Global Security Newswire

Officials at several U.S. universities want to send scientists to Siberia to help former Soviet biological weapons researchers enter the broader scientific community, the Albuquerque Tribune reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 16).

The effort is part of a U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency program to help biological weapons researchers from the former Soviet Union transfer their skills to nonweapons projects.

“Russian biological weapons laboratories are run-down, but they’re still terrific high-level containment facilities,” said Alan Zelicoff, a biological weapons expert and University of New Mexico professor. “When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russian government stopped funding those labs. The thing of it is, if we don’t fund them, somebody else will,” he added.

Officials are concerned that terrorists or rogue nations could gain from the uncontrolled biological weapons expertise and facilities.

“We want to help these former bioweapons researchers convert to other types of work, and we want to bring them into the larger scientific community,” said Roger Hagengruber, director of the University of New Mexico’s Office for Policy, Security and Technology.

Officials from Pennsylvania State University are also involved in the project (Sue Vorenberg, Albuquerque Tribune, Nov. 10).