Bush's bioterror defence plan could trigger arms race ($6 B for new germs)

[papau]

Bush's bioterror defence plan could trigger arms race ($6 B for new germs)


The Democrats.com website has a link to an article that discusses Bush's Insane 'Anti-bioterrorism' $6 billion per year Homeland Security Presidential Directive 10, which states the president's view that biological weapons "could cause catastrophic harm" and instructs government agencies to improve defences.

Makes one wonder who is the terrorist threat to American security - to Global Security.

Bush wants to violate the international ban on biological weapons (the international Biological Weapons Convention, which the US ratified in 1975) and touch off a global biological arms race by having a new Department of Homeland Security laboratory at Fort Detrick in Maryland with a 'research plan' that includes laboratory studies of genetically engineered germs and methods to disseminate them as an aerosol spray. Has US Major Media warned us of the constant danger that newly engineered pathogens could escape from the lab, say via a disgruntled worker?

I do love our National Media.

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/World2.asp?ArticleID=119679

Bush's bioterror defence plan could trigger arms race

By Scott Shane

Washington: As President George W. Bush issued a sweeping order to boost the nation's defences against bioterrorism, arms control advocates charged that research planned for a new Department of Homeland Security laboratory at Fort Detrick in Maryland would violate the international ban on biological weapons and could touch off a global biological arms race.

The research plan for the $200 million National Biodefence Analysis and Countermeasures Centre (NBACC) includes laboratory studies of genetically engineered germs and methods to disseminate them as an aerosol spray, according to a February presentation by Lt. Col. George Korch, centre's deputy director.

Such work previously has not been conducted at the army's biodefence research centre, partly to avoid any hint of treaty violations.

"If any other country presented this list of tasks, US intelligence would say it's an offensive programme," said Milton Leitenberg, a University of Maryland scholar who has studied biowarfare for more than 30 years. Such programmes are prohibited by the international Biological Weapons Convention, which the US ratified in 1975.

Leitenberg and other critics say there is always a chance newly engineered pathogens could escape from the lab, noting that China is currently trying to contain a SARS outbreak set off by an infected lab worker. They add there would be no way to ensure that a disgruntled worker might not use high-tech germs or techniques developed at the lab to launch an attack.<snip>