Anthrax research admitted in secret project
"http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=215096&thesection=news&thesubsection=world"
06.09.2001
WASHINGTON - The United States plans to produce chemical and biological agents, including a deadly new form of anthrax, as part of a "defensive" programme.
"The threat [of chemical and biological warfare] is real. It is growing, and it is the responsibility of the US military and this Administration to protect us against it," said Defence Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.
She said no agents had yet been produced in the "defensive" programme, which had been going on in secret for at least four years.
But she said there were plans to develop agents to cause such diseases as a new and virulent strain of anthrax within the restrictions of the Biological Weapons Convention.
That 1972 global treaty, signed by the US, forbids nations from developing or buying weapons that spread disease, but it allows work on vaccines and other protective measures.
Clarke and White House spokesman Ari Fleischer separately confirmed a New York Times report that the US had been engaged in secretive efforts to develop defences against chemical and biological agents.
Clarke said efforts to develop a new form of anthrax, similar to one that the US charges that Russia has already produced, were "put on hold" by the Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency this year to make sure the work did not violate the arms convention.
But she said the anthrax programme, part of the so-called Jefferson Project begun in 1997, would continue because it did not violate the treaty.
"We take the threat of the spread of biological and chemical warfare very, very seriously," Clarke said.
Clarke defended the previous secrecy of the project. She said the US did not want to provide information on possible defences to countries that might be developing chemical and biological agents with "hostile intent".
Fleischer said the US research fell within the limits of the treaty.
"The US has operated, for a period of time, a programme that was designed to protect our servicemen and women particularly from the hazards of chemical and biological warfare.
"It's purely defensive," Fleischer added when asked if the US was trying to develop a bomb with the research. "We are honouring the treaty."
Government officials, cited by the New York Times, said the secret research, which mimicked the steps a state or terrorist would take to create a biological arsenal, was aimed at better understanding the threat.
Clarke confirmed that the projects, started under former President Bill Clinton, had been embraced by the Bush Administration.
- REUTERS
===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 http://www.yaysoft.com
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger http://im.yahoo.com