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Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
source - "Francis Boyle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
STOP US BIOWARFARE AT LOS ALAMOS!
"Boyle theorizes that the people behind the recent anthrax attacks
were trained in the United States and probably funded by the
government, which embarked on a wide variety of biological weapons
research under both Clinton and Reagan."
Albuquerque Journal - November 11, 2001
LAB: BIO UNIT CRUCIAL LANL Hopes To Boost Anthrax Response by
Jennifer McKee
LOS ALAMOS--Jill Trewhella cannot hide her pride in the role her
team is playing in trying to solve the anthrax puzzle.
"Yes," said the head of Los Alamos National Laboratory's Biosciences
Division, "we're working on it." Los Alamos studied anthrax for
years before the disease made headlines. Now, the lab is playing
a part in tracking down the source of the bacteria that has killed
four Americans and sickened at least 13 others since September.
But Trewhella and the lab would like to do more. This spring, the
lab and its government overseer, the National Nuclear Security
Administration, announced plans to take LANL's anthrax work into
uncharted territory. The government proposes building a Biosafety
Level Three laboratory at Los Alamos where scientists would work
with live anthrax and other deadly, disease-causing bacteria.
The DOE has not decided on an exact site for the proposed lab and
has no firm completion dates or cost figures. But such plans signal
a big step for anthrax research both at Los Alamos and within the
National Nuclear Security Administration.
And a controversial one.
Trewhella said the new lab, a "BSL-3" in bio-researcher slang,
would allow LANL to develop faster responses to potential biological
attacks or to thwart such an attack.
Others, like the Federation of American Scientists and the Illinois
law professor who wrote the law banning biological weapons in
America, say the proposed lab suggests something darker. They wonder
whether it may be part of a larger government program of so-called
"dual use" biological research, studies that can be used to stop
a biological attack or launch one.
Prefab or permanent
Los Alamos' specific requests are rather modest. The lab proposes
to build a 3,000-square-foot, one-story building housing three
research labs. One would be BSL-3, and two labs would be similar
to those Los Alamos already has, labs that will not handle living,
disease-causing microbes.
The Energy Department released an environmental assessment on the
proposed lab late last month. The assessment spells out the three
options DOE is considering for the lab: a permanent building; a
prefabricated lab; or a small, temporary prefab lab while the
permanent building is under construction. The assessment starts
the clock running on a 21-day window of public comment. Even without
the facility, Los Alamos lab has racked up a considerable amount
of information on anthrax, the most infamous bug studied there.
The lab specializes in "Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism,"
a method of "fingerprinting" specific strains of anthrax.
Using a unique technique, the lab analyzes the germ's DNA to figure
out where the bug originated and whether more than one genetic
variety of anthrax was involved in an anthrax attack. It can also
tell if someone genetically changed the bacteria, and even if he
tried and failed, Trewhella said. Using this technique, lab scientists
have accumulated the world's largest library of anthrax genetic
information.
But the scientists have a major hurdle, Trewhella said: They can't
handle live, disease-causing anthrax. That means they must have
scientists somewhere with a BSL-3 lab extract anthrax DNA and ship
it to Los Alamos.
It also means that Los Alamos scientists have less control over
the quality and purity of what they study. Lab scientists once
ordered anthrax DNA and ended up with a sample contaminated with
a common skin microbe.
Plus, lab scientists' work is growing, thanks in large part to
anxiety about a possible biological attack on America and a 1996
law calling for the United States to understand the pathogens that
could be used as weapons against this country and make defensive
preparations.
The Energy Department responded by turning the national labs'
attention to chemical and biological threats. But the agency has
no BSL-3 lab and cannot handle the very bugs the agency is trying
to understand. The United States has hundreds of private and
university BSL-3 labs, including one in Albuquerque at the University
of New Mexico School of Medicine.
But getting access to them is increasingly difficult, according to
the DOE, and some do not have the security the agency would like.
The latest anthrax attacks by mail seem to justify the work Los
Alamos scientists have been doing, Trewhella said, and a BSL-3 lab
would only expand that research.
"Somebody needs to be working on this," she said.
What is research?
But Francis Boyle, a law professor at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, contends that Los Alamos lab is the last place
this kind of research should take place.
"It is a known United States weapons lab and the only conclusion
would be that this is being done for weapons purposes," he said.
Boyle wrote the law implementing the international Biological
Weapons Convention in the United States, a document that forbids
developing biological weapons but does not include any kind of
international verification. Boyle is also a member of the Committee
for Responsible Genetics, which last weekend condemned pending
genetics engineering of anthrax sponsored by the U.S. government.
The problem, he said, is that it is tough to define what is research
designed to fight biological weapons and what is research designed
to make them.
Susan Wright, a University of Michigan research scientist and member
of the Committee for Responsible Genetics, said the line is so
fuzzy, it doesn't exist. She criticized President Bush for leaving
international talks last summer aimed at finding a way to enforce
the law with international inspections of biological weapons
research.
Boyle points to new revelations, uncovered by The New York Times
early in September, which show that the United States has already
engaged in secret biological weapons research that, in his opinion,
violates the convention. Specifically, the Pentagon built a biological
weapons production plant at the DOE Nevada Test Site, using products
legally available on the open market between 1997 and 2000.
The CIA built and tested a prototype of a Soviet-built biological
bomb. The Pentagon now proposes genetically modifying Bacillus
anthracis, splicing it with a microbe that causes food poisoning,
producing a bacterium resistant to existing vaccines.
In each case, the agencies said they conducted research for defensive
purposes. In the case of genetically modified anthrax, U.S.
scientists would only be replicating research by Russian scientists,
who pioneered the experiments and published their findings.
Even if the research isn't aimed at offensive purposes, Boyle said,
simply training scientists to conduct such experiments makes for
a more uncertain world it is giving people a deadly know-how that
can be very difficult to control.
Boyle theorizes that the people behind the recent anthrax attacks
were trained in the United States and probably funded by the
government, which embarked on a wide variety of biological weapons
research under both Clinton and Reagan.
He sees the proposed Los Alamos lab as part of a much larger
biological weapons program, and if it opens at all, Boyle said the
facility should be subject to international inspectors.
"If anything needs to be done, the Pentagon and the DOE should be
out of it completely," Boyle said.
Copyright (c) 2001 Albuquerque Journal
Francis A. Boyle Law Building 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA 217-333-7954(voice) 217-244-1478(fax)
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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