CBR Weapons and WMD Terrorism News-September 8, 2008

Alarm as Indonesia thumbs nose at West over bird flu
“With nearly half the world's human bird flu deaths, concern is building over Indonesia's refusal to share virus samples and its health minister's increasingly strident denunciations of global ‘conspiracies’. Indonesia stopped sharing the samples with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in December 2006 on fears pharmaceutical companies would use them to make vaccines that are too expensive for poor countries. […] [Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah] Supari told a rapturous crowd at a book discussion last week that rich nations were creating ‘new viruses’ and sending them to developing nations in order create markets for drug companies to sell vaccines. […] Indonesia announced in August that 112 people have died from the virus, out of more than 240 worldwide since late 2003. Only a handful of samples and genetic sequences have been shared with the WHO and researchers.The health ministry also earlier this year stopped publicly announcing bird flu deaths, only releasing information information weeks or months after victims have died.” (Agence France Presse; 07Sep08) http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5juk4ocyCNwFV0nHM60p0QXcbVTfw

Former bioweapons workers reunite at Fort Detrick
“Every two or three years since 1992, the personnel of Fort Detrick's old [offensive] biological warfare program have held a reunion, meeting on the post itself since 1994. Saturday, more than 100 gathered in the Community Activities Center, for what some said may be the last time. […] The United States' offensive biological weapons program ended in November 1969, when President Richard M. Nixon signed an executive order outlawing such research. Saturday, interns from Fort Detrick's public affairs office made their way through the room circulating a stack of old pictures, recently discovered in the basement of the post's headquarters building, asking people in the room to provide details […]” (Frederick News Post; 07Sep08) http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1473660

FBI: Anthrax suspect Ivins obsessed with Kappa [a Sorority at Princeton]
“Though investigators have named Bruce Ivins the sole actor in the 2001 anthrax attacks and declared the case solved on Aug. 6, Ivins’ lawyer emphasized that there is no evidence proving Ivins’ alleged obsession with the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority led him to Princeton, where anthrax-laced letters were mailed from a Nassau Street mailbox. […] just feet from where the University’s Kappa chapter keeps its rush paraphernalia, initiation robes and other materials.” (Princetonian; 08Sep08; Matt Westmoreland) http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/09/08/21306/

U.S. lawmakers want details of anthrax investigation
“A month after the FBI declared that a U.S. Army scientist was the anthrax killer of 2001, leading members of Congress are demanding more information about the seven-year investigation, saying they do not think that the bureau has proved its case. In a letter sent Friday to Robert Mueller 3rd, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Democratic leaders of the House Judiciary Committee said that ‘important and lingering questions remain that are crucial for you to address, especially since there will never be a trial to examine the facts of the case.’ […] Justice Department officials, who said in early August that the investigation was likely to be closed formally within days or weeks, now say it is likely to remain open for three to six more months.” (International Herald Tribune; 07Sep08; Scott Shane & Eric Lichtblau) http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/07/america/anthrax.php

Kane County [Illinois] Health Dept. to ax 25 workers
“Citing across-the-board budget shortfalls and $300,000 in new costs, Executive Director Paul Kuehnert said the decision to cut nine full-time employees, 16 part-time employees and 13 vacant positions was the best way to fill funding holes. Kuehnert said he recommended the cuts to county board committees, and the board made the final decision. […] He said no health department programs will be eliminated altogether, but all will be scaled back, particularly family case management, a nutrition program for women and children, and public health preparedness -- which includes bioterrorism preparedness funding.” (Courier News; 06Sep08; David
Gialanella)
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/news/1148370,3_1_EL06_A1LAYOFFS_S1.article

Anthrax study [by San Diego State University] uncovers deadly link
“Researchers are the first to prove that anthrax bacteria has the ability to directly penetrate the blood-brain barrier, a barrier which normally functions to keep dangerous viruses and bacteria from entering the brain. ‘This discovery helps us explain why anthrax exposure is so deadly,’ said SDSU microbiologist and lead researcher Kelly Doran. ‘Toxins secreted by the bacterium interfere with our internal surveillance system, allowing the organism to escape the immune system, and in many cases enter the brain to cause meningitis.’” (SDSU Universe; 05Sep08; Gina Speciale)
http://www.sdsuniverse.info/sdsuniverse/news.aspx?s=164

Pakistan: US missions in Pakistan receive mysterious white powder
“The US Embassy in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and its consulate in Karachi have received two separate envelopes containing unknown white powder [during the] night between Thursday-Friday (4-5 Sept). Talking to The Nation, Louis Fintor, US embassy spokesman, confirmed that the American diplomatic outposts had received suspicious envelopes. Officials, however, declined to comment on the origin of envelopes or to whom they were addressed to.” (Nation, Pakistan; 08Sep08)
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/15986

WWI ship's log shows it dumped munitions off Surf City [North Carolina]
“In February 1919, the USS Elinor traveled the coast from Baltimore to New York, dumping leftover weapons as it moved toward its final destination of Brooklyn, N.Y. […] The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says that of the more than 1,100 munitions discovered on the beaches in Surf City following a beach-replenishment project, none was a chemical weapon. […] Richard Albright, author of ‘Cleanup of Chemical and Explosive Munitions,’ […] would not say the items pumped onto Surf City's beaches were from the USS Elinor, but said they either were dumped very close to the shore or washed in from another dump site. The borrow site from which sand was pumped onto the beaches is located 2 miles off the shores of Surf City. […] Albright said he thinks the Elinor could have been traveling right along the shore when dumping shells.’They were dumping 15 miles out in only 100 feet of water. Can some of those things wash in? Sure, when you get storm action, shells can work toward the surface. They were zigzagging up the coast,’ […]” (Press of Atlantic City; 07Sep08; Donna Weaver) http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/183/story/250713.html

General Georges Sada [Delivers speech in Bismark, North Dakota]
“He was one of Saddam Hussein's most trusted advisors in Iraq and Saturday, he was in Bismarck. He defied one of the most notorious dictators in the world and he lived to tell about it. […] Sada was favored by the former Iraqi dictator. The major general believes that […] [enabled him] to persuade the former Iraqi Prime Minister against attacking Israel with chemical weapons. […] Sada now serves as the Iraqi Institute for Peace's executive secretary and as a spokesman for Iraq's prime minister.”
(KXMBTV; 06Sep08)
http://www.kxmb.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=272695

Texas man [Jeffrey Don Detrixhe] pleads guilty, faces life
“A Panhandle man who authorities say tried to sell a 25-gallon drum of cyanide to an FBI informant has pleaded guilty in federal court […] Detrixhe was arrested in southeastern Oklahoma in May. FBI agents taped conversations with an informant in which Detrixhe allegedly offered to sell the cyanide for $10,000, a thermal imager and an assault rifle. […] An indictment accused him of possessing approximately 62 pounds of sodium cyanide, four rifles, two revolvers, a semiautomatic pistol and a shotgun.” (Houston Chronicle; 05Sep08; Source: AP) http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5986094.html

Fatah leader: new intifada more horrific
“‘The next intifada will not be one of stones, or even suicide bombers -- it will be one of missiles and possibly even chemical weapons,’ Fatah leader Hussam Khader said in an interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper several days after being released from an Israeli prison after six years for a leadership role in the second intifada. […] [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas said May 20 he would resign if current peace talks did not bring about an agreement in principal ‘within six months.’”
(United Press International; 07Sep08)
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/07/Fatah_leader_New_intifada_more_horrific/UPI-29531220815399/

Shura councils committee discusses draft law
“Members of the foreign affairs, defence and national security committee at the Shura council held a meeting here this morning which focused on a draft law banning the production, storage and use of chemical weapons. […] The draft law has been prepared by the wise government in light of the relating UN agreement which was approved by decree by law number 6 of 1997.” (Bahrain News Agency; 07Sep08)
http://english.bna.bh/?ID=72482

NMSU [New Mexico State University] does 'dirty bomb' exercise
“The Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center [CEMRC] on July
17 sponsored a Dirty Bomb Full Scale Exercise to ‘train the trainers’ and address first responder preparedness for such a scenario. […] CEMRC partnered on the exercise with NMSU's College of Engineering/Institute for Energy and the Environment. CEMRC and Modular Emergency Response Radiological Transportation Training conducted the three-day training that included classroom studies, a tour of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, and culminated in the release of a radiological dispersal device exercise. The core participants included the 6th Civil Support Team/Weapons of Mass Destruction consisting of the Texas National Guard, while members of New Mexico's 64th CST/WMD also participated.” (Silver City Sun News; 08Sep08; Source: New Mexico State University)
http://www.scsun-news.com/news/ci_10407191

Terrorists step up efforts to develop 'Dirty' Bomb
“Islamist terrorists have stepped up their efforts to develop a ‘dirty’ bomb for use against Western targets, senior security sources have told the Daily Telegraph. They are exploiting political chaos in Pakistan in an attempt to acquire nuclear material for a ‘spectacular’ attack. At least one plot has been uncovered involving Pakistan-based terrorists planning a dirty strike against a major European target. […] details have not been made public.” (Daily Telegraph; 08Sep08; Con Coughlin) http://www.nysun.com/foreign/terrorists-step-up-efforts-to-develop-dirty-bomb/85357/

Britain keeps Bulgarian umbrella killing file open
“Britain will continue to probe the 30-year-old ‘umbrella’ killing of Bulgarian dissident Georgy Markov despite Sofia's formal closure of the file on the infamous murder, Scotland Yard said. A British MP meanwhile urged Bulgaria where the investigation closes this week when its 30-year statue of limitations expires -to make an exception and keep open the case. […] A team of British police travelled to Bulgaria in May this year to pursue the investigation, and a Scotland Yard spokeswoman said the probe would continue regardless of the statute of limitations.” (Brisbane Times; 08Sep08; Source: AFP) http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/world/britain-keeps-bulgarian-umbrella-killing-file-open/2008/09/08/1220725865328.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.