ChemBio Weapons and WMD Terrorism News- June 19, 2006
6/19/2006 2:22:33 P.M. Pacific Standard Time
FYI
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Subject: ChemBio Weapons and WMD Terrorism News- June 19, 2006
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CBR Weapons and WMD Terrorism News- June 19, 2006
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Mock disaster to hit July 28: Largest drill in Michigan history will use 12,000 people at 50 sites in nine counties 2. NUS [National University of Singapore] researchers develop nanofiber filter for bio-chemical defence 3. The Untold Story of al-Qaeda’s Plot to Attack the Subways 4. Chemical bomb found in the Kurdish town of Halabja 5. Antigua and Barbuda Establishes CWC [Chemical Weapons Convention] National Authority 6. To counter nuclear terrorism, UN urges phasing out civilian use of high enriched uranium 7. Flu tops state [Colorado] wish list for U.S. emergency aid: Some say request should have included risk of fires, floods 8. ‘Dream team’ coming to [Nevada] test site
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1. *Mock disaster to hit July 28: Largest drill in Michigan history will use 12,000 people at 50 sites in nine counties “More than 200 volunteers sweated though last year's multicounty disaster drill in Brighton, including a teenage ‘victim’ impaled by a popsicle stick during the mock biochemical explosion. Who knows what will be in store for the 12,000 people needed for the July 28 bioterrorism exercise in nine counties, including Jackson. Led by Emergency Manager Steve Rand, full-scale preparation starts the week of July 17, when officials start analyzing health data and doing tapletop exercises. That makes it the longest exercise in state history, Young notes. Most of the action is from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 28. That's when about 1,000 Jackson-area volunteers are needed to get triage services and vaccines and possibly take a trip through the decontamination tent at mobile medical sites at Northwest and Parnall elementary schools. Communication will be the real test of the drill. More than 300 agencies from across the region are involved, including police, hospitals, the American Red Cross, county Departments of Public Health and Michigan State University.” (The Jackson Citizen Patriot, 17Jun06, Susan J. Demas)
http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-17/115053874387080.xml&coll=3
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2. *NUS [National University of Singapore] researchers develop nanofiber filter for bio-chemical defence “Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a material that changes chemical agents into non-toxic ones. The material uses nanofibers._A nanofiber is about 100 times smaller than the breadth of a strand of hair. The S$200,000 project is funded by the Defence Science And Technology Agency. When there is a chemical attack, gas masks and protective suits come in handy when they use activated carbon in canisters to absorb the chemical gas such as sarin. However, these protective suits are also uncomfortable as they are non-porous. Made by electrospinning a starch-based compound, the nanofiber filter not only absorbs but also neutralises the chemical agents into non-toxic substances. This nanofiber filter also paves the way for a lighter and more comfortable protective gear.”_(Channel News Asia, 15Jun06, Hasnita A.
Majid)
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/213827/1/.html
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*The Untold Story of al-Qaeda’s Plot to Attack the Subways [Excerpt from The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 by Ron Suskind] “…One of the jihadists, Bassam Bokhowa, an educated fiftyish professional, with computer skills, had visited an apartment in Saudi Arabia. And there, a joint Saudi-U.S. counterterrorist unit, formed after the meeting with Bandar in his study, found a computer. The contents were dumped onto a separate hard drive, which was sent to the United States for imaging--a way to suck out digitalia, encrypted or not. That's where they found it:
plans for construction of a device called a mubtakkar. It is a fearful thing, and quite real. Precisely, the mubtakkar is a delivery system for a widely available combination of chemicals--sodium cyanide, which is used as rat poison and metal cleanser, and hydrogen, which is everywhere. The combination of the two creates hydrogen cyanide, a colorless, highly volatile liquid that is soluble and stable in water. It has a faint odor, like peach kernels or bitter almonds. When it is turned into gas and inhaled, it is lethal. For years, figuring out how to deliver this combination of chemicals as a gas has been something of a holy grail for terrorists. … [A] plot…was well under way in the United States. It was a hydrogen cyanide attack planned for the New York City subways. The cell members had traveled to New York City through North Africa in the fall of
2002 and had thoroughly cased the locations for the attacks. The device would be the mubtakkar. There would be several placed in subway cars and other strategic locations and activated remotely. This was well past conception and early planning. The group was operational. They were 45 days from zero hour.” (Time, 19Jun06, Ron Suskind) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1205478,00.html
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4. *Chemical bomb found in the Kurdish town of Halabja “A Kurdish Farmer in Seirawan area found a chemical bomb Saturday near Halabja in northern Iraq as he was reconstructing his house that had been torn down in the eighties by the former Iraqi regime, reported Awene the independent newspaper from southern Kurdistan. A source, that did not want to be recognized, said the bomb is the size of a propane tank which is 120 cm wide. According to the people who live in that area, the bomb was leftover from the eighties Anfal campaign. The Anfal Campaign was an anti-Kurdish campaign led by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein between
1986 and 1989 (during and just after the Iran-Iraq war).” (Kurdish Aspect,
19Jun06)
http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc619chemical.html
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5. *Antigua and Barbuda Establishes CWC [Chemical Weapons Convention] National Authority “In compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), Antigua and Barbuda has informed the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that the Attorney General’s Chambers has been designated as the CWC National Authority. Every State Party to the CWC must be capable of undertaking several tasks that are crucially important in eliminating all chemical weapons, preventing the manufacture of new chemical weapons, as well as deterring any attempted use of chemical weapons. These national implementation tasks are pursued and facilitated by the National Authorities. States Parties are obliged to declare and to eliminate all chemical weapons stockpiles and chemical weapons production facilities. States Parties submit declarations of relevant chemical weapons–related and industrial activities in order to verify compliance with the Convention. The National Authority is empowered to acquire this information and to inform the OPCW.” (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, 16Jun06) http://www.opcw.org/pressreleases/2006/PR34_2006.html
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6. *To counter nuclear terrorism, UN urges phasing out civilian use of high enriched uranium “Amid clear signs that terrorists are trying to acquire nuclear material through criminal networks, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency today called for urgent and more coherent global action to minimize the uses of and commerce in high enriched uranium (HEU), a main ingredient in nuclear weapons production. ‘Although much has been achieved so far, much vulnerability remains,’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei told the Conference on Minimization of Highly Enriched Uranium in the Civilian Nuclear Sector in Oslo, Norway.
The measures…recommended include stepped-up joint efforts towards eventually eliminating the civilian use of HEU by addressing the remaining technical hurdles involved in switching to the use of low enriched uranium (LEU). HEU involves uranium enriched to 90 per cent or more, and nearly 100 civilian facilities around the world operate with such weapons-grade material.” (UN News Centre, 19Jun06) http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=18912&Cr=IAEA&Cr1=
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7. *Flu tops state [Colorado] wish list for U.S. emergency aid: Some say request should have included risk of fires, floods “Last January, Colorado's top emergency planners gathered to decide what are the most likely disasters to befall the state. Their decision would become part of the state's annual application for millions of dollars in homeland security grants from the federal government. Looking at a list of
15 disasters on the federal form, Colorado planners figured the biggest threat would come from nature, not terrorists. Their choice of the most probable catastrophe: pandemic flu. Only after that came the danger from extremists. The planners decided the four most likely methods of attack would be explosives, bioterrorism aimed at livestock, toxic chemicals and disruption of computer systems. The state's chief medical officer, Dr. Ned Calonge, is spending $1.5 million in new federal money preparing for a pandemic flu. He believes it's appropriately higher on the list than terrorist attacks because pandemic flu in some degree is inevitable.
Colorado's list of most likely disasters determined what equipment and training it would seek from the federal government.” (Rocky Mountain News, 19Jun06, Ann Imse) http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/cda/article_print/0,1983,DRMN_15_4785102_ARTICLE-DETAIL-PRINT,00.html
8. *‘Dream team’ coming to [Nevada] test site “The Nevada Test site had seemingly lost its purpose as nuclear weaponry was wound back after the Cold War, but the War on Terror may be giving it a new lease on life. At least that's the plan that National Security Technologies LLC pitched to the National Nuclear Security Administration.
And after the agency thought about the question for a year, it decided last March that the test site should have a new operator. The winner, whose name has already been shortened to NSTec, is a consortium of companies that President and General Manager Stephen Younger thinks will add significant value to both the test site and Southern Nevada. The consortium will take over July 1 and is managed by Northrop Grumman and includes AECOM, CH2M Hill and Nuclear Fuel Services. …[T]he government was attracted by NSTec's plans to develop the site as the testing ground for homeland security. That will involve small nuclear explosions in both labs and in the underground testing chambers at the site. It also provides a training ground for public safety personnel to practice their antiterrorism skills. ‘Last week, there was a group of New York City police,’ he said, ‘who were put into buildings filled with smoke and had to find the radioactive sources.’ That kind of simulation is important, Younger said, for responding to the proverbial suitcase bomb or a ‘dirty bomb’ that uses conventional explosives to spread nuclear material.” (Las Vegas Business Press, 19Jun06, Ian Mylchreest) http://www.lvbusinesspress.com/articles/2006/06/19/news/news02.txt