exchange for their work.  Another group asked for assistance to obtain large amounts of sodium cyanide and thionyl chloride, which can be used to produce mustard gas and cyanide gas, although they also have peaceful uses. 

Nazir also said an Arab delegation in August presented a proposal to begin mining for uranium in Afghanistan and offered to pay the wages of scientists who would help.

More Discoveries in Kabul Houses

Nazir’s statement came as journalists and Northern Alliance police discovered more documents in former al-Qaeda houses that suggested al-Qaeda and the Taliban were pursuing weapons of mass destruction (London Times, Nov. 25).

Materials discovered in several Kabul houses abandoned by the Taliban and al-Qaeda indicated al-Qaeda was studying chemical, biological and nuclear weapons (see GSN, Nov. 19).  U.S. officials said the documents they have seen confirm that al-Qaeda was working to develop weapons of mass destruction but did not provide evidence whether the organization had acquired such weapons.

Much of the sensitive material related to al-Qaeda abilities and intentions has disappeared from the houses, mostly taken by the Taliban or by journalists who investigated the houses before Northern Alliance police began guarding them, Northern Alliance Interior Minister Younus Qanouni said last week.  He said his ministry would consider providing copies of the papers they had discovered to the United States (Cottrell/Wolffe, Financial Times, Nov. 25). 

Anthrax Plans Found in Mehmood’s Charity’s Headquarters in Kabul

Plans that suggested efforts to build an anthrax bomb were discovered at the Kabul headquarters of the Foundation for Construction, a relief charity founded by Sultan Bashiru-din Mehmood, according to the London Times.  Pakistani authorities had detained Mehmood, a former top Pakistani nuclear scientist, for questioning regarding his contacts with the Taliban and al-Qaeda (see related GSN story, today).  Mehmood said his meetings with bin Laden and the Taliban only involved discussions of charitable work.  A chart explaining how to distribute anthrax using a hot-air balloon, copies of media articles about anthrax and a computer disk showing former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen explaining that anthrax could destroy much of Washington were also discovered in the charity’s headquarters.

Sarin Gas Discovery?

Meanwhile, reporters have been unable to confirm the discovery at the Farm Hada training camp near Jalalabad of vials labeled “Sarin/V-Gas” (see GSN, Nov. 20).  Two Spanish reporters who claimed to find the vials were killed in an ambush last Monday (London Times, Nov. 25).

Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that he could not confirm the sarin gas discovery.  Pace said U.S. forces had a list of facilities the United States suspected were used to produce chemical or biological weapons, and U.S. forces would visit the locations and take samples to determine if dangerous biological or chemical materials had been present.  U.S. officials had already taken some samples that were being analyzed, but Pace said he had no results yet (U.S. Defense Department transcript, Nov. 21). 

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Iraq:  Changes to Sanctions Opposed

Iraq said yesterday it would oppose any changes to the U.N. oil-for-food program and would continue to ban U.N. weapons inspectors from the country.

If the United Nations accepted proposed U.S. and British changes to the sanctions without Iraqi approval, “this means that the other party, that is the U.N., does not want an extension of the [oil-for-food] agreement,” said Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri. 

The United States and Britain have proposed creating “smart sanctions,” which would lift many trade restrictions on Iraq but tighten enforcement of the arms embargo and block smuggling (see GSN, Nov. 7), according to the Associated Press.  The oil-for-food program comes up for its annual six-month review at the end of November, the AP reported.

“The logical thing for the United Nations is to move for an improvement of the situation, not for tightening the sanctions against Iraq as is the case with the smart sanctions,” Sabri said, and added he expected Russia to support Iraq’s position (Waiel Faleh, Associated Press/Washington Post, Nov. 25).

Weapons Inspectors Opposed

The U.N. sanctions against Iraq were put into place after the Gulf War and are conditioned on Iraq dismantling its weapons of mass destruction programs.  Iraq was not ready to reaccept U.N. weapons inspectors who have been banned since the end of 1998, Sabri said, urging the U.N. Security Council to lift the sanctions.  “We have finished the stage of disarmament,” Sabri said.  “The U.N. Security Council [resolution on Iraq] calls for lifting sanctions after Iraq has implemented its own obligations [of disarmament].”

The United States last week said that Iraq, among several other nations, has biological weapons (see GSN, Nov. 19).  Iraq denies the charge, according Reuters (Reuters/New York Times, Nov, 25).

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Pakistan:  Reports Conflict Over Nuclear Scientists

Reports continued to conflict (see GSN, Oct. 31) last week over the release of Pakistani nuclear scientists who had been questioned about possible involvement with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden (see GSN, Nov. 12) and the depth of U.S. involvement in the investigation.

Several reports said the scientists were released last week.  The Associated Press reported Thursday that Pakistani authorities released Sultan Bashiru-din Mehmood and Abdul Majid, although Pakistani government spokesman Gen. Rashid Qureshi did not say when they were released.  Mehmood and Majid had been involved in Pakistan’s nuclear program and had frequently visited Afghanistan after retirement from the nuclear program.  They said their trips to Afghanistan were related to charitable activities and denied providing nuclear assistance to the Taliban or bin Laden (see GSN, Nov. 20).  Pakistani officials said the scientists had met with bin Laden at least twice (Associated Press/Washington Post, Nov. 23).

The London Guardian also reported that the two scientists had been freed, according to a government spokesman (London Guardian, Nov. 23).

The Washington Post, however, reported Friday that Pakistani authorities continued to detain Mehmood and Majid.  “We want to be absolutely sure before giving a clean chit to nuclear scientists who had confessed to having met Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and several al-Qaeda leaders last year,” said a senior Pakistani official.  The Post quoted an intelligence official who said, “We are still not satisfied with their answers,” adding that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had ordered an extensive investigation.

Qureshi said Thursday that he did not think the scientists were in “continuous detention” but did not provide more details on their status, according to the Post. 

U.S. Involvement

Pakistani officials recently briefed a senior U.S. official on the investigation’s status, according to the Post (Glasser/Khan, Washington Post, Nov. 24). 

Meanwhile, Myanmar granted sanctuary to two other Pakistani nuclear scientists, Suleiman Asad and Mohammad Ali Mukhtar, at the Pakistani government’s request, the Press Trust of India reported Friday.  Pakistan said the two scientists had been involved in Pakistan’s nuclear program but had no connections to terrorist activities.  Pakistan said U.S. authorities were looking for Asad and Mukhtar, according to the Press Trust. 

Adding to various previous reports that U.S. officials were involved the investigation of Pakistani scientists (see GSN, Nov. 1), the Press Trust reported that CIA and FBI officials interrogated Mehmood and Majid Tuesday at the American Embassy in Islamabad (Press Trust of India, Nov. 23).

The Lahore High Court in Pakistan called on relatives of seven scientists allegedly detained to appear before the court to determine if the scientists remained in detention, according to Pakistan Newswire Friday.  The court has been dealing with a petition that alleged the United States had demanded the arrest of the scientists and called on Pakistan to turn the scientists over to U.S. authorities.  The petition asked the Pakistani government to refuse such U.S. requests and called for proper treatment of the scientists in accordance with their contributions to Pakistan (Pakistan Newswire, Nov. 23).

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India:  U.S. Nuclear Technology in India?

India and the United States have agreed to discuss ways to streamline procedures for transferring dual-use technology and increase high technology commerce, said Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee last Tuesday, according to the Hindu.

“We agreed to resume and broaden the Bilateral Economic Dialogue and extend our cooperation to energy, environment, health, biotechnology and information technology.  We will soon initiate discussions on cooperation in space programs and civilian nuclear projects,” Vajpayee said, adding that the U.S.-India Defense Policy Group would meet next month. 

Vajpayee’s statement came after his recent visit to the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United Nations (Hindu, Nov. 21).

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CTBT:  Latvia Ratifies Treaty

Latvia ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on Nov. 20 (CTBTO release, Nov. 21).  Eighty-nine states have ratified the treaty (see GSN, Nov. 15), including 31 of the 44 specific nations that must ratify the pact before it can enter into force.

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Anthrax:  Chilean Letter Tests Positive

A letter in Chile tested positive for anthrax Thursday, making it the first confirmed tainted letter outside the United States.  Meanwhile, no clues have yet been found in the investigation into the latest death from inhalation anthrax (see GSN, Nov. 21), according to various reports.

A letter sent from Switzerland to a pediatrician in Santiago, Chile, tested positive for anthrax spores, Chilean and U.S. officials said Thursday.  While the letter was postmarked in Zurich, its return address was from Florida, according to officials.  The pediatrician and 12 others that were nearby when the envelope was opened tested negative for anthrax but were put on preventive treatment, the Chilean Health Ministry said (Associated Press/Washington Post, Nov. 23).

No Clues Yet in Connecticut

Anthrax testing conducted in a number of locations in Connecticut have all come back negative, according to officials.  Tests on more than 90 samples at two postal centers near the home of Ottilie Lundgren, who died last week from inhalation anthrax, all came back negative, Governor John Rowland said Friday.  “You can probably rule out the mail coming from either Seymour or Wallingford [the two postal facilities], because those tests have proved negative,” Rowland said. “But again, this is not a perfect science, and perhaps there’s other venues that need to be investigated” (Paul Zielbauer, New York Times, Nov. 23).

Tests on 10 soil samples taken from around Lundgren’s home and a neighborhood restaurant also came back negative, according to the Washington Post.  This weakened a theory that Lundgren might have been infected with anthrax naturally, such as from the buried remains of dead cows, the Post reported. 

Investigators nevertheless remained optimistic that they would find the cause of Lundgren’s anthrax infection because she rarely left home alone, said Connecticut Public Health Commissioner Joxel Garcia.  Investigators should be able to track Lundgren’s movements and extensively test anything she came into contact with, even Halloween trick-or-treaters, Garcia said (Dale Russakoff, Washington Post, Nov. 26).

Officials are treating Lundgren’s death as a crime, even though the source of the anthrax is unknown.  “There’s no question that this is a homicide,” Rowland said.  “Clearly, I don’t think that a 94-year-old resident of Oxford was a target, but there’s got to be some kind of accidental discharge of anthrax.”

Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said testing has shown that the anthrax that killed Lundgren was the same strain that was used in other recent anthrax incidents.  It was unknown yet whether Lundgren’s death was the end of the series of incidents, or the beginning of a new wave, officials said.

FBI and CDC officials said that no possible source of exposure was being ruled out.  “We’ll look at every possible cause of exposure,” said CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan.  “We’ve made a list of every possible route that we can think of, of how anthrax might have been acquired by a 94-year-old woman who lives largely at home, and things that enter the home are certainly a prime suspect, and given recent history, mail is one of them” (Paul Zielbauer, New York Times, Nov. 22).

Investigators Attempt to Track Anthrax

Knowing who had access to the Ames strain of anthrax might give clues as to who has been responsible for the recent U.S. anthrax incidents, according to investigators.

The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) has been one of the main distributors of the strain to researchers around the world.  While it was once thought that the Ames strain was accessible to thousand of scientists, it’s now believed that it traveled among a small number of labs, the Associated Press reported. It may be impossible, however, to know the precise number of scientists who had access to the Ames strain, since differences between anthrax strains are often small and labeling of strains was haphazard until the advent of genetic mapping, experts said. 

It is fairly easy to get anthrax cultures from USAMRIID, said Martin Hugh-Jones, an anthrax expert at Louisiana State University.  “They kept the stuff there, and if you need a culture, you called up Art,” Hugh-Jones said. “Art” is USAMRIID senior research scientist Col. Arthur Friedlander (Associated Press, Nov. 26).

Iraqi biological warfare scientists also attempted to obtain the Ames strain, according to experts.  In 1998, Iraqi scientists sent an order to the British biodefense institute at Porton Down for samples of the Ames strain, as well as two other anthrax strains, according to the Washington Post.  The order was turned down, however, because British scientists believed that strains were to be used in developing biological weapons, the Post reported.

So far, no proof has been found that Iraq was able to obtain the Ames strain of anthrax from another supplier, U.S. officials and former U.N. weapons inspectors said.  Iraq’s efforts to do so, however, could mean that Iraq could have connections to the recent U.S. anthrax incidents, according to the Post. 

“We know that Iraq was very keen on obtaining that specific strain as well as others, and they were contacting many countries of the world,” said Richard Spertzel, former head of the U.N. biological weapons inspection teams in Iraq.  “The effort with which they [pursued] Porton Down would suggest that if they thought someone else had it, they would press for it.  But we simply don’t know” (Colum Lynch, Washington Post, Nov. 25).

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BWC:  Work Begins on Final Declaration

Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention have begun discussing the treaty article-by-article and working to organize articles and ideas for a final declaration at the Fifth Review Conference, Hungarian Ambassador and conference President Tibor Toth said last week.  He added that the Drafting Committee planned to take over drafting the final declaration in the middle of this week.

Many states have expressed regret at the failure to agree on a verification protocol to the convention, Toth said. Some states pushed for a legally binding document based on a multilateral framework.  The United States, which had earlier rejected the draft protocol, had proposed alternative measures to strengthen the convention (see GSN, Nov. 21).  States were considering the U.S. proposals, but many continued to disagree on appropriate methods and measures to enforce the convention, Toth said.

Toth emphasized the need for treaty parties to reconfirm their support for the convention and go beyond rhetoric to implementation.  U.S. struggles to respond to recent anthrax incidents (see GSN, today) showed the importance of states working together to combat threats posed by biological weapons, Toth said, adding that states could create international response teams that could be dispatched within 24 hours.  States should cooperate to provide the necessary medicines and vaccines (see GSN, Nov. 14) to respond to biological warfare, he said.

Several speakers at the conference suggested that treaty parties meet more frequently to respond to rapid developments, Toth said, but meetings between the review conferences every five years had often failed to increase implementation.

The conference, which opened in Geneva on Nov. 19, is scheduled to conclude Dec. 7 (U.N. release, Nov. 22).

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NGO Response: Nuclear Threat Initiative Gives Priority to BW

The Nuclear Threat Initiative, founded by media figure Ted Turner and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, has decided to increase its efforts to fight biological terrorism and germ warfare, according to yesterday’s New York Times. The foundation plans to spend about one-third of its estimated $50 million in annual grants on anti-bioterrorism and biological weapon programs. The NTI board approved almost $5 million in initial grants in October.

The foundation, which opened in January 2001, already had programs dedicated to countering biological and chemical weapons threats.  Foundation directors decided to shift more priority to combating biological weapon threats after the recent deaths in the United States of five people from anthrax, foundation executives said last week. 

“Reducing the threat of biological weapons has always been our primary mission, but the events of Sept. 11 have led to new opportunities to address preparedness and consequence management,” said Margaret Hamburg, head of the foundation's biological programs.

The largest program planned so far to combat bioterrorism includes $2.4 million to help employ former Soviet biological weapon scientists in peaceful activities, which would supplement similar U.S. programs.  The planned programs include working with former Soviet scientists to develop a brucellosis vaccine, financing a study of how Russia's Vector laboratory—where Soviet scientists once developed biological weapons—could convert into a vaccine production facility, establishing partnerships between U.S. drug companies and former Soviet scientists, supporting dialogue between U.S. and Russian scientists and helping the World Health Organization establish a fund to assist rapid medical response to suspicious disease outbreaks.  Foundation representatives also said NTI had provided $650,000 in grants to help the U.S. drug industry develop standards to prevent misuse of biotechnology and would provide $400,000 to help the National Academy of Sciences draft such standards (Judith Miller, New York Times, Nov. 25).

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The Nuclear Threat Initiative is the sole sponsor of Global Security Newswire, which is published independently by National Journal Group, Inc.]

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Russia:  More Funding Needed for Disposal Plant

More U.S. funding is needed for the Shchuchye chemical weapons disposal plant, Russian officials said last week.

“We appeal to the United States to once and for all solve this problem and provide us with the money,” Gen. Valery Kapashin, head of the Munitions Agency department responsible for chemical weapon stockpile security and destruction, said at a public forum in Moscow organized by the environmental organization Green Cross.

Global Green’s Legacy of the Cold War Program Director Paul Walker said that two U.S. conditions for funding have yet to be met: the development of a practical plan for the destruction of Russia’s nerve agent stockpile and the enactment of a law requiring Russia to eliminate all of its nerve agents at one site.  “In essence that means that our American Congress is telling Russia that it has to come up with a new plan to destroy the nerve agents,” Walker said.

The Russian Federation Council approved a bill to allow the transportation of chemical weapons throughout Russia, which is an attempt to fulfill the single-site requirement, said Munitions Agency spokesman Dmitry Timashkov.  It would cost about $888 million to destroy all of Russia’s chemical weapons at Shchuchye (see GSN, Nov. 1), according to the Moscow Times.   Chemical weapons from only one site will be transported to Shchuchye, said Zinovy Pak, head of the Munitions Agency.

Shchuchye residents, however, believe that chemical weapons from all over Russia will eventually find their way to the town.  “I just got a letter from people in my region who found out about the bill and they said public opinion is stirred up because chemical weapons from other places will be brought to our area,” said Galina Vepreva, head of the Green Cross’ information center in Shchuchye.  “We don’t know how much will be brought here and how much it will increase the danger for us,” Vepreva said. 

The funding for the plant is almost available, said Arms Control Association analyst Seth Brugger.  The funding has passed through both houses of the U.S. Congress and a single, compromise version of the bill only needs to be worked out in committee, Brugger said.  The United States might have imposed the funding conditions on Russia in order to get the most use out of the Shchuchye plant, Walker said.  “They want to make sure that if we spend $1 billion in Shchuchye, we get rid of all the nerve agents in Russia.”

Some Russian experts, however, oppose the U.S. conditions.  “The American side is putting substantial political pressure on Russia, dictating conditions it must meet to be given its aid,” said government expert Natalya Kalinina.  “So what does it mean?  Either the American party is consciously pushing Russia not to fulfill the convention, because it is just impossible to fulfill all these conditions and we are heading to a trap—or this is intended to exercise even more political pressure on Russia, to win total governance over the process of chemical weapons disposal in Russia” (Yevgenia Borisova, Moscow Times, Nov. 21).

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China:  U.S.-Chinese Talks Scheduled This Week

The United States and China will meet this week to work out an ongoing dispute over missile technology proliferation, the India Statesman reported yesterday. 

The United States and China worked out an agreement last year in which China agreed not to provide ballistic missile technology to other nations, while the United States agreed to resume processing space cooperation licenses, according  to the Statesman.  The United States has accused China of breaking the deal and in September imposed sanctions on a Chinese firm accused of providing prohibited technology to Pakistan.  China has denied the charge and wants the sanctions lifted, the Statesman reported

U.S. officials said they hope that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will push China to abide by the deal.  A U.S. official said China should resume full implementation of the arrangement to help build a new kind of relationship with the United States (India Statesman, Nov. 25).  

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North Korea-Egypt: Missile Deal Concluded

North Korea has concluded a secret agreement with Egypt to provide ballistic missiles and related technology, the South Korean newspaper JoonAng Ilbo reported today.  

The accord, signed earlier this year, caused concern among Egypt’s neighbors, especially Israel, according to South Korean diplomatic sources quoted by JoonAng Ilbo.  North Korea sold Rodong missiles and manufacturing technology to Egypt in July, according to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz.  The Rodong missiles, with a range of 1,000 kilometers, eclipse Egypt’s 300- kilometer-range Scud missiles, according to JoonAng Ilbo.

JoonAng Ilbo quoted a military analyst as saying: “We believe the North Koreans agreed to sell as many as 24 Rodong missiles to the Egyptian military" (South African Press Association/News24.com, Nov. 26). 

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South Korea:  Missile Test Conducted

South Korea said Thursday it test-fired a missile believed by experts to be able to hit a target virtually anywhere within North Korea.

The missile, launched from a site about 125 miles south of Seoul, landed in the Yellow Sea off South Korea’s west coast after traveling only 62 miles. 

U.S. officials have long thought that South Korean missiles are capable of distances longer than those traveled during tests, the Times reported.  South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the United States had been informed of the recent test and that it was conducted in accordance with “military regulations between the United States and Korea” (Don Kirk, New York Times, Nov. 22).

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