United Kingdom:  British Officials Arrest Six Men After Ricin Discovery

British officials arrested six men Sunday in connection with the discovery of the toxic poison ricin in London (see GSN, Oct. 16).

Police also detained and then released a woman Sunday, but officers from the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch are questioning the men, who are of North African origin.

Officials are conducting a forensic analysis of an address in north London, where one of the men was arrested.  Police said that “equipment and materials” were found at that location.

“We have previously said that London and indeed the rest of the U.K. continues to face a range of terrorist threats from a number of different groups,” a police statement said (Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Jan. 7).

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Israel:  Imprisoned Palestinians Planned to Make Chemical Weapons

A group of Palestinian militants held in a Israeli prison planned to attack prison officials with chemical bombs, but were discovered last week before they could carry out the attack, the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv reported Sunday (see GSN, Aug. 2).

Officials at the Shiqma prison last week raided the cells of a prisoners’ group known as the “engineers” and found detailed information on how to produce chemical bombs using various medical supplies, according to Ma’ariv.  The prisoners had acquired medicines, including mercury, alcohol and Vaseline, from the prison clinic after complaining of various ailments.  Officials also discovered that the prisoners planned to build chemical laboratories in their cells, Ma’ariv reported (Shim’on Epergin, Ma’ariv, Jan. 5 in FBIS-NES, Jan. 5).

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Threat Assessment:  Taliban Claims Chemical Weapons Capability

Remaining Taliban forces in Afghanistan possess chemical weapons, a former Taliban diplomat said during a secretive news conference Friday in Pakistan, near the Afghan border (see GSN, Oct. 8, 2002).

“Mujahadeen are now in possession of chemical and other sophisticated weapons provided by friendly countries.  We have still not used them,” said Naseer Ahmad Rohi, former first secretary at the Afghan Embassy in the United Arab Emirates.

Pakistan did not supply the weapons, according to Rohi (Outlook India.com, Jan. 4).

The weapons “will be used at a suitable time,” Rohi told journalists in Peshawar, about 30 kilometers from the Afghan border.  The remaining Taliban militants “have the right to use chemical weapons against the Americans as a revenge,” he added.

Pakistani security officials doubted the claims, Australia’s Herald Sun reported (Herald Sun, Jan. 4).

U.S. officials are scrutinizing the claims and U.S. forces are stepping up their pursuit of Osama bin Laden and the remaining Taliban leadership, Pakistan’s The Nation reported today.

“The Bush administration is in the process of ascertaining the veracity of Taliban’s claims that they possess the deadly chemical weapons for which the United States has activated its intelligence apparatus,” sources said Monday (Shaiq Hussain, The Nation, Jan. 7).

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United States:  Army Releases Final Impact Statement for Blue Grass Depot

The U.S. Army has released an 854-page final environmental impact statement examining four alternative methods for destroying chemical weapons at its Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 21, 2002).

A 30-day waiting period on the statement ends Jan. 26 and military officials will then identify the method that will be used to destroy chemical weapons at the depot.

Neutralization followed by water oxidation is the preferred method for disposal, according to a November Pentagon memorandum, AP reported (Associated Press, Jan. 2).

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Russia:  Ten Tons of Chemical Weapons Destroyed in 2002

Russia destroyed the first 10 tons of its chemical weapons stockpile in 2002, ITAR-Tass reported Monday (see GSN, Dec. 31, 2002).

The effort to destroy Russia’s 40,000 tons of chemical weapons will speed up this year, said Alexander Kharichev, deputy chairman of the governmental commission for chemical disarmament.

“The quantity of destroyed chemical substances will significantly increase after the tuning of equipment and choice of optimal regimens,” according to Kharichev.

Russia is currently disposing of 800 to 1,500 kilograms of mustard gas daily at the country’s Gorny plant, he said (see GSN, Dec. 20, 2002).

“Russia will destroy 400 tons of chemical weapons by April 2003, thereby meeting its international obligations,” Kharichev said (see GSN, Oct. 15, 2002; ITAR-Tass, Dec. 30, 2002 in FBIS-SOV, Dec. 30, 2002).

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