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Some days I feel the creation of this homeland security department is like a boulder rushing down the mountain, accumulating more moss and rocks and pebbles, and nobody wants to stand in front of it to change or stop it.
—U.S. Representative Tim Roemer (D-Ind.), on passage of legislation for the proposed department by the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.
By Bryan Bender
Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department should quadruple its overall annual investments in biological science and technology research from $250 million to $1 billion a year, according to a new Pentagon study that says the military has failed to exploit developments in the life sciences...Full Story 
The U.S. State Department confirmed Friday that the United States has imposed sanctions on 10 entities for selling weapons of mass destruction components to Iran (see GSN, July 19)...Full Story
Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups are behind an increase of piracy against ships transporting radioactive materials through the Malacca Straits between Indonesia and Malaysia, the Bangkok Post reported today...Full Story
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The House Select Committee on Homeland Security voted 5-4 Friday to approve legislation to create a homeland security department (see GSN, July 18). The full House of Representatives is expected to consider the legislation as early as Wednesday.
The bill generally adheres to the Bush administration’s proposal for the department, according to the Washington Post. The legislation would transfer 22 U.S. agencies — including the Coast Guard, Customs Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the enforcement arm of the Immigration and Naturalization Service — to the new department (see GSN, July 12).
One area of contention for the committee was a Dec. 31 deadline for airports to inspect every passenger’s baggage for explosives, according to the Post. While airport executives have said they could not meet the deadline for installing the needed technology, Democrats on the committee were against the extension.
“When the next bombs explode on an airplane, I don’t want to look those families in the eye and say we were waiting for some new kind of technology,” said New Jersey Democrat Robert Mendez (Miller/Eilperin, Washington Post, July 20).
Many members of the House, including Democrats on the committee who voted against the bill, said they expected it to receive bipartisan support, the Post reported.
“As long as there’s a fair process, I think the bill will pass, and probably with a very large vote,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Martin Frost (D-Texas).
Representative Tim Roemer (D-Ind.), who has criticized the Bush administration’s plan for the department, said there is probably little that would hinder the bill’s speedy approval in the full House (see GSN, July 15).
“Some days I feel the creation of this Homeland Security Department is like a boulder rushing down the mountain, accumulating more moss and rocks and pebbles, and nobody wants to stand in front of it to change or stop it,” he said (Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post, July 21).
Senate
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee is expected to finish drafting the Senate version of homeland security department legislation by Wednesday, the Post reported. Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) has released recommendations that generally follow the White House proposal. Lieberman, however, wants to give the proposed department more access to intelligence information (Miller/Eilperin, Washington Post).
Senate Democrats have indicated they plan to challenge the White House only on small details of the proposed homeland security department and not the bulk of the plan, the Post reported.
“It’s hard to find a member of Congress who’s against creating a department of homeland security,” Lieberman said. “I haven’t found one.”
Some senators, however, have said that Congress is moving too fast in attempting to complete work on the proposed department by the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the Post. Congress might be giving too much power to the executive branch, said Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.).
“We’re scared to death and here we are, rushing a massive reorganization into effect,” Byrd said. “In the meantime, who’s watching the store?” (Eilperin, Washington Post).
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The U.S. State Department confirmed Friday that the United States has imposed sanctions on 10 entities for selling weapons of mass destruction components to Iran (see GSN, July 19). Officials have sanctioned eight Chinese companies, one Chinese national and one Indian national, according to the Washington Times.
The Iran-Iraq Arms Nonproliferation Act of 1992 and the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 govern the sanctions, which limit the entities’ access to U.S. technology, State spokesman Richard Boucher said (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, July 20).
All 10 entities were sanctioned under the Iran-Iraq law and eight were also sanctioned under the chemical and biological weapons control act, he said. Sanctions imposed under the Iran-Iraq Nonproliferation Act last for two years, while the sanctions imposed under the chemical and biological weapons law are effective for one year, Boucher said (U.S. State Department release, July 19).
State notified China about the sanctions Thursday, White House officials said. The event marks the fourth time the Bush administration has imposed sanctions on Chinese companies over proliferation concerns. Some of the enitities penalized last week have been targeted by earlier sanctions, Boucher said.
“I would note that in some of these cases, some of these entities are already under sanctions and, therefore, the sanctions are cumulative on those entities,” he said. “But some of these entities are new” (Gertz, Washington Times).
China Criticizes Sanctions
China today criticized the U.S. move, calling it “unreasonable.”
“China expresses its opposition and displeasure with the unreasonable sanctions by the United States,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement. China abides by international nonproliferation agreements and has a strict set of export controls, the ministry said (see GSN, June 14).
“We have consistently abided by our international obligations, made a series of corresponding laws and regulations and conducted strict controls on the export of relevant items,” it said (Reuters/New York Times, July 22).
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention inaugurated two new laboratories Friday in Chamblee, Ga., including one designed to help improve U.S. defenses against chemical weapons (see GSN, July 15).
The CDC toxin laboratory has the capability to analyze 120 chemical weapons agents, including nerve agents, which terrorists might use in an attack, said James Pirkle of the CDC National Center for Environmental Health. In the event of such an attack, the facility would be able to identify the agents used and who is affected, he said.
“This is like a lab of BMWs and Mercedeses,” Pirkle said. “This is the premier lab in the world” (Erin McClam, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, July 20).
U.S. President George W. Bush was scheduled to visit Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago today to view demonstrations of laboratory inventions that might help prevent terrorism (see GSN, April 22). The president would use the opportunity to promote his homeland security department plan, according to the Associated Press (Scott Lindlaw, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, July 22).
Argonne began several projects relevant to homeland defense years ago but decided to expand some after Sept. 11, said Harvey Drucker, the laboratory’s national security research coordinator. For example, officials decided to adapt technology designed to detect anthrax during an outdoor military campaign to monitor buildings or subway systems instead, he said.
“This is not a defense laboratory. We don’t think about weapons,” Drucker said. “But we are pretty good at doing science and developing new technologies.”
The laboratory, owned by the Energy Department and operated by the University of Chicago, has also developed a chemical sensor that can detect cyanide gas and other dangerous agents.
“We’re not the only ones who have developed them, but we have made very small devices that have high sensitivity that can give you a quick analysis,” Drucker said.
Argonne scientists have also created a portable detector that can find concealed radioactive materials and determine what types of materials are present, Drucker said (Maura Kelly, Associated Press, July 21).
Under Bush’s homeland security proposal, Argonne would continue to be directed by the Energy Department but would receive some research funding from the proposed department, said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for Homeland Security Office (Lindlaw, Associated Press/Yahoo.com).
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India’s nuclear arsenal is secure and the country plans to continue its no-first-use policy on nuclear weapons, President-elect Abdul Kalam said recently (see GSN, July 18).
“Nuclear command and control is mostly for deployment,” Kalam wrote in response to questions from the Wall Street Journal. “Regarding the accidents, necessary safety procedures and protocols are in place. With [India’s] nuclear weapons policy of ‘no-first-use,’ India is strong in both,” Kalam wrote.
Kalam, who is considered the father of the country’s missile program, is expected to be inaugurated president Thursday. The position of Indian president is mostly ceremonial, but Kalam’s responsibilities technically are to include acting as commander-in-chief of the armed forces (Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, July 22).
U.S. Employees Return
Meanwhile, U.S. government employees and their families have received permission to return to India after leaving the country in June, the U.S. State Department said today (see GSN, June 3).
“Although the risk of renewed, increased tensions between India and Pakistan cannot be ruled out, tensions have subsided,” the department statement said, adding that U.S. citizens should not travel to the Indian-Pakistani border or the disputed Kashmir region.
Officials had previously issued a warning advising Americans to leave India because there was a “small chance” of nuclear war between the two rivals, U.S. Ambassador Robert Blackwill said (Associated Press/New York Times, July 22).
Straw Fails to Win Promises
In Pakistan Saturday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that India and Pakistan have made progress since tensions were particularly high in May, but “more needs to be done” (Ian Fisher, New York Times, July 21).
Pakistan told Straw, however, that it is unwilling to make new promises to try to achieve peace with India, according to the Times of India.
“Islamabad has already taken measures that it could take to ease tensions, and it is not prepared to do more,” Pakistani official Inamul Haq said (Press Trust of India/Times of India, July 22).
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to arrive in Pakistan July 28 after visiting India (Fisher, New York Times, July 21).
For further information, see:
Stimson Center Background on Kashmir
Pakistani Embassy to the United States
Indian Embassy to the United States
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By Bryan Bender
Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department should quadruple its overall annual investments in biological science and technology research from $250 million to $1 billion a year, according to a new Pentagon study that says the military has failed to exploit developments in the life sciences.
The Defense Science Board, an internal Pentagon advisory group, completed a report this month recommending that the military immediately undertake a 20-year effort to dramatically reduce the time it takes to make viable drug treatments available once a new pathogen has been identified.
“A credible defense to deter biological warfare will require [the Defense Department] to tap promptly and effectively into the vast and expanding expertise in biotechnology,” says the report, Defense Science and Technology. “Currently, [Defense Department] relationships with industry and academia are weak in this area, with limited expertise within the military.”
The study was headed by Anita Jones, a former Pentagon director of defense research and engineering, and Larry Lynn, a former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and assistant secretary of defense for advanced technology.
Catch-Up With Biotechnology Industry
The study concludes that the Pentagon is poorly prepared for the threat of biological warfare — terrorists can already choose from a menu of more than 100 naturally occurring microorganisms — because it has not taken advantage of commercial advances in the life sciences over the past two decades.
“The department has largely failed to exploit the rapid developments in the life sciences, and as a result is behind in its ability to combat the threat posed by these advances and to attract the necessary talent to develop the needed capability,” it says.
In 1980, venture capitalists invested $500 million in healthcare, but in 2000 those investments totaled $5 billion, according to the report. The military, by substantially increasing its annual expenditures on biological science and technology research, can help reorient parts of the biotechnology community away from civilian lifesaving and commercial opportunities — its primary focus — toward military biological defense concerns, the report says.
According to the science board, the military’s biotechnology interests cover a variety of areas including agent-defeat weapons and technology for indications and warning, characterization and response, detection, prediction and protection. These capabilities, however, must address both known and unknown biological agents, according to the report.
“The nature of the agents used might be very different than expected and thus could defeat warning and response systems,” the report says.
Bug-to-Drug in 24 Hours
Rapid identification of biological agents and their appropriate treatments is a major challenge, according to the study.
“Biological weapons are weapons of terror because the United States lacks adequate therapeutic responses,” it says. “The ability to generate a therapeutic response and control of the consequences would be a deterrent.”
Shortening what the science board calls the “bug-to-drug” process of drug development requires a 20-year program at a cost of at least $100 million per year to compress key elements that currently take between 10 and 15 years and cost an estimated $500 million per drug. Under this program, the Defense Department should set 2005 as a goal for compressing the bug-to-drug process from years to months, the study says. Meanwhile, researchers should develop therapeutics for the top 50 known biological warfare agents.
By 2010, the report calls for compressing the drug development process to weeks and dramatically shortening toxicity and safety screening for new drugs. The drug manufacturing process should be compressed by 50 percent and the construction of large manufacturing facilities should be initiated, the study says.
“By 2020, the [Defense Department] should create the capability to compress the overall process from identification of a new pathogen to a viable drug to 24 hours” under emergency conditions, according to the report. Manufacturing facilities should initiate production, “and the process for emergency manufacture should be brought to within days or weeks.”
The project will require “significant collaborative efforts” between industry, academic and government personnel, according to the report. “The collateral benefits and implications for world health are staggering.”
The Bush administration has warned that field tests used to detect anthrax when suspicious materials are discovered are too unreliable, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, May 28).
“This equipment does not pass acceptable standards for effectiveness,” said John Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a memo to be issued today to local officials, emergency responders and more than 250 federal agencies. “Field testing ... is not recommended and should not be used.”
Anthrax field tests often issue false positive results or fail to detect trace amounts of anthrax, according to a study conducted jointly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI. The White House memo advises officials to stop purchasing the tests and to cancel any outstanding contracts, AP reported (Laura Meckler, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, July 20)
As a “stopgap” measure, the memo advises officials to take samples to a CDC-approved laboratory for testing, said an administration official. Initial results can be determined within six hours, the official said.
President George W. Bush has noted that the United States is seeking to work with private companies to develop more capable field tests, the official said, adding that one flaw in the currently available field tests is a lack of performance standards. The National Institute for Standards and Technology is working to develop a set of uniform performance standards for anthrax field tests, the official said (Mike Nartker, GSN, July 22).
The Office of Science and Technology Policy memo also includes guidelines for handling suspicious mail and recommends that U.S. agencies stop testing mailrooms for anthrax, since most mail is now irradiated (Meckler, Associated Press).
FBI Continues Broad Search
Meanwhile, the FBI is continuing to conduct a broad investigation into last fall’s anthrax attacks and has not yet ruled out a foreign source, Time magazine reported in its July 29 issue (see GSN, July 8).
While the FBI has focused its “Amerithrax” investigation on 50 U.S. biological weapons experts, the bureau still maintains a large pool of potential suspects, according to Time. Investigators are continuing to consider several other biological scientists as well as businesses that could have profited from the attacks, Time reported. They also have looked for evidence of anthrax in the remains of the hijackers onboard the Sept. 11 aircraft, which crashed in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon. None was found.
“Remember, it doesn’t have to be a top scientist,” said a U.S. investigator. “It could just be a good bench technician” (Cooper/Shannon, Time, July 29).
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Scientists verified Thursday that five M55 rockets were leaking the nerve agent GB at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama, officials said last week.
Workers detected a leak in a storage bunker during a routine inspection Tuesday. They identified the leaking rockets and planned to move them to a separate bunker, the Birmingham News reported Friday. All leaking munitions at the depot are now stored in two bunkers, according to the News (see GSN, July 11).
No workers were exposed to nerve agent, and the leaks posed no threat to the surrounding community, Anniston Chemical Activity official Cathy Coleman said.
Workers have discovered 743 GB rockets with leaks since 1982, according to the News.
“They’re not all going to become leakers tomorrow because we have thousands of them,” Coleman said. “But it’s just a trend that we’re watching and recognizing that’s going to grow and grow, and our workforce is aging and aging ... There aren’t a lot of people clamoring at the gates to work with these things. It’s kind of a dying ... skill.”
The Anniston depot is slated to begin burning the facility’s chemical weapons in its incinerator later this year (Darryal Ray, Birmingham News, July 19).
For further information, see:
CDC List of Chemical Agents
Federation of American Scientists Information on Chemical Weapons
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Defense contractor Lockheed Martin said Thursday that it plans to reactivate its Courtland, Ala., facility to work on boost vehicles for the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, Defense Daily reported Friday (see GSN, Dec. 14, 2001). The missiles are to be used in developmental tests for the system.
Employees at the Courtland facility are scheduled to begin assembling three-stage solid-fuel missiles in October, the company said. The first missile will probably be launched in the spring of 2003, company officials estimated, and developers will probably able to conduct the first intercept test six months later, Defense Daily reported.
Lockheed Martin is building the boost vehicles for Boeing, which is the primary contractor for the GMD program. Lockheed Martin said it would assemble and test a modification of the Boeing design known as “boost vehicle plus,” Defense Daily reported.
“This facility was designed to accommodate a range of missile defense interceptor programs, and we’re pleased to be resuming work in Courtland,” said Doug Graham, vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Defensive Systems. “The proximity to our customer, GMD prime contractor Boeing, made this site the logical choice.”
Orbital Sciences is working on an alternative booster vehicle for the program under another Boeing contract (see GSN, March 5; Defense Daily, July 19).
For further information, see:
MDA Basics of Missile Defense
MDA Missile Defense System
MDA Midcourse Defense Segment
U.S. Missile Defense 2002 Budget
The United States has rejected a proposal from Marshall Islands landowners to receive $2 billion in exchange for continued U.S. use of the Kwajalein missile defense test range, Radio New Zealand International reported today (see GSN, May 29). The United States does not regard the request as a suitable basis for negotiations, according to a U.S. State Department negotiator (Radio New Zealand International/BBC Monitoring, July 22).
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Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups are behind an increase of piracy against ships transporting radioactive materials through the Malacca Straits between Indonesia and Malaysia, the Bangkok Post reported today.
According to Panithan Watthanayakorn of Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, the organizations are trying to obtain enough radioactive material to construct a dirty bomb — a conventional explosive laced with the radioactive substances (see GSN, July 1).
“The straits are very narrow and there are no patrol vessels, so it is easy for terrorist groups to attack ships,” Panithan said. The pirates usually know the ship’s route and trap it by mooring a vessel on each side, he said.
Panithan has studied information from the International Maritime Bureau, which listed 649 cases of piracy in the straits last year. He said Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers group is another group trying to obtain radioactive materials through piracy. Panithan called on Southeast Asian countries to increase cooperation to end piracy and called on countries around the world to fight the piracy threat (Anucha Charoenpo, Bangkok Post, July 22).
U.S. Team Practices Dirty Bomb Response
Meanwhile, a U.S. national emergency team plans to practice responding to a dirty bomb threat this week in Albuquerque, N.M., the Albuquerque Journal reported Saturday (see GSN, July 15).
In the exercise, the team’s responders will begin searching the city after receiving an intelligence report that terrorists are planning a radiological attack. They will then receive a report of an explosion with orders to determine whether any radioactive material is mixed in with the debris and how far it has spread (see GSN, July 11).
The exercise will involve no actual explosions or radioactive materials, coordinator Jim Straka said. Team members will use computers to set off responders’ radiation detectors.
The team has practiced responding to radiological accidents in the past, but the upcoming exercise will be the first time they have practiced responding to a dirty bomb, Straka said (John Fleck, Albuquerque Journal, July 20).
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2002 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by the National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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