CBR Weapons and WMD Terrorism News- August 9, 2006

Two counties to stage epidemic exercise

“An emergency response exercise is scheduled for late October to help prepare workers for not only an influenza pandemic but a biological attack. Carol Amato, director of the Huerfano-Las Animas health department, said she hopes in the process the department can vaccinate more than 4,000 people against influenza. More than 250 volunteers from law enforcement, emergency response and health care will participate in the eight-hour exercise involving both Huerfano and Las Animas counties. Using the incident command system, each volunteer will perform limited and specific tasks, working as a unit to move vaccine recipients through the screening process and vaccination within 25 minutes.” (The Pueblo Chieftain; 09Aug06; Tammy Alhadef)
http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1155124801/31

$28 billion U.S. bioterrorism defense remains vulnerable

“The federal government’s $28 billion crash program to defend against a bioterrorist attack is showing up in cities across the country. The FBI headquarters, World Bank and several other possible targets in the nation’s capital have been outfitted with germkilling air filters. In dozens of other cities, technicians retrieve air samples to test for anthrax spores, smallpox virus particles or other germs. Experts say this infusion of new technology along with medical resources might lower the effectiveness of a biological attack using classical germ agents. But they acknowledge that the nation remains highly vulnerable, especially against new, synthetically created germs for which the United States has no antidotes.” (The Columbus Dispatch; 09Aug06; Greg Gordon; McClatchy
Newspapers)
http://www.dispatch.com
/national-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/08/09/20060809-A5-00.html

Pulaski site makes first cut in competition for bioterrorism lab

“Kentucky has made the initial cut as a potential site for a $450 million bioterrorism laboratory, Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers announced today. Competitors had submitted a list of 29 proposed sites across the country for the lab. The Department of Homeland Security narrowed that list to 14 sites, including one in rural Pulaski County. The lab would be a tremendous economic plum, requiring hundreds of construction workers to build it and then creating an estimated 400 permanent jobs with an average salary of $74,000, as well as jobs in related businesses. ‘The economic benefits that would flow from this would be immeasurable,’ Rogers said. Scientists at the 500,000-square-foot lab would study potential bioterrorism threats to the U.S. food supply and humans, including foreign animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease and zoonotic diseases — those that can be passed from animals to humans. That means it would handle deadly pathogens and would have the highest security level for a biological lab: biosafety level four. Some residents of Pulaski County are concerned about the potential for leaks of dangerous materials from the lab, or that it would be a target for terrorists. Opponents collected 2,800 names on a petition against bringing the lab to Kentucky. Rogers, however, said there is a great deal of support for the facility as well. The lab would use the most stringent safety measures known; the congressman said he thinks most people will become convinced it will be safe as they learn more about it.” (Lexington Herald; 09Aug06; Bill Estep) http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/15234693.htm

STATpack great boon to Enid, state

“A new system designed to identify bioterrorism materials already has paid dividends — and it didn’t involve an attack on our country. St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center recently installed STATPack, which stands for Secure Telecommunications Application Terminal Package. The system is a secure, Web-based network linking St. Mary’s and, when the system is fully installed, nine other labs in various parts of the state with Oklahoma State Department of Health. The system, purchased with funds from Health Resources and Services Administration, an arm of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was designed to help make clinical labs in Oklahoma better able to identify bioterrorism materials. Shortly after it was installed at St. Mary’s, a medical technician was doing tests on a patient’s blood. The technician saw something unusual — malaria. Using STATPack, St. Mary’s officials were able to get help in determining what form of malaria it was and were able to prescribe the proper treatment. It turns out the patient had contracted the disease during a recent visit to Africa. The system involves a camera attached to a microscope and a digital Web cam mounted on a sealed Plexiglas box connected to a computer, which are linked directly to the state Health Department. The system will allow a microbiologist at St. Mary’s to send still photos or live video of suspicious samples to the state Health Department’s experts.” (EnidNews;
08Aug06)
http://www.enidnews.com
/opinion/local_story_221012012.html?keyword=topstory

Nanowire 'Barcode' System Speeds Up Bio Detection In The Field

“Detecting biowarfare agents in the field will become a lot easier thanks to a new barcode system based on biosensing nanowires developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers. Multi-striped nanowires developed at LLNL allow rapid and sensitive immunoassays for biowarfare agent simulants. The researchers, led by Jeffrey Tok of LLNL’s BioSecurity and Nanosciences Laboratory, built submicrometer layers of different metals including gold, silver and nickel that act as “barcodes”
for detecting a variety of pathogens ranging from anthrax, smallpox and ricin to botulinum. The system not only applies to biowarfare agents, but could also be used during an outbreak of an infectious disease.”
(ScienceDaily; 08Aug06; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060808161332.htm

Penn Researchers Determine Structure Of Smallpox Virus Protein Bound To DNA

“Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine 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. The researchers present their findings in the August issue of Molecular Cell. The smallpox virus is one of the most easily transmissible infectious diseases known to humans, resulting in up to 30 percent mortality. The efficiency with which it spreads, combined with the deadly nature of the disease, has raised fears that smallpox could be revived for use in bioterrorism. Knowing the exact three-dimensional structure of smallpox virus proteins could help researchers design antiviral agents, but few structures of whole viral proteins exist.” (Medical News Today; 08Aug06)
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com
/medicalnews.php?newsid=48986&nfid=rssfeeds

Ceremony Takes Place At Future Research Center Site

“A new research center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center is one small step closer to being completed. A groundbreaking ceremony took place Tuesday morning at the site of where the new Research Center of Excellence II will be built. The second center is expected to be similar to the Durham Research Center that opened in 2003 at UNMC. The total cost for the proposed research center stands at $74 million. Most of that money comes from private funding, including a donation from Omaha businessman and philanthropist Charles Durham. But $12 million for the new 10-story building will come from the state's bioterrorism and homeland security funds. The center is slated to house several labs dedicated to improve testing for biological and chemical warfare agents. ‘The facility will serve as the new home of those efforts, with a significant portion of the 98 state-of-the-art laboratories devoted to the Nebraska bioterrorism preparedness laboratories,’ said Gov. Dave Heineman. The second tower will also focus on other areas of research, including cancer genetics, organ transplants and other diseases. The building is expected to be completed in late 2008.” (KETV 7; 08Aug06) http://www.ketv.com
/health/9649016/detail.html?rss=oma&psp=news

NY police targeted with suspected anthrax letter

“Two police officers were taken to a hospital on Wednesday after opening an envelope that contained a suspicious white powder, the New York Police Department said. The two police officers worked in the mail screening facility at police headquarters in downtown Manhattan and opened an envelope that contained an ‘undetermined white powder,’ said police department spokesman Paul Browne. They underwent decontamination at a hospital as a precautionary measure in case the powder turned out to be anthrax, Browne said. The powder was not accompanied with a note. On July 14 and August 2, The New York Times said it had received an envelope with a suspicious white powder, raising fears on of an anthrax attack. In both incidents the powder was found to be nonhazardous. The incidents raised fears of a repeat of a series of anthrax attacks in the United States, which started one week after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Letters with a Trenton, New Jersey, postmark and containing anthrax bacteria were mailed to several media offices and two U.S. senators, killing five people and sickening 17 others.” (Reuters; 09Aug06) http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml
?type=domesticNews&storyID=13136049&src=rss/domesticNews

Britain facing a new breed of fascist, warns Reid

“Britain is facing a new breed of ‘unconstrained’ terrorists who have access to chemical and biological weapons to cause mass destruction, the Home Secretary warned today. John Reid said that the country was facing its most sustained threat from terrorism since the end of the Second World War, and admitted that the security forces were unable to guarantee the public 100 per cent protection. The Home Secretary said that national security was jeopardised because institutions and legal frameworks were not adapting as fast as needed. He argued that Britain's security apparatus was created during the Cold War in response to the threat from fascism, but that the threat was now from ‘fascist individuals’. ‘Our security forces and the apparatus of the state provide a very necessary condition for defeating terrorism but can never be sufficient to do so on their own…Our common security will only be assured by a common effort from all sections of society…Individuals who can network courtesy of new technology, and access modern chemical, biological and other means of mass destruction, and who have therefore unconstrained capability as well as unconstrained intent, are an enemy we have never had to face before…While I am confident that the security services and police will guarantee 100 per cent effort and 100 per cent dedication, they cannot guarantee 100 per cent success,’ he said. Mr Reid linked the terrorism threat to the increased mobility and migration of people since the end of the Cold War.”
(Times Online; 09Aug06; Elsa McLaren and Agencies) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2305628,00.html

Alzheimer's drug may be poison antidote

“An Alzheimer's pill that helps slow the brain damage caused by the disease may also protect against the effects of nerve gases and pesticides, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. They said the drug, marketed under the name Reminyl and Razadyne, completely protected guinea pigs against the nerve agents soman and sarin, as well as toxic amounts of pesticides. They gave the animals high doses of the poisons and treated them with Reminyl, known generically as galantamine, along with atropine, often given as an antidote for organophospate pesticides such as paraoxon. ‘To our amazement, the animals treated with galantamine behaved as if they had not been exposed to these lethal agents,’ Dr. Edson Albuquerque, chairman of the Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said in a statement. ‘I think maybe we have something that can protect us against bad terrorists,’ he said in a telephone interview, adding that the next step was to test female guinea pigs.” (Yahoo News; 07Aug06; Maggie Fox, Reuters) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060807/sc_nm/antidote_dc

Bacteria Roll Out Carpet Of Goo That Converts Deadly Heavy Metal Into Less Threatening Nano-spheres “Since the discovery a little more than a decade ago of bacteria that chemically modify and neutralize toxic metals without apparent harm to themselves, scientists have wondered how on earth these microbes do it. For Shewanella oneidensis, a microbe that modifies uranium chemistry, the pieces are coming together, and they resemble pearls that measure precisely 5 nanometers across enmeshed in a carpet of slime secreted by the bacteria. The pearl is uranium dioxide, or uraninite, which moves much less freely in soil than its soluble counterpart, a groundwater-contamination threat at nuclear waste sites. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that uranium contaminates more than 2,500 billion liters of groundwater nationwide; over the past decade, the agency has support research into the ability of naturally-occurring microbes that can halt the uranium’s underground migration to prevent it from reaching streams used by plants, animals and people.” (Science Daily; 08Aug06; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060808091833.htm

Half of Americans still believe Iraq had WMDs

“Do you believe in Iraqi ‘WMD’? Did Saddam Hussein's government have weapons of mass destruction in 2003? Half of America apparently still thinks so, a new poll finds, and experts see a raft of reasons why: a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office, a surprise headline here or there, a rallying around a partisan flag, and a growing need for people, in their own minds, to justify the war in Iraq. People tend to become ‘independent of reality’ in these circumstances, says opinion analyst Steven Kull. The reality in this case is that after a 16-month, $900-million-plus investigation, the U.S. weapons hunters known as the Iraq Survey Group declared that Iraq had dismantled its chemical, biological and nuclear arms programs in 1991 under U.N. oversight. That finding in 2004 reaffirmed the work of U.N. inspectors who in 2002-03 found no trace of banned arsenals in Iraq. Despite this, a Harris Poll released July 21 found that a full 50 percent of U.S. respondents - up from 36 percent last year - said they believe Iraq did have the forbidden arms when U.S. troops invaded in March 2003, an attack whose stated purpose was elimination of supposed WMD. Other polls also have found an enduring American faith in the WMD story. ‘I'm flabbergasted,’ said Michael Massing, a media critic whose writings dissected the largely unquestioning U.S. news reporting on the Bush administration's shaky WMD claims in 2002-03. ‘This finding just has to cause despair among those of us who hope for an informed public able to draw reasonable conclusions based on evidence,’ Massing said.” (ABC 13; 08Aug06; Associated Press)
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=nation_world&id=4442391

US Defends Indian Non-Proliferation Record Despite Sanctions

“The State Department Monday defended the Indian government's record in combating weapons proliferation despite the imposition of U.S. sanctions last week against two Indian firms for dealings with Iran. The two companies were cited for violating a U.S. law aimed at curbing sales that could help Iran develop weapons of mass destruction. Officials here stress that the U.S. penalties were levied against Indian private companies, not the government, and that the United States considers India a responsible actor in anti-proliferation efforts despite the sanctions. The State Department announced Friday that two Indian chemical producers were among seven companies from four countries sanctioned for violating the Iran Nonproliferation Act, a U.S. law enacted six years ago aimed at curbing Iran's ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Critics of the Bush administration's controversial nuclear cooperation accord with India pounced on the sanctions announcement as evidence that India's non-proliferation record is less than ideal. However State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said sanctions against private firms operating in a given country do not necessarily reflect badly on a government's non-proliferation record, which he said in the case of India is good."Look at the announcement. As I understand it, there are 33 companies that are currently sanctioned under the Iran Nonproliferation Act," noted McCormack. "They're from a variety of different countries. But we believe the Indian government itself is a responsible actor, a very responsible actor, on the front of non-proliferation."” (Voice of America; 08Aug06; David Gollust) http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-08-07-voa80.cfm