International Response: U.S. and Allies Crack Down on Terrorist Funds

The United States and its anti-terrorism allies launched raids and other actions yesterday to shut down al-Barakaat and al-Taqwa financial networks. U.S. officials said the networks help fund al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization run by Osama bin Laden, suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

U.S. Customs and the FBI seized records and arrested one man yesterday during several raids in five states as authorities blocked the assets of 62 organizations and individuals allegedly associated with the two networks. 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill said more raids would follow and another 962 accounts in the United States were under investigation.

“Today’s action interrupts al-Qaeda’s communications.  It blocks an important source of funds.  It provides us with valuable information and sends a clear message to global financial institutions: You are with us, or you’re with the terrorists.  And if you’re with the terrorists, you will face the consequences,” U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday.

International Efforts

Several countries joined U.S. efforts to crack down on the two networks.  Swiss police detained two financiers suspected of associations with al-Qaeda for six hours of questioning.  The Group of Eight countries and the United Arab Emirates froze the networks’ assets in their countries.  Police in Liechtenstein, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland raided the networks’ offices and, in some cases, seized documents and property.

Serious Blow to al-Qaeda

U.S. officials said the operation struck a serious blow to al-Qaeda’s finances, although they declined to offer much evidence, saying information was mostly classified.  Officials said al-Barakaat was one of al-Qaeda’s major funding channels and has moved tens of millions of dollars a year for al-Qaeda.  Al-Barakaat is a hawala financial system, a traditional method of transferring money that involves few records.  Officials have said that although hawala often makes legitimate transfers, its informal nature makes it an easy tool for terrorists.  New U.S. anti-terrorism legislation passed last month (see GSN, Oct. 26) requires hawalas to register with the U.S. Treasury Department and to report suspicious activities. 

Al-Barakaat has been involved in several legitimate businesses that provided a front for its financial transfers to terrorists, Treasury officials said.  It was founded in 1989 by Ahmed Nur Ali Jim’ale—who the United States suspects is a bin Laden associate—and is based in the United Arab Emirates, U.S. officials said.  Al-Taqwa is a smaller association of banks based in Switzerland that provides investment advice to al-Qaeda members, the officials said (Milbank/Day, Washington Post, Nov. 8).

Ali Jim’ale, who lives in Dubai, denied all charges against al-Barakaat today (Ward Pincus, Associated Press/RealCities.com, Nov. 8).

U.S. Arrest

Authorities in Boston took Mohamed Hussein into custody on charges of running an illegal financial business.  Liban Hussein was also charged but was in Canada.  He told the Toronto Star he was innocent.

Obstacles

The two networks are not the only funding routes for al-Qaeda.  The Treasury Department said last month it believed three honey-related businesses in Yemen were secretly moving money to the organization.  Other officials said al-Qaeda might be profiting from the illegal diamond trade in Africa and the opium trade in Afghanistan. 

Members of Congress called for more international cooperation to fight terrorist financing.  “What we really need is a system that operates relatively seamlessly where all of the countries cooperate in the course of an investigation.  And of course it doesn’t work that way.  It’s all tangled up in questions of sovereignty,” said Jack Blum, former special counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Sharon Theimer, Associated Press/RealCities.com, Nov. 8).

Britain Freezes Accounts

Britain announced today it had frozen $10.3 million of suspected terrorist assets in the last week for a total of almost $102 million frozen in the United Kingdom.  Financial institutions had been ordered to freeze the funds of 46 organizations and 16 individuals linked to al-Qaeda, British officials said (Reuters, Nov. 8).

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Afghanistan: Brahimi Endorses Post-Taliban Role For Zahir Shah; More

Senior U.N. Afghanistan envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, ending a Central Asian tour during which he began to coordinate plans for a post-Taliban government and peacekeeping in Afghanistan, met yesterday in Rome with deposed Afghan King Zahir Shah and Italian officials including Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero (U.N. Newservice, Nov. 7).

"His majesty is willing to help very unselfishly.  He does not want anything for himself," Brahimi said after meeting with Shah, whom numerous players have proposed as a useful figurehead for post-Taliban political reconstruction.  "He's willing to help in the manner that is useful and acceptable by everyone.  And we believe that he can play the role of being at the center of the kind of arrangements that need to be made to take Afghanistan out of the divisions and the fractures that have affected Afghan society for very long."

The ex-king's role "will emerge as we go along," Brahimi added.  "There is still a lot of discussion to have with a lot of Afghans.  This is a fractured society."  The envoy promised that a U.N. Security Council meeting this month will yield more details (Antonio Denti, Reuters/Boston Globe, Nov. 8).

In conversations with Ruggiero and others, Corriere della Sera reports, Brahimi said any peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan would be infinitely more difficult than the current multinational effort in Kosovo, where thousands of NATO soldiers have been trying to keep the peace in an area that is small and lightly populated by comparison with Afghanistan.  As there is no peace to maintain, Brahimi added, discussions of peacekeeping in Afghanistan are not realistic.

Brahimi stressed that the Taliban still controls 90 percent of the country, has not suffered from mass desertion and shows no sign of giving up power.  He called on parties to remember that, "in reality, there are two ongoing wars" in the country:  the Taliban-Northern Alliance civil war and the U.S.-led campaign, which he said "is not directed at the Afghan populace, but is having consequences on the Afghan populace" (Maurizio Caprara, Corriere della Sera, Nov. 8, UN Wire translation).

A senior U.S. official told Agence France-Presse yesterday that Washington wants Brahimi to take the lead in forming a new government in Afghanistan.  "The United States is not forming a transitional government for Afghanistan," the official said.  "The formation of a follow-on government is not the responsibility of the U.S.  It's something that obviously will require a lot of cooperation, but Mr. Brahimi has the lead on this, not the Security Council."

"The first thing that has to happen is Mr. Brahimi has to come back and tell us what he thinks," the official added.  The official stressed the importance of the U.N. General Assembly high-level session beginning Saturday, saying Afghanistan's future will be a main topic of discussion (AFP, Nov. 8).

French President Jacques Chirac, who has met in the United States this week with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and U.S. President George W. Bush, echoed the U.S. official's endorsement of a U.N. lead role in Afghanistan.  The United Nations will "naturally" play a major role in building a new government, Chirac said Tuesday night at U.N. headquarters.

Chirac stressed the political aspect of the current campaign, criticizing the Taliban for failing to ensure human rights and women's rights and for allowing the Afghan people to live in misery.  He confirmed, following media reports in recent days, that Paris and London are preparing a Security Council resolution on Afghanistan ahead of the council's debate on the country Tuesday (U.N. Newservice II, Nov. 7).

In a report released yesterday, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights Kamal Hossain warned that a security vacuum in Afghanistan could lead to human rights abuses.  Hossain warned of possible massacres, calling for "critical steps" to prevent a vacuum (U.N. Newservice III, Nov. 7).

European Union and Iranian officials met yesterday in Brussels to discuss Afghanistan's future.  Iran is a major backer of the opposition Northern Alliance (Judy Dempsey, Financial Times, Nov. 8).

Musharraf Calls For End to Bombing

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said today in Paris that U.S. strikes on Afghanistan should stop for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins late next week.  Citing a growing international sentiment that U.S. bombing amounts to a war against poor, innocent Afghans, Musharraf said he plans to ask Bush for the suspension.  The two leaders are expected to meet outside the General Assembly session starting this weekend (Reuters, Nov. 8).

According to a spokeswoman for Chirac, who hosted Musharraf at a dinner last evening, the French president praised the Pakistani leader for his "courageous choice" in supporting the U.S.-led campaign despite opposition at home (CNN.com, Nov. 8).

Karzai Asks World for Help

Anti-Taliban Afghan tribal leader Hamid Karzai called today on the international community for military and humanitarian assistance to Afghans as he and others attempt to unseat the Taliban.  "I want these foreign terrorist elements out of my country.  I want this country to belong to Afghans," said Karzai, who is in Afghanistan attempting to stir up revolt.

"I am asking now in very strong terms for international assistance to help the Afghan people get rid of the foreign terrorist enemies of Afghanistan," he said.  "I'm asking for help from the U.S., Europe and Muslim countries to help the Afghan people to regain independence, regain peace and once again live among the nations of the world as a dignified, honorable nation" (Andrew Marshall, Reuters/Yahoo! News, Nov. 8).

Taliban Makes Arrests, Begins Closing Karachi Consulate

The Taliban has arrested 16 Afghans in eastern Afghanistan on suspicion of spying for Washington, Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reports.  Those arrested could face the death penalty under a religious edict on punishment for helping the United States (Reuters/Yahoo! News, Nov. 8).

Also according to Afghan Islamic Press, Pakistan yesterday ordered the Taliban to close its consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, giving the regime three days to comply.  The Taliban has already begun to prepare its departure from the city, the agency reports.

The move follows Pakistani attempts this week to rein in Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef, who has used his embassy as a platform for anti-U.S. propaganda.  The Karachi closure leaves the Taliban with an embassy in Islamabad, the capital, and consulates in Quetta and Peshawar (AFP/La Tribune, Nov. 8, UN Wire translation).

Powell Eyes Eventual Expansion to Iraq

The campaign could eventually expand to Iraq, which like Afghanistan is accused by Washington of sponsoring international terrorism, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday after meeting with Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister Sabah al-Sabah.  Powell said that after defeating the al-Qaeda network of suspected terrorist sponsor and Taliban guest Osama bin Laden, the United States will "turn our attention to terrorism throughout the world, and nations such as Iraq which have tried to pursue weapons of mass destruction should not think that we ... will not turn our attention to them" (Koppell/Labott, CNN.com, Nov. 7).

Two defectors from Iraqi intelligence yesterday said Baghdad has since 1995 run secret camps to train terrorists, the New York Times  reports.  The defectors, one of which the Times says was among the Iraqi intelligence service's highest officials, said they worked at the camps but did not know whether the terrorists are linked to al-Qaeda (Chris Hedges, New York Times, Nov. 8).

U.S. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration will before the end of the year try to impose new sanctions on Iraq through the Security Council (Koppel/Labott, CNN.com II, Nov. 7).

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U.S. Response: High Alert Continues, Ridge Says

Federal, state and local security personnel in the United States remain on high alert against terrorist attack, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said yesterday. The FBI warned on Oct. 29 that terrorists were plotting to attack the United States (see GSN, Oct. 30), and that warning has not expired, Ridge said.

There have been no new sources of information since the warning was first issued, and law enforcement and emergency teams are battling fatigue, according to the Washington Times.  Federal officials nonetheless believe that the threat to U.S. interests is significant, Ridge said. “We’re still on alert,” he told reporters at the White House. “For the time being, we believe America should stay on alert” (August Gribbin, Washington Times, Nov. 8).

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U.S. Response: Congress Debates Federal Aid to Insurance Companies

Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives agreed yesterday on a framework for providing financial assistance to the insurance industry (see GSN, Oct. 26) but left several issues unresolved.  The House Financial Services Committee adopted a bill in which private insurers would pay a deductible of $1 billion on claims resulting from terrorist attacks, and the government would cover about 90 percent of claims thereafter.  Committee members said the deductible could increase after negotiations before the bill goes to a full House vote.  Additionally, insurers would have to repay the government according to a schedule included in the plan.

Meanwhile, the Senate Banking Committee has been working on a competing proposal that features a $10 billion deductible and 90 percent government coverage thereafter but would not require insurers to repay the government’s money.

Lawmakers also were divided yesterday over whether to protect insurers from punitive-damage claims and whether insurers should get tax breaks for paying terrorism claims (Jackie Spinner, Washington Post, Nov. 8).

Congress members agreed they should move quickly to pass legislation to assist the insurance industry, according to the Associated Press.  Insurance companies have said they could pay the claims resulting from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States but said without government assistance they would face a crisis in the next year.  Reinsurance companies, which insure insurance companies, have said they would drastically increase rates or not renew terrorism-related insurance after Dec. 31, when most insurance policies expire. 

Lawmakers have expressed serious concern that crisis in the insurance sector would damage the economy in several areas, such as construction.  “The consequences could be catastrophic for the economy next year,” said Representative Paul Kanjorksi (D-Pa.) (Jesse Holland, Associated Press/RealCities.com, Nov. 8).

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Italy: Parliament Approves Troops

The Italian Parliament yesterday approved deployment of 2,700 troops—including specialists in nuclear, chemical and biological warfare—to support the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan (see GSN, Nov. 7).

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U.S.-Russia: Likely to Reach Agreement on ABM and Reductions

By Kerry Boyd

Global Security Newswire

Russia and the United States are likely to reach an agreement on reductions in nuclear weapons and modification to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty when Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with U.S. President George W. Bush at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, next week, said Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Tuesday.

An agreement has become more attainable after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States because relations have warmed between the two countries, Cirincione said at a Carnegie conference on the upcoming summit.  Before the attacks, Bush’s top security priority was implementing national missile defense plans, but now the first priority is combating terrorism, he said, adding that Sept. 11 did little to change views on national missile defense but drastically changed the international relations environment. 

Unique Opportunity

Several other experts agreed that the Crawford meeting would present a historically unique opportunity to move past Cold War strategies and achieve new arms control goals.  Karl Inderfurth, senior advisor of the Nuclear Threat Reduction Campaign, said Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals are still in Cold War mode, since they have a combined total of 13,000 long-range nuclear weapons specifically designed to attack each other.  He said he hoped the presidents would use their new opportunity to move beyond the Cold War era.  (Click here to read Inderfurth’s op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times.)

Kenneth Myers, legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), said it is a positive sign that the Crawford meeting is taking place despite the U.S. state of war. 

Suggestions

Bush wants to avoid formal treaties and incorporate informal agreements into a new security framework that bypasses obsolete treaties, Cirincione said, adding that Bush thinks his approach would increase security and improve relations between the two countries. 

Bush’s approach, however, could seriously backfire if U.S.-Russian relations soured, Cirincione said.  If relations worsened, U.S. congressional support for cooperative threat reduction programs could diminish.  Russia could sell missiles or countermeasures against missile defense interceptors to other countries.  Cirincione said he did not know the likelihood of any worst-case scenarios but said the United States should not take the risk of U.S.-Russian relations taking a negative turn.  (Click here to read “What If the New Strategic Framework Goes Bad?” by Joseph Cirincione and Jon Wolfsthal, published in Arms Control Today.) 

Instead, Bush should take the opportunity offered by current good relations to negotiate formal agreements, Cirincione said.  The two countries could negotiate an agreement to cut their nuclear forces down to between 1,500 and 2,000 deployed nuclear warheads (see GSN, Nov. 2) and modify the ABM Treaty to allow expanded testing, he added.

Inderfurth and Cirincione said any agreements discussed at Crawford should be transparent and verifiable (see GSN, Nov. 5).

Post-Crawford

Any agreements coming out of the meeting will cost money for both countries, Myers said, and Russia would need U.S. assistance, not only to dismantle weapons but also to store and secure fissile material removed from the weapons.  Continuing activities under the Nunn-Lugar cooperative threat reduction assistance program would be the first step, he said. 

The United States should also continue to offer assistance to upgrade physical security at nuclear sites, such as mending fences and installing secure doors, said Rose Gottemoeller of the Carnegie Endowment, although she added that the Russians have refused such U.S. assistance at several sites and suggested the presidents include that issue in their discussions at Crawford.

Swapping Debt Relief for Nonproliferation Cooperation

Policymakers also should formulate creative new tools to finance nonproliferation projects, such as offering debt relief in exchange for increased Russian cooperation in nonproliferation efforts, Myers and Gottemoeller said.  Andrew Kuchins of the Carnegie Endowment said Germany holds more Russian debt than any other country, and the United States holds a minority.  Myers said Europe currently provides little funding for nonproliferation programs in Russia, so the United States could probably convince some European states to provide an amount of debt relief for Russia in exchange for increased nonproliferation efforts. 

Representative John Spratt (D-S.C.) said he liked the idea of offering debt relief for nonproliferation and suggested the International Monetary Fund could provide some debt relief in exchange for highly enriched Russian uranium. 

Radiological Weapons

Nonproliferation efforts should include protecting radioactive material in addition to weapon-grade nuclear material, especially since the possibility of a radiological attack has recently increased (see GSN, Nov. 2), Gottemoeller said.  The United States should invest more in efforts to control such materials, she said, adding that the Nuclear Safety Program achieved many of its goals, so its budget has been diminished from its original $30 million.  The program should return to its original funding level, she said.

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U.S.-Russia: Bush Has Decided on U.S. Nuclear Reductions Proposal

U.S. President George W. Bush has chosen a level to which the United States could reduce its strategic nuclear forces, Bush said yesterday in Washington (see GSN, Nov. 5).  Bush will communicate his proposal to Russian President Vladimir Putin when he visits the United States next week.

“I have reached a decision,” Bush said, but told White House reporters “it’s best that I share with Mr. Putin the acceptable level of offensive weapons with him before I do with you.”

Bush commented, “I’ve told the American people that the United States will move to reduce our offensive weapons to a level commensurate with being able to keep the peace and, at the same time, much lower levels than have been negotiated in previous arms control agreements.”

“We don’t need an arms control agreement to convince us to reduce our nuclear weapons down substantially, and I’m going to do it” (U.S. State Department release, Nov. 7).

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India: Leaders Sign Deal to Build Russian-Designed Power Reactors

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement Tuesday to build a nuclear power plant in southern India (see GSN, Nov. 6). The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board also has established comprehensive mechanisms to review the safety of the plant’s two Russian light water nuclear power reactors, the Press Trust of India reported yesterday.

To reduce radioactive leaks, each of the two Russian 1,000-megawatt reactors would be doubly contained with negative pressure in the space between the two containment structures. The inner structure would consist of a one-meter layer of concrete lined with eight millimeters of steel on the inside. Vents would prevent pressure buildup in the event of an accident. The reactors would have passive heat removal systems, many control rods, fast-acting shutdown systems and “state-of-the-art” instrumentation and control systems, the Press Trust reported (Press Trust of India, Nov. 7).

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Iran: Putin Denies Nuclear Weapon Support

Russian President Vladimir Putin denied charges that Russia has provided nuclear weapon technology to Iran, in an ABC News interview recorded Monday and broadcast last night.

“It is a legend that has nothing to do with reality,” Putin said.

“We are selling weapons, conventional weapons, to Iran.  We have not ever, ever sold anything to Iran out of the range of technology or information that would help Iran develop missiles or weapons of mass destruction. 

“We have some projects in atomic energy.  The United States has the same projects in its relations with North Korea,” Putin said (ABC News release, Nov. 8).

An Israeli Cabinet minister rejected Putin’s denials, however.  “The central support for the Iranian nuclear project is provided by Russia,” said Israeli Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh, a former general (Barry Schweid, Associated Press, Nov. 7).

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U.S. Response:  CDC Wants Quarantine Powers

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to allow states to enact quarantines in the event of a biological warfare attack, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said Tuesday. 

“If we did have an outbreak of smallpox, that would be, certainly, one of the avenues that we would have to quickly explore,” Thompson said.  A biological warfare attack would force the government to create “concentric circles” of containment in order to inoculate people and prevent the spread of disease, he said.

The CDC’s proposed emergency health powers act, developed with the National Governors Association and other groups, states that a person under quarantine would “obey the public health authority’s rules and orders.”  Failure to obey would be a misdemeanor.  The plan also would allow states to commandeer “appropriate property as necessary for the care, treatment and housing of patients” (Eunice Moscoso, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 7).  Other features of the plan would require pharmacies to report surges in prescriptions that might indicate a bioterrorism attack was underway and allow states to access health data and order medical examinations.

Governors in many states already have limited quarantine powers, according to USA Today.  The proposed act would broaden their authority into other areas, such as compulsory vaccinations.  “Every state’s government needs to go back and make sure they have the necessary legal framework to address properly a large scale bioterrorism attack,” said Maryland’s Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene Georges Benjamin (Larry Copeland, USA Today, Nov. 8).  

Mobilized National Guard units would enforce the CDC’s authority, said former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Witt.  “If you look at something that’s really contagious, you can try to limit the area that it would be in as much as possible,” Witt said.  He added that the real question, however, was: “How far would you go in containing it?”

It is likely that people would attempt to evade restrictions in the event of quarantine, experts said.  “What are your rules of engagement?” asked ANSER Institute of Homeland Defense Director Randy Larsen.  Would a National Guard soldier, Larsen asked, shoot a grandmother trying to evade the quarantine?  “You have to use all reasonable force to exercise that power,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University Center for Law and the Public Health.  That could include lethal force, Gostin said (Seth Borenstein, Knight-Ridder/RealCities.com, Nov. 7). 

CDC Flush With Funds

It’s never been easier for the CDC to obtain funding, said Georgia’s Senators Max Cleland (D) and Zell Miller (D).  “It’s on the front burner big time because people realize the CDC is a national security agency now,” Cleland said.  “It doesn’t just track flu in Philadelphia or diseases in Africa.  It now is going to help us prevent major loss of life, but it’s got to be dramatically upgraded.”

One of those upgrades is a new CDC headquarters, to which a Senate spending panel has allocated $250 million.  President George W. Bush’s request was for $150 million, which would have finished construction in 10 years.  The new money is expected to cut the construction time in half, according to TB & Outbreaks Week. 

The full Senate and House of Representatives must approve the additional funding and Bush must sign it, but Georgia’s senators said they are not worried.  “There’s always been a small group in both the Senate and the House, and also those in federal agencies, who understood how important the CDC is, Miller said.  “But I would say your average congressman did not.  Now they do.”

The CDC’s fiscal 2002 budget will total $4.4 million if all funding requests are approved, according to TB & Outbreaks Week.  “We would have limped along, business as usual,” Cleland said.  “Now four weeks later, we’ve got a record budget passed” (TB & Outbreaks Week, Nov. 6).

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Anthrax:  Washington Postal Worker Called 911 Before Dying

A Washington postal worker called 911 to contact emergency personnel on the day he died from inhalation anthrax and told the operator he had been near a letter that contained a suspicious powder, the Washington Post reported today.  Meanwhile, government officials said the United States should remain on alert as the investigation into the recent U.S. anthrax incidents continued (see GSN, Nov. 8).

Thomas Morris, who worked at the anthrax-tainted Brentwood Road mail facility (see GSN, Oct. 23), told 911 operators he believed he had been exposed to a suspicious powder that contained anthrax when he was in the vicinity of a fellow worker who handled an envelope with the powder inside a week earlier.  He started to feel ill on Oct. 16 and went to the doctor two days later, he said, but the doctor said he was suffering from a virus and recommended Tylenol. 

Postal officials had told him that tests results on the powder for anthrax had come back negative, Morris told the 911 operator, but “I have a tendency not to believe these people.”

The letter Morris mentioned passed through the Brentwood Road facility on Oct. 13, which may have been the same time that an anthrax-tainted letter sent to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) also went through the facility, according to the Post.  The coincidence is startling, postal officials said.  The letter Morris talked about, however, was not the same as the Daschle letter and did not contain anthrax, Postal Service Vice President Deborah Willhite said.

The letter Morris mentioned was set aside when someone noticed powder leaking out of it and taken to the FBI for testing, Willhite said.  “It was torn enough that powder was coming out of it,” she said.  “The FBI had it tested, and it came back negative and the workers were informed that it was negative” (Justin Blum, Washington Post, Nov. 8).

Source Remains Unknown

The source of the anthrax used in the recent incidents was still unknown, Office of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said yesterday in a press briefing.  “The investigation continues to preserve—we haven’t included or excluded either a domestic or an international source for the anthrax,” he said.  “There have been some suggestions that it could be domestic, but that has not been confirmed in any manner, shape or form” (U.S. State Department transcript, Nov. 7).

Baby’s Case Enters Medical Journal

The case of a 7-month-old baby boy of an ABC employee who contracted skin anthrax (see GSN, Oct. 16), in a location where no traces of anthrax had been found, was so rare it caused the New England Journal of Medicine to report the case, according to USA Today.

The lesion on the boy’s arm was initially believed to be a spider bite, said New York City physician Mary Wu Chang.  “This was before the first New York anthrax case was known,” Chang said.  Later tests would determine the cause was skin anthrax, a diagnosis doctors had not considered because they had no reason to, according to Chang.  “In the whole country, there would be very few doctors who’ve seen anthrax,” she said.  “It’s just so rare, unless you’re in a place with infected cattle.  This was Manhattan.”

The symptoms of the lesion, however, matched those of skin anthrax, according to USA Today.  The arm was swollen from shoulder to hand and a sore on the elbow oozed out a sticky yellow fluid.  The wound did not hurt, which is typical of anthrax, doctors said.  “It looks terrible but it’s painless,” Chang said.  “He didn’t feel 100 percent, but he would play and interact as if he wasn’t really ill.” 

The boy’s doctors chose to submit pictures of the lesion to the medical journal so other doctors could recognize the symptoms of skin anthrax and learn how to diagnose it early.  The journal decided to release the article on the boy’s case before the issue’s Nov. 29 publication date because of “public health concerns” (Steve Sternberg, USA Today, Nov. 7).

Postal Workers Try to Close Facilities

The anthrax-tainted Bellmawr postal facility in New Jersey (see GSN, Nov. 1) was closed again yesterday after workers complained that clean up efforts had failed.  The South Jersey Area American Postal Workers union asked a federal judge to close the facility after a government-hired contractor cleaned the wrong machine.  A hearing has been set for next week to determine if Bellmawr should remain closed, according to the Associated Press (Associated Press/New York Daily News, Nov. 8).

Compressed air used to clean mail-sorting machines at the Morgan mail facility in New York City are likely responsible for the spread of anthrax there, a public health expert testified yesterday.  The New York Metro Area Postal Union has filed suit to close the Morgan facility after spores were found on five machines there. 

Whoever sent the anthrax “lucked into a perfect vector” as the bacteria and fears spread, Columbia University Professor Jeanne Stellman said (Jim Fitzgerald, Associated Press/RealCities.com, Nov. 8).

Perpetrators May Have Killed Themselves in Attack, Experts Say

Investigators are working with coroners’ offices to examine if those responsible behind the recent anthrax incidents may have killed themselves in the process, a health official said yesterday.  “There may be perpetrators that may be ill and may have died” from handling the anthrax, said Scott Lillibridge, a bioterrorism advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.

Officials in New Jersey, where two of the anthrax-tainted letters may have originated, are looking through coroners’ records for deaths that may have resulted from anthrax, said State Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman Emily Hornaday.  “They just haven’t found anything at this point,” Hornaday said.

Some experts, however, are unsure that those responsible would have infected themselves. “If they knew anything about anthrax, they would have been on antibiotics beforehand,” said Greg Ackerman, a researcher at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies.  “They would have limited exposure as much as possible” (Seth Borenstein, Knight-Ridder/RealCities.com, Nov. 8).

World Anthrax Cases

Preliminary testing on a suspicious powder found at an oil company in Vietnam came back positive, a Vietnamese Ministry of Health official said today.  Another sample of the powder is being retested at the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi, the official said. 

The powder was found between pieces of folded paper in a BP Petco meeting room in Ho Chi Minh City, General Manager John Kilgour said.  Until conclusive test results were available, all findings were “purely speculative,” Kilgour said (Associated Press/RealCities.com, Nov. 8). 

A letter mailed to the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan tested negative for anthrax (see GSN, Nov. 6), U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday.  Preliminary tests by Pakistan on the letter had tested positive.  Further testing done at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, however, came back negative, Boucher said.  “Speculation about foreign origins of anthrax spores is rather uncalled for, one might say, given the result,” Boucher said (Alan Sipress, Washington Post, Nov. 8).  

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Smallpox: Small Drug Makers Offer Cheaper Vaccines; More

Three small vaccine manufacturers that lost the first bidding round for a smallpox vaccine contract with the United States said yesterday they could supply the requested 250 million doses at a lower price than the larger companies still being considered.  Their claim came the day after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said his original request of $509 million was substantially inadequate in light of proposals from remaining competitors (see GSN, Nov. 7).

Louis Potash of Novavax, a company eliminated from the bidding a week ago, said his company could have met the government’s requested price of $2 per dose, lower than any of the remaining bids.  Some small companies have already done research work on smallpox vaccine in the last two years and said they have the viral seed stock to produce the vaccines quickly and cheaply if they rented space at larger laboratories. 

The larger companies, however, would have to “spend a couple months figuring out what to do,” said an official at Dynport, which currently is developing a smallpox vaccine under a U.S. Army contract.  The Army told Dynport to give its viral seed stock to Merck, a company still in negotiations for a contract, the official said.

The three remaining competitors for a government contract are Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and a partnership between Acambis and Baxter International.  Thompson said his department was basing its decision not only on price but also on speed, safety and effectiveness.

Liability

Meanwhile, Congress has been debating whether the federal government or drug companies should accept the burden of liability for a smallpox vaccine.  Doctors have predicted that vaccinating the entire U.S. population against smallpox would result in hundreds of deaths and another 1,000 or more cases of brain damage from the vaccine, so drug companies have asked the federal government to provide them with immunity. 

Representative Billy Tauzin (R-La.) said yesterday the government should accept liability (Keith Bradsher, New York Times, Nov. 8). 

Scientists Speed Efforts

U.S. scientists have dramatically increased efforts to develop drugs to prevent or treat diseases such as smallpox or anthrax that could be used in bioterrorism attacks, the Washington Post reported today.  Private-sector scientists have been working overtime and breaking through usual bureaucratic barriers in an attempt to protect the United States from terrorists.

“A lot of people would say we won World War II with the help of a mighty industrial base.  In this new war against bioterrorism, the mighty industrial power is the pharmaceutical company,” said Michael Friedman, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration official now charged with coordinating the pharmaceutical industry’s efforts.

Pharmacia Corp. in New Jersey made an unprecedented offer to allow government scientists access to its confidential libraries of millions of compounds—one of the company’s greatest assets—to look for drugs that could fight bioweapon agents.  Other companies have indicated they would also grant government scientists access if asked (Justin Gillis, Washington Post, Nov. 8).

Canadian Germ Squads Vaccinated

Canadians responsible for responding to potential smallpox terrorist attacks have been vaccinated against the disease (see GSN, Nov. 7), Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock said, according to a report today in the Ottawa Sun. The action came shortly after the United States began vaccinating its first-responders (see GSN, Nov. 6).  “We’ve already vaccinated here in Canada people who are working on the preparation for the remote possibility of smallpox.  And we’ll continue to do that as appropriate,” Rock said.

Canada Considers Stockpiling Vaccines and Looks At Cost

Rock also said he was considering stockpiling enough smallpox vaccine doses for every Canadian, contrary to an announcement last week that he had decided against such a move (see GSN, Oct. 31).  “We’re not talking about vaccinating our populations now, but having the capacity to do so in the future if necessary,” he said (Stephanie Rubec, Ottawa Sun, Nov. 8).

Canadian officials have revised the estimated cost of ordering 30 to 32 million doses of the vaccine after the United States announced the cost would exceed its original estimates.  Stockpiling the vaccine could cost Canada around $400 million, four times more than originally planned, according to the Ottawa Citizen (Ian MacLeod, Ottawa Citizen, Nov. 8).

Germany Buys Vaccines

Germany has ordered six million smallpox vaccine doses to respond to concerns about biological terrorist attacks, German Health Minister Ulla Schmidt said yesterday.  Germany would spend about $46 million for the vaccines and take additional steps toward increasing smallpox vaccine production, Schmidt said (Agence France-Presse, Nov. 8).

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Vaccine Supply: Government Should Oversee Vaccines, Academy Says

Private companies are unable to develop and produce the vaccines that the United States needs, so the federal government must shoulder the task, members of the National Academy of Sciences said on Monday.

In an open letter to the Bush administration, the 22 members of the academy’s Council of the Institute of Medicine cited evidence that the private sector cannot meet the country’s basic vaccine needs. For example, tetanus and flu vaccines are in short supply, a vaccine against pneumonia-causing bacteria is unavailable in several states, and vaccines for meningitis and measles-mumps-rubella are each made by only one manufacturer.

The threat of bioterrorism poses additional problems, such as delays in developing and procuring vaccines against anthrax and smallpox (see GSN, Nov. 7). The council members said that, beyond the media hype, recent concerns about vaccine shortages are only one example of a greater national need that has been building since the early 1990s. An entity such as a national vaccine authority is “long overdue,” they said.

Only four major vaccine manufacturers are operating in the world today—including two in the United States—compared with four times that many 20 years ago, according to the council. Small venture firms produce good vaccines but often cannot finance the costs of clinical trials and manufacturing necessary to bring their products to market (National Academy of Sciences release, Nov. 5).

A national vaccine authority could spur private vaccine development by guaranteeing prices or financing vaccine research, the council said. The authority could oversee a government vaccine factory and facilitate communication among researchers. It also could ensure that large federally approved factories are available to produce emergency supplies while ensuring that routine vaccines are not ignored, and it could potentially protect against lawsuits (Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press, Nov. 6).

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Iraq: Defectors Describe Camp Where Weapons Were Made

Two Iraqi defectors said yesterday that they had worked at a covert Iraqi government camp that produced biological weapons and trained Islamic terrorists.  At the site at Salman Pak, terrorists trained to carry out attacks against neighboring countries, and even Europe and the United States, the defectors said. An Iraqi group that wants to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein introduced the two men to the New York Times, the newspaper reported.

“We were training these people to attack installations important to the United States,” said one defector, a lieutenant general and a former senior official in the Iraqi intelligence service, the Mukhabarat.  “The Gulf War never ended for Saddam Hussein.  He is at war with the United States.  We were repeatedly told this.”

Inside Salman Pak was a highly guarded compound headed by a German, where Iraqi scientists worked to create biological agents, according to the defectors.  The German had been described as “the man who caused all our problems in 1991,” the general said.  The compound where the biological agents were said to be produced was bombed during the Gulf War, he said. 

The general said there was a lot he did not know about the workings of Salman Pak.  “We were forbidden to speak about our activities among each other, even off duty.  But over the years you see and hear things.  These Islamic radicals were a scruffy lot,” he said.

Iraq had told U.N. inspectors that the camp was an anti-terrorism training camp for Iraqi special forces, said Richard Sperzel, former head of the U.N. biological weapons inspection teams in Iraq.  “But many of us had our own private suspicions,” Sperzel said.  “We had nothing specific as evidence.  Yet among ourselves we always referred to it as the terrorist training camp” (Chris Hedges, New York Times, Nov. 8).

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ABM Treaty: Bush Opposes Treaty, But Willing to Hear Putin

U.S. President George W. Bush is “willing to listen” to proposals that Russian President Vladimir Putin might offer on the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (see GSN, Nov. 7), Bush said yesterday in Washington.  The two presidents are scheduled to meet next week in Washington and Texas.

“Listen, the ABM Treaty is outmoded and outdated, and we need to move beyond it,” Bush said, “[but if Putin’s] got some interesting suggestions on how to make the ABM Treaty not outdated and not outmoded, I’m more than willing to listen” (U.S. State Department release, Nov. 7).

The Bush administration was not, however, interested in amending the treaty, a senior administration official said yesterday.  The official praised Russia for its “stunning change” in attitude over the treaty, but said “the amendment route is not something we’re considering.”  The treaty is “dangerous” and “an impediment to relations with Russia,” the official said (Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times, Nov. 8).

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Radiological Weapons: German Police to Guard Waste Shipment

More than 15,000 German police officers will be available to help guard a shipment next week of nuclear waste from France to a storage site in Germany, officials said yesterday.  In the wake of renewed warnings on the threat to nuclear facilities, European governments have increased protections at sites within their borders, according to recent reports.

A shipment of six containers of nuclear waste from a reprocessing plant in France is scheduled to arrive at a storage site in Gorleben, Germany.  Anti-nuclear activists have said they would disrupt the shipment (Reuters/Planet Ark, Nov. 8).  Militant anti-nuclear activists are suspected to be responsible for a fire under an iron bridge in late October along the waste shipment route, German police said.  The stretch of railway has been a frequent target of activists, who had earlier been able to delay shipments of nuclear waste by chaining themselves to the tracks, according to Reuters.

Nuclear waste shipments were stopped for several years because of safety concerns, but were restarted after plans were made to phase out nuclear power in Germany, according to Reuters (Reuters/Planet Ark, Oct. 25).

Europe Reviews Nuclear Plant Security

European governments said they are reviewing security at nuclear facilities after a warning last week from the International Atomic Energy Agency (see GSN, Nov. 2).  An act of nuclear terrorism was far more likely than previously thought, said IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei (Reuters/Planet Ark, Nov. 2). 

In Great Britain, military reserve forces may be deployed to defend nuclear plants, the Ministry of Defense said Monday.  British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon ordered a reevaluation of the 1998 strategic defense review that will concentrate on “homeland defense,” an official said Sunday. “I think there may emerge from this review a greater role for a military presence in the UK,” Hoon said.  “I would not want to use regular forces for that purpose.  I can see the [Territorial Army] may be involved in that.”

Royal Air Force fighter jets have been ordered to intercept any aircraft hijacked by terrorists approaching London and the joint RAF-army nuclear, biological and chemical regiment is on standby in the event of a terrorist attack using chemical or biological weapons, according to the London Guardian (Richard Norton-Taylor, London Guardian, Nov. 5).  

British Energy, the country’s largest nuclear power generator, told the government no-fly zones should be put in place over the company’s power plants.  Interest in nuclear plant security increased after several media organizations flew over the company’s nuclear power plants with small aircraft and helicopters, said British Energy spokesman Bob Fenton.  “There are media stunts going on at the moment, but I am not sure what they prove,” Fenton said.  “We could have told them there are not any no-fly zones.”

 Some nuclear sites, such as military installations and several power plants run by British Nuclear Fuels, did have no-fly zones, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.  “The CAA can put in place no-fly zones, but the request has to come from the government,” a CAA spokeswoman said (Reuters/Planet Ark, Nov. 5).

France

France has tightened security around the country’s most dangerous nuclear facilities, according to TerraViva.  New security precautions include radar units and anti-aircraft missiles deployed around France’s main nuclear reprocessing plant at La Hague.  The minimum flying zone for airplanes over the plant has been raised to 1,000 meters, according to TerraViva.  Radar units and missiles have also been deployed at the French nuclear submarine harbor at Brest.

In protests in several cities throughout France two weeks ago, more than 10,000 demonstrators called on the government to give up nuclear power.  “For more than 20 years now, people laughed at us because we warned that a plane accident could destroy a nuclear power plant,” said Green Party Secretary Dominique Voynet, who led demonstrations in Lyon.  “We didn’t have in mind terrorism, we didn’t think of a big plane, such as a jumbo, seized by terrorists and loaded with hundreds of tonnes of fuel,” Voynet said.  “Now everyone, who laughed at us, wants to prevent such an attack” (Inter Press Service/TerraViva, Nov. 8).

Russia

Russian Defense Ministry staff were being trained to deal with chemical and biological weapons along with the threat of “nuclear terrorism,” Viktor Kholstov, head of the Radiation, Chemical and Bacteriological Defense Forces, said last week.

“[We are taking] measures for the preparation of our staff so that they will be able to understand and identify the threats,” Kholstov said.  “There are detective stories about transporting nuclear substances.  But we should take into consideration the possibility of such a situation in real life” (Reuters/Planet Ark, Nov. 5).

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