Bio-Warfare and Terrorism
by Francis Boyle
Dissident Voice
January 5, 2003
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 develop 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@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