BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS UPDATE
31 January 2007
In this issue:
Previous editions of Biological Weapons Update are available
at: http://www.basicint.org/update/bwu.htm.
Arms Control - Sixth BWC Review Conference
Here are the remarks given by the
U.S. representative John Rood at the opening of the Sixth
Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC),
which ran from November 20 to December 8. See also his press conference that
day. Find the official documents from the conference at this
page. See the draft final document
here. For an informed outside view see this interview with Jonathan B. Tucker
of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
U.S. Laboratories
This Wired article
looks at work by researchers in government labs to improve
the ability to detect deadly airborne substances that terrorists
might use to attack urban centers.
The Tuscon Citizen reported that The
University of Arizona is working to keep the water supply
safe from bioterrorists with more than $13 million in federal
grants.
The Citizen also reported that Arizona's
three state universities are quietly becoming more involved
in anti-bioterrorism research, securing tens of millions of
dollars in grants. More than a dozen projects are under way,
including research on nearly all six agents listed as the
highest priority for national security. Those include anthrax,
plague, smallpox, tularemia and a hemorrhagic fever, Ebola.
On December 20 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
announced the selection of Battelle National Biodefense Institute
to conduct scientific programs and operate the National Biodefense
Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC), currently under
construction at the National Interagency Biodefense Campus
in Fort Detrick, MD. The $250 million contract award includes
a five-year period of performance, with the potential for
five subsequent one-year extensions, bringing the projected
award cost to $500 million.
Bioterrorism
In early December Congress passed
legislation that will revamp the Bush administration's
$5.6 billion effort to counter bioterrorism threats. More
than a year in the making, the legislation was considered
by many to be an effort to salvage the two-year-old Project
BioShield, which has been marked by delays and operational
problems. The legislation creates the Biomedical Advanced
Research and Development Authority, within the Health and
Human Services Department, to manage the effort. It also allocates
$1 billion over three years for research not funded by a Project
BioShield contract or the National Institutes of Health and
attempts to pump more government money into the private sector
sooner.
For detail on problems with Project Bioshield see this post on the anthrax
vaccine contract previously awarded to VaxGen in Harper magazine's
Washington Babylon blog, See also this Washington Post
article on the cancellation of the contract and this
article on the overall lack of progress on the program.
On December 12 Trust for America's Health (TFAH) released
the fourth annual " Ready
or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Disease, Disasters,
and Bioterrorism," which found that five years after 9/11
and the subsequent anthrax attacks, emergency health preparedness
is still inadequate in America.
On January 24 the United Kingdom
announced it is increasing the number of biological agents
that must be secured to ensure they are not used in acts of
terrorism. It boosted the number of restricted agents listed
in the 2001 Antiterrorism, Crime and Security Act from 47
to 103. The list includes 45 viruses, 21 bacteria, 2 fungi,
13 toxins and 18 animal pathogens.
Publications
The Biological Weapons
Threat and Nonproliferation Options: A Survey of Senior U.S.
Decision Makers and Policy Shapers, November 29, 2006.
Barry Kellman, Notes
from a BWC Gadfly, BIOSECURITY AND BIOTERRORISM: BIODEFENSE
STRATEGY, PRACTICE, AND SCIENCE, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2006.
Training for
Terrorism-Related Conditions in Hospitals: United States,
2003-2004, December 11, 2006.
" Botulinum
neurotoxin B recognizes its protein receptor with high affinity
and specificity," Nature 444, 1092-1095 (21 December
2006).
Simon Cooper, " North
Korea's Biochemical Threat," Popular Mechanics,
February 2007.
Treasa Dunworth, Robert J. Mathews, and Timothy L. H. McCormack,
"National Implementation
of the Biological Weapons Convention," Journal of Conflict
and Security Law Advance 2006 11: 93-118.
Bioterrorism Countermeasure Development:
Issues in Patents and Homeland Security," Congressional
Research Service, November 27, 2006.
Audit of Unobligated Balances
of Funds Awarded Under the Public Health
Preparedness and Response for Bioterrorism Program, Department
of Health & Human Services, December 5, 2006.
Francis A. Boyle,
Biowarfare and Terrorism, Clarity Press, December 26,
2005.
Dany Shoham A1 and Stuart M. Jacobsen, "Technical Intelligence
in Retrospect: The 2001 Anthrax Letters Powder," International
Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, Vol.
20, Number 1, 2007.
Jacob M. Chapman, "
Doomsday: A Look at the Ethical Issues behind the Government's
Coercive Powers in Response to a Public Health Nightmare,"
ExpressO Preprint Series. Working Paper 1924, January
8, 2007.
Alan Pearson, INCAPACITATING BIOCHEMICAL
WEAPONS: Science, Technology, and Policy for the 21st Century
Robert Koenig,
The Fourth Horseman: One Man's Secret Campaign to Fight the
Great War in America, PublicAffairs, January 8, 2007.
James L. Hadler, "Learning from the 2001 Anthrax Attacks:
Immunological Characteristics," The Journal of Infectious
Diseases 2007;195:163-164.
Denise L. Doolan et al, The US Capitol Bioterrorism Anthrax
Exposures: Clinical Epidemiological and Immunological Characteristics,
The Journal of Infectious Diseases 2007;195:174-184.
Websites
BWC Observer, a website
from The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, providing
information and commentary on the Sixth Review Conference
of the Biological Weapons Convention.
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