CBR Weapons and WMD Terrorism News- May 21, 2008

Universal Detection Technology Announces Financial Results and 5,000% Revenue Increase Due to Increasing Sales of Biological and Other CBRN Detection Products
“Universal Detection Technology, a developer of early-warning monitoring technologies to protect people from bioterrorism and other infectious health threats and provider of counter-terrorism consulting and training services, announced a more than 5,000% increase in revenues for the 3 months ended March 31, 2008 compared to the same period a year ago. The full financial results are available in the Company's publicly available quarterly report.” (Fox Business; 19May08)
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/energy/universal-detection-technology-announces-financial-results--revenue-increase/

NZ [New Zealand] device can reduce time lost to anthrax scares
“Emergency services which today evacuated offices and shops in Wellington, could have checked the risk of the ‘white powder’ scare in a few minutes, says a Christchurch technology company. ‘There is hand-held equipment available which can identify bacterial spores such as anthrax in only six to eight minutes,’ said [t]he chief executive of Veritide Ltd, Andrew Rudge. The Wellington headquarters of ACC [Accident Compensation Corporation], in Molesworth Street, and nearby shops and cafes were emptied after ACC staff opened mail containing a white powder.” (NZ Yahoo News; 21May08) http://nz.news.yahoo.com/080520/3/5j1l.html

SPACEHAB Product Earns Safety Act Designation from U.S. Department of Homeland Security
“SPACEHAB Inc. today announced its receipt of a formal Developmental Testing and Evaluation (DT&E) Designation from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the Company's new in house developed Miniature Mass Spectrometer (MMS) technology named ‘1st Detect.’ The designation was instituted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to encourage the development of 'promising anti-terrorism technologies' by providing legal liability protections under the Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act of 2002, or the SAFETY Act […]. Through its new subsidiary, SPACETECH, the Company has been developing the MMS, a trace chemical analyzer capable of detecting residues and vapors from explosives, chemical warfare agents, and toxic chemicals.” (Centre Daily Times; 20 May 08) http://www.centredaily.com/business/technology/story/606624.html

Lewisite find suspends work at Rocky Mountain [Colorado] Arsenal
“Workers installing groundwater monitoring wells at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal suspended work after air quality test detected low levels of lewisite, a chemical warfare agent. Arsenal officials said workers at the Lime Basins Project Monday were wearing protective gear when they detected the chemical that was produced at the site in 1943.” (9 News; 20May08; Sara Gandy) http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=92117

Advance Nanotech to Accelerate Delivery of Chemical Sensor Products
“Advance Nanotech, Inc., announced today that its Owlstone Nanotech Inc.
subsidiary, which in October 2007 was awarded a three year $3.7 million contract by the United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency, has received a modification accelerating its delivery of chemical sensor products. The Company anticipates booking revenues of $2.25 million from this contract in 2008, an increase in revenues of $1.4 million from the initial plan. The contract is meeting specific performance targets under the initial terms with the customer, and the proprietary Owlstone technology is meeting previously established benchmark objectives, indicating progress has been achieved.” (AZO Nanotechnology; 21May08)
http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=6448

Greenpeace says chemical factory risk to quake victims [China]
“A chemical factory still operating in the area of China devastated by last week's earthquake poses a huge risk to local people and the environment, Greenpeace said on Wednesday. Although impressed with the government's response to the crisis, the environmental pressure group said authorities must strengthen enforcement of a chemical production ban in the disaster zone. ‘We have discovered at least one ... chemical factory which is secretly operating,’ Greenpeace campaigner Yue Yihua said in a statement on the group's website (http://www.greenpeace.org).” (Reuters UK; 21May08; Simon Rabinovitch)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKPEK15300820080521

Jordan militants sentenced for plotting chemical attack [on U.S.Embassy in Jordan]
“Eight al-Qaida-linked militants were handed life sentences on Wednesday — three in absentia — for plotting a 2004 chemical attack on the U.S. Embassy and other sites in the kingdom. The men — alleged associates of slain al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — had been sentenced to death in a previous trial in 2006. But an appeals court overturned those sentences because the prosecutor was apparently one of the plot's targets.” (Yahoo News; 21May08; Jamal Halaby, Associated Press Writer)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080521/ap_on_re_mi_ea/jordan_terrorism_1

'Dirty bomb' warning to Olympics [China]
“The International Atomic Energy Agency says a group might try to release radioactivity at an Olympic venue, possibly using a ‘dirty bomb.’ However, the IAEA says there is no specific information suggesting an imminent attack on the Beijing games. The IAEA warning comes as it conducts a training exercise in China's capital.” (BBC News; 21May08; Angus Crawford) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7412254.stm

Nanotech makes radioactive sensors obsolete
“‘Green’ smoke-alarm ionizers using field-emission from nanotubes instead of radioactive isotopes could eliminate a source of dirty-bomb material, according to recipients of a U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract sponsored by the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency. Applied Nanotech Inc. (Austin, Texas) and Sionex Corp. (Bedford, Mass.) now have the funding from Homeland Security to produce a small, safe, high-performance sensor using electron field emission from carbon nanotube arrays instead [of] the ionizing alpha rays from radioactive isotopes.” (EE Times; 20May08; R. Colin Johnson)
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207801292

Michael Douglas visits DC in support of treaties and preventing the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons
“Actor and producer Michael Douglas visited with Senator Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) to discuss the Ploughshares Fund, the Nunn-Lugar Act, and the Law of the Sea. The Ploughshares Fund is an organization that awards grants ‘aimed at preventing the spread and use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and other weapons of war, and preventing conflicts that could lead to the use of weapons of mass destruction,’ according to their website. Douglas said he became interested in this topic in 1978 after doing the film ‘The China Syndrome.’ He said the Three Mile Island incident near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania occurred shortly after the movie came out.” (The Talk Radio News Service; 21May08) http://talkradionews.com/2008/05/michael-douglas-visits-dc-in-support-of-treaties-and-preventing-the-spread-of-nuclear-biological-and-chemical-weapons/

Is global terror threat falling?
“Two recent reports about the threat posed by terrorism present contrasting pictures. The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Correra asks whether terrorism is a real and growing danger, or whether it is in decline? […] A single major attack like 9/11 could transform the statistics. And even an attempt to use chemical or biological weapons that do not kill many could create waves of fear, far out of proportion to the statistical toll. But how likely is that? No-one really knows.” (BBC News; 21May08; Gordon Correr ] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7412036.stm

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.