CBR Weapons and WMD Terrorism News- September 18, 2006

Land beneath Tokyo site may hold gruesome secret

“The Toyama No. 5 apartment block is quiet at midday — laundry flapping from balconies, old people taking an after-lunch stroll. But the building and its nearby park may be sitting on a gruesome World War II secret. A wartime nurse has broken more than 60 years of silence to reveal her part in burying dozens, perhaps hundreds, of bodies there as American forces occupied the Japanese capital. The way experts see it, these were no ordinary casualties of war, but possible victims of Tokyo’s shadowy wartime experiments on live prisoners of war — an atrocity that has never been officially recognized by the Japanese government, but is well documented by historians and participants. ‘If the bones are actually there, they are likely related to Unit 731 itself, because the facility that used to stand in that part of the compound was closely linked to the unit,’ said Keiichi Tsuneishi, Kanagawa University history professor and expert of Japan’s wartime biological warfare.” (Worcester Telegram; 18Sep06; Mari Yamaguchi, AP)
http://www.telegram.com
/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=
/20060918/NEWS/609180390/1052

Bid to Stockpile Bioterror Drugs Stymied by Setbacks

“The last of the anthrax-laced letters [envelopes containing Bacillus anthracis spores] was still making its way through the mail in late 2001 when top Bush administration officials reached an obvious conclusion: the nation desperately needed to expand its medical stockpile to prepare for another biological attack. The result was Project BioShield, a $5.6 billion effort to exploit the country’s top medical and scientific brains and fill an emergency medical cabinet with new drugs and vaccines for a host of threats. …But the project, critics say, has largely failed to deliver. So far, only a small fraction of the anticipated remedies are available. Drug companies have waited months, if not years, for government agencies to decide which treatments they want and in what quantities. Unable to attract large pharmaceutical corporations to join the endeavor, the government is instead relying on small start-up companies that often have no proven track record. The troubles have been most acute with the highest priority of all: a $900 million push to add a new anthrax vaccine to the stockpile.” (The New York Times, 18Sep06, Eric Lipton)
http://www.nytimes.com
/2006/09/18/washington
/18anthrax.html?ex=1158
724800&en=6a0bfa292b205543&ei=5087%0A

Library holds key to lab mystery

“As Boston University found out, you can't just plop a 223,000 square foot, high-security biosafety laboratory into the middle of a crowded urban area and hope it doesn't make a sound. But amid all of the debate over the planned lab in the South End, what has been partly lost in the shuffle are the details of what would actually take place inside it. For those interested in the day-to-day operations, all that is needed is a Boston Public Library card. Boston University's complete application for government approval of the lab can be found behind the government desk of the Boston Public Library, which means that anyone with a free afternoon can thumb through its 428 pages. …[T]he most interesting details may be the descriptions of the research programs, safety mechanisms, and layout
of each of the 10 floors of the brick building that will house the laboratory.” (The Boston Globe, 17Sep06, Gary Dzen)
http://www.boston.com
/news/local/articles/2006
/09/17/library_holds_key_to_lab_mystery/

5 years after terror of anthrax, case grows colder

“Five years after anthrax killed five people and introduced America to high-tech bioterrorism, one of the biggest crime mysteries of our times remains unsolved. FBI agents and U.S. postal inspectors have pursued hundreds of leads and interviewed scores of scientists who work with the deadly anthrax bacteria, but the investigation now appears to be languishing.” (Houston Chronicle, 16Sep06, Eric Rosenberg)
http://www.chron.com
/disp/story.mpl/nation/4191256.html

GAO [Government Accountability Office]: DOD [Department of Defense] anthrax response inappropriate

“A new government report expresses concerns the Pentagon will not follow the government's response plan if there is a biological attack on its facilities. The Government Accountability Office issued a report Friday that examines the Defense Department's responses to a possible anthrax attack on a DOD mail facility in March 2005. …The report says the Pentagon did not notify or coordinate its actions with the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for leading the public health response to potential biological terrorist attacks.” (United Press International, 15Sep06)
http://www.upi.com
/SecurityTerrorism/vi
ew.php?StoryID=20060915-021614-7512r
The GAO report is available online at:
http://www.gao.gov/new
.items/d06757.pdf

Degrading munitions found in over 3,000 sites off N.S. [Nova Scotia]

“Unexploded munitions have accidentally detonated in Nova Scotia, and Terry Long, a United Nations expert on ordnance and munitions disposal, says it’s just a matter of time before it happens again. ‘We have munitions out there that are degrading,’ he said in a recent interview, noting the corrosive sea has compromised the metal casings of some of the naval shells, bombs and artillery that have been dumped in Nova Scotia’s waters since the First World War. Some of those bombs are known to contain wartime chemicals such as mustard gas, choking agents and blistering agents, and they have begun to leak. Canada and other nations commonly dumped unused weapons at sea or in harbours as they approached home base, but the practice stopped in 1975 after NATO studies presented in Helsinki in 1972 showed chemicals will likely leak, potentially harming marine life and human health.” (The ChronicleHerald.ca, 18Sep06, Tera Camus)
http://thechronicleherald
.ca/Front/528731.html

Witness in Saddam trial describes pain from gas attack

“A man testified Monday during Saddam Hussein's genocide trial that he temporarily lost his eyesight as the result of a chemical attack by Iraqi forces on his northern village nearly two decades ago. Witness Karawan Abdellah, a former Kurdish guerrilla, said he continues to live in ‘pain and suffering’ after the gas attack in March 1988, which followed Iraqi airstrikes on guerrilla positions in Shanakhesiya village.” (San Diego Union Tribune; 18Sep06; Sameer N. Yacoub)
http://www.signonsandiego.com
/news/world/iraq/20060918-
0653-saddamtrial.html

Japan authorities raid cult offices

“Japanese authorities raided the offices Saturday of the doomsday cult that carried out the deadly 1995 nerve gas attacks on Tokyo's subways. The goal was to pre-empt any violent reaction to Friday's Supreme Court decision upholding the death penalty against Shoko Asahara, the cult's founder and former leader. Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency dispatched 250 police officers to 25 of the group's facilities around the country, inspecting files, interviewing members and examining computers, an agency official said. Nothing out of the ordinary was detected, he said.” (San Jose Mercury News; 16Sep06; Hans Greimel, AP)
http://www.mercurynews.com
/mld/mercurynews/news/break
ing_news/15534933.htm

Asahara’s execution finalized

“The [Japanese] Supreme Court on Friday rejected a special appeal by lawyers for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, finalizing the death sentence for the man who masterminded the cult's horrific nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995. The top court's Third Petty Bench, led by Justice Yukio Horigome, affirmed that Asahara, who is nearly blind and incapable of communicating with his lawyers, is legally sane and can thus be held responsible for his actions.” (The Japan Times, 16Sep06, Jun Hongo and Yumi Wijers-Hasegawa)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp
/cgi-bin/nn20060916a1.html

Liberia: Defense Supports Treaty of Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

“The Minister of National Defense Brownie J. Samukai, Jr. has expressed his ministry's unwavering support and commitment for the treaty calling for the prohibition of chemical weapons on the face of the earth. Mr. Samukai spoke yesterday at the Defense Ministry when a two-man delegation from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) based in The Netherlands, V.B. Dhaule, Senior Implementation Officer, Implementation Support Branch and Lisa Tabbassi, Legal Officer, Office of the Legal Adviser, paid a courtesy call on him. To match words with deeds, the defense ministry boss used the occasion to call on the Liberian government to see the urgent need for the quick establishment of an inter-ministerial committee that will serve as a coordinating organ for the full compliance and implementation of provisions under the chemical weapon treaty.” (AllAfrica.com, 15Sep06, The Inquirer [Monrovia])
http://allafrica.com/stories
/200609150760.html

Agencies hold mock-terror drill at mall
“Federal, state, and local agencies this morning staged the largest anti-terror drill in New England since Sept. 11, 2001, simulating the response to a mock detonation of a radioactive ‘dirty bomb’ in the food court of the CambridgeSide Galleria. Hundreds of firefighters, military, paramedics, and police converged on the mall at dawn, creating a massive triage and decontamination center to treat people acting the roles of exposed and wounded in the exercise.” (The Boston Globe, 17Sep06, Mac Daniel)
http://www.boston.com
/news/local/massachusetts
/articles/2006/09/17/agencies
_hold_mock_terror_drill_at_
mall/?p1=MEWell_Pos5

The United Nations Purchases Anti-Nuclear Suits From Radiation Shield
Technologies

“Radiation Shield Technologies, Inc. (RST) announced today that it was awarded an international tender issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Under this tender, the IAEA has agreed to purchase Anti-Nuclear Full Body suits from the Miami, FL based Radiation Shield Technologies, Inc. The suits will be used by United Nations Development Program in Belarus under Project 9012 aimed at Strengthening the System of Emergency Preparedness and Response to Radiation Emergencies. …Current Nuclear Biological Chemical (NBC) suits offer no protection against ionizing radiation and with the eminent threat of a dirty bomb or other radiological dispersal device (RDD), agencies are beginning to look for ways to protect their first responders against nuclear radiation.” (Yahoo! Finance, 18Sep06)
http://biz.yahoo.com
/prnews/060918/clm040.html?.v=64

IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] warns of “dirty bomb” potential from Serbian nuclear site

“The International Atomic Energy Agency have branded the Institute of Nuclear Sciences in Serbia the world's most dangerous disused nuclear site, because it combined the threats of nuclear proliferation and environmental disaster. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have warned that a lightly guarded store of highly enriched uranium from the reactor in Vinca, which closed 22 years ago, is an easy target for terrorists seeking to build a ‘dirty’ bomb.” (Green Clippings, 18Sep06)
http://www.greenclippings.co.z
a/gc_main/article.php?story
=20060918122704408

Senate approves U.N. anti-corruption convention

“The U.S. Senate on Friday approved a United Nations convention to fight corruption and enhance international cooperation in investigations and prosecutions. The convention obliges parties to take measures to prevent corruption, criminalize bribery and other corruption-related offenses, and to adopt procedures to recover assets stolen by corrupt officials. The United States wants ‘to prevent bribes that might provide terrorists with access to nuclear material, chemical and biological weapons … or other dangerous items,’ [Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard] Lugar said in a statement.” (ABC News, 15Sep06, Reuters)
http://www.abcnews.go.com
/Politics/wireStory?id=2450605

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang’s Comment On Accusation by American Officials Against China of Non-Proliferation

“Recently, some American officials accused China of helping some countries develop the technology of ballistic missiles and possibly bio-chemical weapons in contravention of international conventions. They urged China to strengthen non-proliferation measures. What response does China have? China is a victim of bio-chemical weapons. We always firmly uphold the comprehensive prohibition and complete destruction of all mass destructive weapons including bio-chemical weapons and oppose the proliferation of bio-chemical weapons. Since joining the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons and Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, China has always been honoring all commitments of the conventions in a complete and strict manner. We have never engaged in any activity prohibited by the conventions.” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 18Sep06)
http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng
/xwfw/s2510/t272376.htm