[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Bio-Warfare and Terrorism [Francis Boyle]

[Margaret E. Kosal]

 From a local.  Includes a number of highly provocative assessments w/r/t 
the US Biological Warfare Agents program.

One error, which has been promulgated, relates to the origin of the Ames 
strain -- the strain of Bacillus anthracis used in the 2001 anthrax 
letters.  The strain was isolated in Texas (dead cow there).  It was 
shipped in a special container that the USDA supplies to veterinary 
laboratories to USAMERIID, Ft Detrick MD.  It was named by a scientist at 
USAMERIID. The container's return address was the USDA's National 
Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa.

Namaste,
Margaret

>  http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles/Boyle_Bio-Warfare.htm
>Bio-Warfare and Terrorism
>by Francis Boyle
>Dissident Voice
>January 5, 2002
>
>During the Fall of 2001, we witnessed anthrax attacks on the
>United States government that were obviously designed to shut down
>the government at a very critical time immediately after September
>11. It was during this time that Congress should have been in
>session, making decisions regarding oversight of the Executive
>Branch of government. This note will discuss some historical
>background for the law, policy and science of biological weapons
>here in the United States.
>
>Early US Bio-War Program
>
>The US has had, at least going back to World War II, an extremely
>aggressive offensive biological warfare program. In 1969,
>President Richard Nixon decided to discontinue this program (at
>least with regard to biological "agents," which are used as
>weapons, as opposed to "toxins," which were theoretically for
>researching methods of immunization and therapy). There were two
>reasons for discontinuing the weapons program: (1) it was
>counter-productive militarily, as biological weapons were very
>difficult to control, and (2) the US already had massive
>superiority in nuclear weapons. Biological weapons were seen as
>the "poor man's atom bomb" and Nixon wanted to get rid of them to
>prevent Third World nations from acquiring relatively inexpensive
>weapons of mass destruction.
>
>In accordance with President Nixon's order, the total destruction
>of antipersonnel biological agents and munitions was completed by
>May of 1972. [1]  It is believed, however, that the Central
>Intelligence Agency (CIA) continued to research biological weapons
>in spite of the President's order.
>
>The US signed on to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
>(BTWC) on 10 April 1972. [2] The BTWC entered into force on 26
>March 1975. This convention prohibits the research, development
>and testing of biological weapons, agents and compounds. The
>convention has an exception for prophylactic and defensive
>purposes. There remained, however, a Chemical and Biological
>Warfare unit lurking in the Pentagon, starved for funds and
>wanting to come back to life.
>
>The Reagan Administration
>
>The administration of President Ronald Reagan came to power in
>1980. The Reagan administration took the position that the US was
>going to exploit its superior technology with regard to all types
>of weapons. This also included the new technologies of gene
>splicing and genetic engineering. Massive amounts of money,
>hundreds of millions of dollars, were poured into researching and
>developing what were claimed to be "defensive" biological agents.
>
>The way the Reagan administration did this was by investigating
>every exotic disease one could imagine for the purpose of
>developing vaccines. In this way, the US operated within the
>exceptions of the BTWC. Of course, the technology used to get the
>vaccine is exactly the same technology used to create the agent.
>In fact, the agent is usually created first in order to then
>produce the vaccine. After one creates the agent, one creates the
>vaccine and then a delivery device. The result is a biological
>weapon.
>
>Much of the research for these biological weapons was being done
>at universities around the country. The tip-off in many of these
>government contracts is that they call for the development of an
>aerosol delivery device. This is important because most biological
>warfare agents are delivered through the air.
>
>Meanwhile, the Reagan administration was cutting back funding for
>the National Science Foundation (NSF). The effect was that second-
>and third-rate scientists, who were no longer able to receive
>research funds from the NSF, were forced to turn to the Pentagon
>for funding. [3]
>
>Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989
>
>On September 13, 1985, the Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG)
>had a Congressional Briefing on Capitol Hill. I was asked to
>participate in this briefing and to explain what the
>Administration was doing and how dangerous the situation was. The
>US government was funding scientists to research biological
>warfare technology and it was going out all over the country,
>indeed, around the world.
>
>I was then asked by the CRG to help draft legislation to deal with
>this problem, in particular the abuse of genetic engineering
>technology for biological warfare purposes. I worked in
>conjunction with the CRG scientists and the biotech industry. At
>that time, the biotech industry had no desire to get into
>developing biological warfare technology and the industry
>supported the proposed legislation. The result was the Biological
>Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989. [4]
>
>The Reagan administration fought the proposed legislation tooth
>and nail. They knew full well that the legislation was designed to
>stop what they were doing at the Pentagon. The Act makes it very
>clear that research, development or testing of biological warfare
>agents would be punished by life in prison.
>
>While this fight was going on, the Reagan administration
>authorized at least 40 shipments of weapon-specific biological
>agents to Iraq from the American Type Culture Collection, which is
>a large scientific institute. The Collection cultures every known
>type of disease for scientific purposes. It was clear that the
>Reagan administration was shipping all of these materials to Iraq
>knowing full well that Iraq was going to develop biological
>weapons and use them against Iran. [5]
>
>The Bush, Sr. Administration
>
>President George Bush, Sr. was elected in 1988. The question was
>whether we should continue to push for the legislation or abandon
>the project. The decision was made to go forward. To the credit of
>President Bush, Sr., the moment his administration came into
>power, all opposition to our legislation stopped. We were advised,
>however, that it would help on the Hill if we would repackage it
>as a piece of legislation designed to deal with biological weapons
>in the Third World, that there were crazies who were looking to de
>velop biological weapons and our legislation was designed to deal
>with them. We agreed. The legislation was not changed, just the
>way in which is was presented. The Act was passed unanimously by
>both Houses of Congress and signed into law by President Bush.
>
>Iraq
>
>In the Fall of 1990, the US went to war with Iraq after the Iraqi
>invasion of Kuwait. President Bush, Sr., and then-Secretary of
>Defense Richard Cheney ordered all US military personnel to take
>experimental vaccines for anthrax and botulin. As was later
>revealed, the Reagan administration had shipped these biological
>agents to Iraq, and Iraq had weaponized them.
>
>These experimental vaccines were given to over a half-million US
>soldiers. At least 50,000 of these soldiers later developed
>unexplained illnesses, generally referred to as "Gulf War
>Syndrome." I personally believe that this syndrome is the result
>of these vaccines. They were experimental medical vaccines in
>violation of the Nuremberg Code on medical experimentation. [6]
>
>The Clinton Administration
>
>In the last two years of the Clinton administration, the policy
>shifted back to the dual-use biological warfare work. Again,
>hundreds of millions of dollars were committed to research and
>develop every known exotic disease. The research was then turned
>over to the Pentagon, where it could be used to produce weapons.
>This is going on today.
>
>Finally, the New York Times broke the story that the US government
>was violating the BTWC. The US was developing a resistant strain
>of anthrax with genetic engineering. The US had also developed
>super weapons-grade anthrax in quantities and strengths that have
>no legitimate defensive purpose. It is very clear that the US was
>back in the business of researching and developing biological
>agents. This is a clear violation of both the international BTWC
>and the domestic Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act.
>
>The Bush, Jr. Administration
>
>That is why the Bush, Jr. administration repudiated the
>verification protocol for the BTWC. These negotiations had been
>underway for quite some time. The convention has no verification
>provisions.
>
>In Fall 2002, all of a sudden, Bush, Jr. repudiated the whole
>thing and tried to kill it. Why? Because it is clear we are
>involved in this type of work, whether the Pentagon, the CIA,
>their contractors, or all of them.
>
>Anthrax Attacks 2001
>
>Finally we have the recent anthrax attacks in the United States.
>It was not clear what was going on until the New York Times
>published the details of the technology behind the Daschle letter.
>The technology behind this and following letters was very
>sophisticated. These anthrax samples had a trillion spores per
>gram. That is super weapons-grade.
>
>There was also a special treatment to eliminate electrostatic
>charges so the spores would float in the air. One must have
>special equipment for this treatment. The only people who would
>have the capability to do this are individuals who are either
>currently employed by the Department of Defense or the CIA doing
>biological warfare work, or people who had been employed in that
>capacity. One would probably need access to one of the government'
>s biological warfare labs and there are only a handful of these
>labs in the country.
>
>The day I read the New York Times piece, I called a senior
>official in the FBI who handles terrorism and counter-terrorism.
>The FBI was coordinating its efforts with Fort Detrick, which is
>one of these few biological warfare labs. The obvious problem with
>this is that the person responsible for the anthrax attacks could
>very well be one of the personnel from Fort Detrick.
>
>Soon thereafter, the FBI authorized the destruction of the anthrax
>culture collection at Ames, Iowa. It had been determined that the
>anthrax used in the attacks was an Ames-produced strain. The
>entire supply was destroyed. This was obviously a cover-up. If you
>had access to that supply, then you could do a genetic
>reconstruction of where the anthrax used in the attacks
>originated.
>
>I believe that the FBI knows exactly who was behind these attacks
>and that they have concluded that the perpetrator was someone who
>was or is involved in illegal and criminal biological warfare
>research conducted by the US government (the Pentagon or the CIA)
>or by one of the government's civilian contractors. For that
>reason, the FBI is not going to apprehend and indict the
>perpetrator. To do so would directly implicate the government in
>conducting biological warfare research. So this is where we are
>today. The FBI says that they are working on it, but of course,
>that is ridiculous.
>
>Francis A. Boyle is Professor of Law at the University of
>Illinois. He is the author of Foundations of World Order (Duke
>University Press, 1999) and The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence
>(Clarity Press, 2002) Email: FBOYLE at LAW.UIUC.EDU
>
>NOTES
>
>1. http://www.gulfwarvets.com/biowar.htm
>2. http://projects.sipri.se/cbw/docs/bwbtwcmainpage.html
>3. The Council of Responsible Genetics responded to this by
>putting out a Pledge where the signers declared that they would
>not accept any money from the Pentagon for any reason.
>4. http://www.sunshineproject.org/publications/uscode.html. See
>also: Francis Boyle, The Future of International Law and American
>Foreign Policy, 277-316 (1989).
>5. Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, shortly after the Iranian Revolution
>of 1979, in an attempt to take advantage of Iran's instability and
>gain territory.
>6. http://www.raven1.net/nurm.htm