BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS UPDATE
30 September 2006
In this issue:
Previous editions of Biological Weapons Update are available
at: http://www.basicint.org/update/bwu.htm.
Project Bio-shield
The New York Times reported September 17 on problems
with Project Bioshield, the multibillion dollar effort to
expand the U.S. medical stockpile to prepare for another biological
attack. Thus far, the project has largely failed to deliver,
with only a small fraction of the anticipated remedies available.
Bio-terrorism
The Washington Post
reported July 31 on gene synthesis and related biotechnology
techniques and their applicability for biological weapons
development. See skeptical commentary by Dick Destiny blog
here.
The Food and Drug Administration announced August 3
that researchers at its National Center for Toxicological
Research are developing a quick, cost-effective method (using
a technology called mass spectrometry) to screen for and identify
bio-terror agents and other substances used in hoax incidents.
On August 1 Dick Destiny's blog
reported on the fun business of media coverage of bio-terrorism.
The Washington Post
reported September 25 that five years after the anthrax
attacks in the United States that killed five people, the
FBI is now convinced that the lethal powder sent to the Senate
was far less sophisticated than originally believed. The finding
appears to challenge the widely held belief that the attack
was carried out by a government scientist or someone with
access to a U.S. bio-defense lab.
News from the U.S. laboratories
The Baltimore Sun reported July 30 that new sources
have confirmed the allegation, first made last year in a book,
Biological Espionage, by Soviet biophysicist Alexander Kouzminov,
that a Soviet mole infiltrated Fort Dietrick in the 1980s
and stole strains of the deadly viruses that cause Rift Valley
and Lassa fevers.
The Washington Post
reported July 30 on the building of the new National Biodefense
Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) at Fort Dietrick.
Details about the research carried out at the Center may never
be publicly known, because the Bush administration intends
to operate the facility largely in secret. See also this report
in the July 31 The Guardian. The not so subtle
implication of the article is that the building of the
laboratory will violate the Biological Weapons Convention
- as does this 'In These Times' article. And a September
3
op-ed by Wendy Orent in the Los Angeles Times also
questioned the usefulness of the Center. The competition for
U.S. biolab contracts continues unabated, with various states
panting heavily and whispering sweet nothings in the ear of
the federal government. See the following reports:
DHS
Completes First Down-Select For Potential Sites To Locate
Proposed National Bio And Agro-Defense Facility, August
9.
Mississippi
in the Running for Research Facility, August 9.
Athens sites make short list for biodefense facility,
August 10.
Pulaski survives cut for biolab, August 10.
Two Kansas sites in running
for biodefense lab, August 10.
Livermore: Biodefense lab plan survives to short list,
August 10.
Kansas, Missouri eyed for bioterrorism research center,
August 11.
University makes first
cut for bioterrorism unit, August 12.
Smallpox
On August 4 researchers at the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine announced
that they have determined the structure of an important smallpox
virus enzyme and how it binds to DNA. The enzyme, called a
topoisomerase, is an important drug target for coming up with
new ways to fight smallpox.
Reuters
reported August 1 that a new study shows that skin testing
with killed vaccinia virus, which is related to smallpox,
is a simple and reliable way of predicting residual immunity
to smallpox.
Publications and websites
The BWC website at hosted by the UN in Geneva now has a
page that contains "Advance Versions of Working Papers"
for the Review Conference.
Trevor Findlay, Verification and
the BWC: Last Gasp or Signs of Life?, Arms Control Today
September 2006.
Roger Roffey, John Hart, and Frida Kuhlau, Crucial Guidance: A Code
of Conduct for Biodefense Scientists, Arms Control Today,
September 2006.
Prediction of Residual Immunity to Smallpox, by Means of an
Intradermal Skin Test with Inactivated Vaccinia Virus, Journal
of Infectious Diseases.
Hiroshi Nishiura, Markus Schwehm, Martin Eichner,
Still Protected Against Smallpox?: Estimation of the Duration
of Vaccine-Induced Immunity Against Smallpox, Epidemiology.
17(5):576-581, September 2006.
Report
on Activities and Programs for Countering Proliferation and
NBC Terrorism, Counterproliferation Program Review Committee,"
Volume I, Executive Summary, May 2006.
Department
of Defense Chemical and Biological Defense Program, Annual
Report to Congress, March 2006.
Frequency of Adverse Events after Vaccination with Different
Vaccinia Strains.
Kathleen S. Swendiman and Jennifer K. Elsea, Federal and State Quarantine and
Isolation Authority, Congressional Research Service, August
16, 2006.
Danny Shoham, An Antithesis On the Fate of Iraq's Chemical
and Biological Weapons, International Journal of Intelligence
and CounterIntelligence, Vol. 19, No. 1, Spring 2006, pp.
59-83.
Saleem Basha, Prakash Rai, Vincent Poon, Arundhati Saraph,
Kunal Gujraty, Mandy Y. Go, Skanda Sadacharan, Mia Frost,
Jeremy Mogridge, and Ravi S. Kane, "
Polyvalent inhibitors of anthrax toxin that target host receptors,"
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September
5, 2006, Vol. 103, No. 36, 13509-13513.
As part of the preparations for the Sixth Review Conference
of the BWC (20 November to 8 December 2006), the BWC Meetings
Secretariat have been developing a new section of the UNOG
website devoted to the BWC. The site
is intended as a primary information resource for national
delegations, international organisations, NGOs and the media
on the BWC and biological weapons in general, and the Sixth
Review Conference in particular.
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