U.S. Response:  Army Report Says Units Not Trained For WMD Defense

Two of the U.S. Army’s four combat corps have not adequately trained all their soldiers to respond to nuclear, chemical and biological attacks, according to a study performed last year by the Army Audit Agency and reported on today by  Bloomberg.com (see GSN, Feb. 7).

The July 2002 report looked at 25 units at Fort Lewis, Wash., home of the 1st Corps, and Fort Hood, Texas, home of the 3rd Corps.

“Units generally did not have effective chemical defense programs,” the report says.  “Our review showed that unit commanders aren’t making nuclear, biological and chemical training a priority,” it adds.

The report is “another piece of evidence that the chemical-biological defense program has significant deficiencies,” according to Ray Decker, a Government Accounting Officer official who investigates chemical and biological defense issues.

The report also found that units “weren’t proficient in operating chemical and biological defense equipment.”

“With the exception of masks, soldiers couldn’t effectively operate basic chemical defense equipment,” the report says.

Military officials said that the training would be improved.

“Greater command emphasis at all levels will be placed on reporting accuracy to bring appropriate attention to systemic maintenance deficiencies,” the 3rd Corps said (Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg.com, Feb. 11).

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Czech Response:  Defense Minister Visits WMD Unit in Kuwait

Czech Defense Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik visited yesterday a Czech anti-WMD unit currently stationed in Kuwait (see GSN, Jan. 29).  He presented the 394-man unit with awards and praised their work for fulfilling the Czech Republic’s obligations to the international community.

“I firmly believe that all of you will return alive and healthy back home,” Tvrdik said.

The Czech unit is expected to be augmented March 1 with 60 Slovak troops to form a joint Czech-Slovak unit, according to the CTK news agency.  The Czech military expects to keep the unit in Kuwait till at least the end of June (CTK/Ceske Noviny, Feb. 11).

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Israeli Response:  Israeli Contractor Purrfects Pet Shelter

Supergum, an Israeli defense contractor, has developed a tent to protect family pets from chemical or biological attacks, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported yesterday.

“Many Israelis feel like their pets are part of the family.  We’ve received dozens and dozens of calls from people wanting something for their pets.  We now have an answer for them,” said Roni Srour, Supergum’s vice president.

The new device, called How Meow, uses the same protective filters and air blowers that the company supplies to the Israeli army.  Pet owners place their animal companions in a travel cage or similar enclosure and then seal the pet in.  The battery operated filter and blower are designed to keep the pet safe for six hours, the Journal-Constitution reported.

“Veterinarians have tested the system on dogs, cats and parrots.  They stayed inside for six hours, and none showed any signs of distress or any medical problems,” said Sheila Baron, the product’s development director (Margaret Coker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Feb. 9).

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U.S. Response:  Pentagon Officials Ignore Chemical Defenses, Report Says

By David McGlinchey
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Top U.S. defense officials do not pay enough attention to potential chemical or biological attacks and might not wake up to the danger until the military suffers devastating casualties, according to a Cato Institute report Wednesday by a former U.S. Army chemical and biological training specialist (see GSN, Oct. 16, 2002).

The Pentagon is not ready to deal with such an attack in Iraq, the report says.

The Army declined to comment on the report directly, but a spokeswoman said the Army’s combat units will be prepared for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons if they are sent into combat.

“We have better equipment and capability than we did in Desert Storm,” said Army spokeswoman Nicole Dowell.

A array of U.S. officials — from General Accounting Office investigators to Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz — have criticized the Defense Department’s chemical and biological defense equipment in recent months.  There has been little public criticism, however, of training or military leadership in this area.

“Senior commanders present a major roadblock to implementing realistic and technically meaningful NBC training for the troops,” according to the report by Eric Taylor, now a chemistry professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  Previously, Taylor served as a captain in the Army Chemical Corps and he has authored Lethal Mists: An Introduction to the Natural and Military Sciences of Chemical, Biological Warfare and Terrorism.

The most glaring weakness in U.S. chemical and biological defenses is “seniormost officers who regard NBC as a waste of time, a nuisance, a pain in the neck,” Taylor told Global Security Newswire.

After observing training exercises in 2000 and 2001, Taylor concluded that military personnel are insufficiently prepared for an attack with weapons of mass destruction.  The problem, he said, is a lack of preparation.

The report says that military units need 40 hours of annual training to prepare for an attack, but “the military services require only four hours of training per year for new recruits and two hours of refresher training thereafter.”

Only 30 percent of the Army’s Chemical Corps officers have science degrees, which compromises the training further, according to the report.

Taylor visited several military bases in 2000 and 2001, observed training exercises and interviewed personnel across the services for his report.

The Defense Department suffers from a lack of classroom instruction, insufficient testing and poorly focused training in its chemical and biological defense efforts, the report says.  Specialized military personnel receive better training than most, but a poor training program for the military as a whole “may some day prove disastrously lethal and make the first American troops confronting CB weapons sacrificial lambs,” the report says.

“I have been concerned that the only real way the starred officers in charge of the U.S. armed forces will ever get the message is if we suffer” heavy losses from a nuclear, biological or chemical attack, Taylor said in an interview.

Some service officials have seen an increase in funds for protective equipment, but there has not been a matching increase in funding for training, the report says.

While Taylor criticizes the training that he observed, he said that in the end it is senior leadership that is holding back progress on chemical, biological and nuclear defense training.

“Any impetus for change must come from the top,” Taylor said.

During one interview with a service member, Taylor was told that “most commanders fear and would rather avoid the training because they don’t understand it themselves,” according to the report.

Another member of a military medical unit said that units in the 1991 Gulf War asked chemical or biological related questions but medical personnel did not know the answers.

Little has changed in U.S. military training or education since 1991 and with another Iraq war on the horizon officials should be concerned, the report says.

“This dismal state of affairs should be a wake-up call to officials of the Bush administration as they plan for a second war with Iraq,” according to the report.

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United Kingdom:  Blair Links Iraq to al-Qaeda

British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday linked Iraq to the al-Qaeda terrorist network and said that the deadly poison ricin is being manufactured in Iraq and distributed around the world (see GSN, Jan. 10).

“I’m not sitting here and saying that is why we are taking action against Saddam.  It isn’t, but it would not be correct to say there is no evidence linking al-Qaeda and Iraq,” Blair said.

A chemical factory in northern Iraq is producing “ricin and other poisons,” which are being distributed internationally, according to the prime minister.  The factory might not be completely under the control of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Blair said (Russell/Morris, London Independent, Feb. 7).

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Italy:  Court Indicts Chemical Terrorism Suspects

An Italian court yesterday indicted nine Moroccan terrorism suspects accused of planning a chemical attack on the U.S. embassy in Rome, according to a defense lawyer (see GSN, Feb. 25, 2002).

The court also indicted three others — a Pakistani, an Algerian and a Tunisian — suspected of trying to establish a base to launch attacks.  Although the two groups are not believed to be connected, all 12 were charged with “subversive association aimed at international terrorism.”

The Moroccans were arrested after Italian police discovered almost nine pounds of a cyanide-based compound, Associated Press reported (Associated Press/New York Daily News, Feb. 7).

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