CBR Weapons and WMD Terrorism News- March 14, 2008

[David] Kelly ‘thought that there was 15% chance’ of WMDs’
“David Kelly thought there was a 15 per cent chance that Iraq had a continuing biological warfare programme, a fellow weapons inspector has told The Times. The British bio-weapons expert, whose death sparked the Hutton inquiry, made the remark to an Australian colleague in the immediate aftermath of the Iraq war during a visit to UN headquarters in May 2003. Peter Prosser disclosed the conversation after completing his service as a bio-weapons inspector when the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission on Iraq was wound up this month.” (The Times Online, 14Mar08, James Bone) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3549448.ece

For bioterror lab, a long road seen
“The director of the National Institutes of Health [NIH] offered yesterday the clearest sign so far that a controversial laboratory being built by Boston University won't open anytime soon. Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, the NIH chief, told a panel of scientists convened to review the project that he has no expectation they will rubber-stamp his agency's earlier finding that the lab does not pose a safety or environmental threat to the surrounding South End neighborhood. The centerpiece of the nearly $200 million project is a Biosafety Level-4 lab intended to allow scientists to work with the world's deadliest germs, including Ebola, plague, and anthrax.” (The Boston Globe, 14Mar08, Stephen Smith) http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/03/14/for_bioterror_lab_a_long_road_seen/

Lawrence Livermore Lab Faces Suit Over Safety
“A community organization filed a lawsuit against Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory [California] on Monday, asking them to review the safety of a pathogen research facility. Tri-Valley CAREs, a Livermore-based community organization, filed the suit and injunction against the lab and the U.S. Department of Energy, citing the facility's potential use of substances like anthrax, plague, and Q fever as dangerous to the surrounding areas.” (The Daily Californian, 13Mar08, Matthew Peters) http://www.dailycal.org/article/100895/lawrence_livermore_lab_faces_suit_over_safety

Pentagon Won't Put Report Online That Found No Links Between Hussein And Al-Qaeda
“The Pentagon has canceled the release of a study that found no evidence of collusion between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. The study, a review of more than 600,000 documents confiscated after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, was due to be released on Wednesday through the Joint Forces Command website but military officials decided not to make it available online because it was ‘too politically sensitive,’ according to ABC. Instead, the report will be sent by mail only after a formal request has been made. Iraq was part of the ‘axis of evil’ President George Bush warned about after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. President Bush also claimed Hussein was working with al-Qaeda and developing weapons of mass destruction including [spores that cause] anthrax.” (All Headline News, 12Mar08, Kris Alingod)
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010314428

CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] awards three contracts for NHIN development [Nationwide Health Information Network]
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded three contacts for health information exchanges to develop data-sharing operations, with an emphasis on delivering data to public health authorities. The contract awards, totaling $38 million, were made in conjunction with the program led by the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT to attain trial implementations of the Nationwide Health Information Network. Although CDC’s announcement said the awards were going to health information exchanges or regional health information organizations, the recipients are one profit-making company, one nonprofit and one medical school.”
(Government Health IT, 12Mar08, Nancy Ferris) http://www.govhealthit.com/online/news/350261-1.html

New Information in Ricin Investigation [of Roger Bergendorff in Las Vegas]
"According to search warrants, police looked through not only the room, but Bergendorff's car. Officers were looking for any trace of ricin or the components to make it to see if the toxin was transported. Nothing relating to ricin was found in the car, indicating it may have been made in the room at the motel." (Las Vegas Now, 13Mar08, Edward Lawrence)
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=8013512&nav=menu102_2

U.S. strategic Brass Eyes Deterring Terrorist WMD Attack
“At Strategic Command, intelligence and policy analysts are ‘constructing a deliberate plan to address the violent extremist organization threat,’ Air Force Col. Les Kodlick, the organization’s spokesman, said today. Determining how to most effectively deter WMD terrorism is an ‘ongoing’ process, he said.” (Global Security Newswire, 14Mar08) http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2008_3_14.html

Battle with militants takes bloody toll on Pakistan
“No one seems to think the Taliban can overthrow the Pakistani government. The 600,000-man army vastly outnumbers the insurgents. A new government is forming with the support of an electorate that last month firmly rejected religious extremism. And several experts both in Pakistan and Washington dismiss worries that these allies of al-Qaeda might get their hands on the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.” (Dallas Morning News, 13Mar08, Jim Landers) http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/031408dnintpakistan.39eaa4f.html

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.