Belgium:  Authorities Describe Suspect Groups in Tainted Letter Investigation

Belgian authorities believe that a set of 10 tainted letters mailed last week to various targets were sent either by Muslim fundamentalists or opponents to the recent war in Iraq, De Standaard reported last week (see GSN, June 6).

“At first sight and following analysis of the letters’ addressees, we seem to have to seek the perpetrators in Muslim fundamentalist circles or those of people who were opposed to the U.S. arms transports from our country to Iraq,” said Lieve Pellens, spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office.

The 10 letters each contained a cardboard container that held a mixture of small amounts of phenarsazine and hydrazine, according to De Standaard.  Two of the containers were marked with the legend Islamic International Society, which is not known to be connected to terrorist activities.

Judicial sources said that at least one cardboard container included the message “Set our brothers free.  Bastards.”  This message could refer to a trial of 23 Islamic extremists currently being held in Brussels, De Standaard reported.  One of the defendants in that trial, Nizar Trabelsi, is believed to have sought hydrazine for use in producing a bomb (Mark Eeckhaut, De Standaard, June 5 in FBIS-WEU, June 5).

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Belgium:  Authorities Detain Iraqi Man Over Tainted Letters

An Iraqi man has been detained after 10 letters containing dangerous chemicals were sent to a number of targets in Belgium, Belgian police said yesterday (see GSN, June 5).

The 45-year-old man was detained Wednesday in the western town of Deinze, said Glenn Audenaert, head of the investigation.  The letters were sent to the Belgian prime minister’s office, the U.S. and British embassies and a court trying al-Qaeda suspects.  Twenty people were treated at area hospitals after being exposed to the phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas (Reuters/Washington Post, June 6).

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Belgium:  Authorities Find Letters Containing Nerve Gas Component

Officials have discovered 10 letters containing a nerve gas component sent to a number of targets in Belgium, including the U.S. and British Embassies in Brussels, the Belgian federal prosecutor said yesterday.

The letters contained phenarsazine chloride, which is used in nerve gas, and hydrazine, used in rocket propellant, the Belgian Health Ministry said, adding that both chemicals are also found in pesticides.  The letters only contained small amounts of the chemicals, but two postal workers were hospitalized after being exposed to the letters, which were found at postal facilities, according to Reuters.

Belgian police believe the letters all came from a single source within the country, said Lieve Pellens, spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office (Reuters/Washington Post, June 5).

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Russia:  United Kingdom to Increase Aid for Weapons Disposal Efforts

The United Kingdom plans to increase the amount of financial aid it will provide to Russia next year for chemical weapons disposal efforts, British Ambassador to Russia Roderick Lyne said Tuesday (see GSN, June 4). 

The United Kingdom has pledged to provide about $750 million over 10 years to help fund Russian nonproliferation projects through the Group of Eight’s Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction program (see GSN, June 2; Interfax, June 3 in FBIS-SOV, June 3).

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U.S. Response:  Report Says U.S. Labs Unprepared for a Chemical Attack

By David McGlinchey
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — U.S. security officials and lawmakers have long fretted over the possibility of chemical or biological terrorism in the United States, but the public health system remains “woefully unprepared” to deal with such an attack, according to a study released today by a public health group.

“Thirty years of inadequate training, staffing, equipment and funding have left our public health system in serious disrepair,” according to the report from Trust for America’s Health.  U.S. leaders have made repeated efforts to meet the  terrorist WMD threat, but the report says “America’s public health system is not up to the job.”

The report conducted a state-by-state analysis of public health facilities and found that laboratories suffered from inadequate staffing, obsolete facilities and poor communications.

Trust for America’s Health called on lawmakers to allocate $200 million annually through fiscal 2006 to upgrade state public health laboratories and prepare them for a chemical or biological attack.  Thereafter, Congress should spend $100 million each year, according to the organization.

The findings received some support from Congress.

“This report is further evidence that 20 months after Sept. 11, we are still not prepared to deal with a chemical attack … our public health laboratories clearly need help if we expect them to be up to the task,” said Senator Jon Corzine (D-N.J.).

CDC Says Improvements Are Coming

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must set standards for chemical testing and training, the report says.

CDC officials have read the report and agree with its recommendations, CDC spokesman Von Roebuck told GSN today.

“We recognize there is work to be done,” Roebuck said.  The CDC recently sent terrorism preparedness guidance to the states along with grant money, and chemical preparedness is part of that, he added.  There are numerous public health issues, however, and the CDC cannot focus entirely on the possibility of chemical attacks.

“I wouldn’t say that the whole thing is centered around chemical” agents, Roebuck said of the guidance.  He also noted that the CDC can recommend action, but “we have to work within the state systems.  It’s a collaboration.”

When asked if the chemical portion of the guidance is a priority, Roebuck said that “everything in it is a priority.”

Chemical Analysis Lacking

Researchers surveyed five state laboratory directors and found that technicians are prepared to test for more common health risks, such as mercury or lead, but not for a wide range of chemicals that are likely to be used in a chemical attack.  None of the laboratories surveyed could test for incapacitating gases or blister and nerve agents, such as VX gas or sarin.

The report cited a situation from a Boston Celtics professional basketball game this year in which pepper spray or mace was released as a prank and players were forced to cover their faces with towels and warm-up clothes.  If the gas had been a lethal chemical agent, officials would probably not have been able to identify it quickly enough to take appropriate medical action, according to the report.

In the report’s imagined scenario involving a deadly gas, “a crew of terrorists sitting behind the home team’s bench spray a noxious chemical.  Instead of momentary gagging, players and fans in the immediate vicinity begin choking … at this point, the survival of all those exposed depends upon prompt, proper identification of the hazardous substance.”

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Russia:  Monitoring Systems Installed at Chemical Weapons Facilities

New safety equipment was activated Monday at the Russian chemical weapon disposal facility at Gorny, according to ITAR-Tass.  The system of sensors and alarms is designed to sample the air to detect the presence of deadly chemical agents (see GSN, May 14).

The system is comprised of portable and permanent detectors that can identify toxic gas and issue a danger signal, according to ITAR-Tass.  Similar sensors have already been deployed at another chemical weapons depot in Kambarka (ITAR-Tass, June 2 in FBIS-SOV, June 3).

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U.S. Response:  Pentagon Distributes 25,000 Gas Masks

The U.S. Defense Department has distributed 25,000 gas masks to Pentagon employees in the Washington area, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 21).

In late February, Pentagon officials began handing out “escape hoods” and training hundreds of employees each day to use the emergency equipment.  Defense officials also distributed gas masks to Pentagon press correspondents.

The Defense Department intends to distribute the masks to 80,000 employees in the Pentagon and nearby defense facilities.  Defense personnel are supposed to keep the masks at their desks except for emergency situations, when employees can carry the masks on their belts (Associated Press/Kansas City Star, June 2).

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CWC:  Tonga Ratifies Treaty

Tonga last week submitted its instruments of accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention (see GSN, May 13), making it the 153rd party to the treaty when Tonga’s accession takes effect June 28.  The nation is the eighth Pacific island state to join the treaty (OPCW release, June 3).

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