CBR Weapons and WMD Terrorism News- March 12, 2008

Hawaii Hospitals to Take Part Today in Bioterrorism Drill
“Hospital workers on Hawai`i, Kaua`i, Lana`i, Maui, Moloka`i and O`ahu will participate today in the Department of Health's and Healthcare Association of Hawai`i's statewide emergency preparedness exercise structured around a mock bioterrorism attack. The exercise is designed to test, document and improve the state's ability to distribute medication to hospital workers in the event of an anthrax attack.” (The Honolulu Advertiser; 12Mar08; Advertiser Staff)
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080312/BREAKING01/80312015/1001/BREAKING01

Land and Sea Tests Verify Effectiveness of Boeing Biological Detection System
“The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and Boeing have demonstrated successfully that Scan Eagle unmanned air vehicles modified to look for biological warfare agents can effectively intercept, detect and fly through simulated biological plumes or clouds to collect airborne agents.” (PressMediaWire; 10Mar08) http://pressmediawire.com/article.cfm?articleID=18250

Judge Stays Fines in Reporter’s Case
“A former reporter for USA Today who had been ordered to pay fines starting at midnight Tuesday for refusing to name confidential sources for a story has been granted a stay, a court clerk said. The journalist, Toni Locy, was ordered last week by a federal judge, Reggie B. Walton, to pay a daily fine of $500, rising in steps to $5,000, for refusing to name the sources for an article she wrote about Steven J. Hatfill, a former Army bioweapons scientist named as a ‘person of interest’ in the 2001 anthrax attacks.” (New York Times; 12Mar08; Agence France-Presse) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/us/12reporter.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

Anthrax Scare at Citizens Bank Closing Flint [Michigan] headquarters
“The Citizens Republic Bancorp headquarters in downtown Flint is closed because an envelope containing a powdery white substance was found in the bank about 10 a.m. Police and the Genesee County Hazardous Materials team are on the scene now.” (Michigan Live; 12Mar08; Shannon Murphy; The Flint Journal)
http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/03/anthrax_scare_at_citizens_bank.html

Iraq Says to Sue Halabja Chemical Weapons Suppliers
“Iraq plans to take legal action against the suppliers of chemicals used in a poison gas attack on the town of Halabja in Iraq's Kurdish north, which killed 5,000 people in 1988, the government said on Wednesday.”
(Reuters; 12Mar08)
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL12870756

1971 Winter Soldier Hearings: Weapons Panel
“Iraq Veterans Against the War is holding a new round of ‘Winter Soldier’ hearings in Washington, DC, March 13-16. Selections from the original hearings, held in Detroit in 1971, are published here for interested readers.” (AlterNet; 12Mar08) http://www.alternet.org/asoldierspeaks/79141/

Cambodia Vigilant for Chemical, Nuclear Weapon Imports
“The Cambodian government has remained committed to preventing any chemical or nuclear weapons smuggled into the country, said English-Khmer language newspaper the Mekong Times on Wednesday. ‘The government still continues to prevent the import of chemical and nuclear weapons to keep peace and stability, while countries around the world are facing threats of terrorism,’ said Em Sam An, secretary of state at the Interior Ministry while addressing a National Awareness Workshop of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) here on Tuesday.” (China View; 12Mar08; Mekong Times) http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/12/content_7771177.htm

Toxic Chemicals Training Course Held in The Republic of Serbia
“The Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia, in cooperation with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), conducted a training course on how to conduct toxic entries from 3 to 23 February 2008 at the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence Training Centre (NBCD TC) in Kru_evac. The training course, which constitutes an important part of the training program for new inspectors, was attended by 28 newly recruited OPCW inspectors.” (OPCW; 06Mar08; Press Releases 2008) http://www.opcw.org/pressreleases/2008/PR06_2008.html

Tainted Letter in South Africa Sickens 5
“Five employees of South Africa's top prosecutor, who is pursuing corruption cases against senior government leaders and politicians, became ill after handling a letter sent anonymously to their boss, the office announced Monday. Tlali said that whatever substance was in the letter had yet to be identified by authorities, but that they had ruled out the possibility of ‘chemical warfare agents’ and ‘extremely hazardous substances.’” (Los Angeles Times; 11Mar08; Times Wire Services) http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-poison11mar11,1,3962342.story?track=rss

Inverse False Alarms
“The FBI’s national spokesman was already prepared to dismiss a connection to terrorism the day after ricin was found in a Las Vegas hotel room. Special Agent Richard Kolko told the press on Feb. 29 that the presence of ricin appeared unrelated to terrorism ‘based on the information gathered so far.’ He made this announcement before any details about the incident hit the press--and when they did, it made the announcement seem premature, to say the least.” (Weekly Standard; 12Mar08; Daveed Gartenstein-Ross & Kyle Dabruzzi) http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/864qecmw.asp

CNS ChemBio-WMD Terrorism News is prepared by the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in order to bring timely and focused information to researchers and policymakers interested in the fields of chemical, biological, and radiological weapons nonproliferation and WMD terrorism.