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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (7484)	10/25/2001 8:19:46 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

>>Strain used in US attacks may have been from Britain By Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent (Filed: 25/10/2001) THE anthrax used in the attacks in America is not a strain that Iraq or the former Soviet Union mass-produced for weapons, it emerged yesterday. It probably came from an American, British or South African stockpile. Since the attacks began in Florida and spread to Washington and New York, reports have suggested the strain and its physical form indicated it could have been produced only with the help of a government laboratory. But according to bio-weapons experts, the strain probably came from the British bio-defence establishment at Porton Down in Wiltshire or from an American laboratory. Analysis of the size of the particles has found that its physical form is not particularly sophisticated. The particles had been milled to a few thousandths of a millimetre, optimal for causing the inhalation form of anthrax. But according to a former deputy head of the Soviet bio-weapons programme and a report on a secret American project, terrorists could have milled particles of this size using readily available equipment. Last week, an FBI spokesman confirmed that the anthrax sent to Florida, NBC and Senator Tom Daschle were all the Ames strain, but there has been some confusion about what this means. Although an "Ames" strain was isolated by the US Department of Agriculture at Ames in Iowa in the 1930s, it is not the name used by scientists currently comparing the DNA of the anthrax from the attacks with a library of strains collected from all over the world. In this collection, Ames emerged in the mid-1980s from the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research, the British bio-defence establishment at Porton Down. Porton Down acquired it from the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases. It is the strain America used when it produced anthrax weapons. America ended its bio-weapon program in 1969 but America and its allies kept samples. To be identified as Ames, the anthrax used in the attacks must either be the American military strain or one that is very similar, New Scientist reports today. Scientists believe the terrorists chose Ames because it is particularly virulent and hard to trace. Ken Alibek, former deputy head of the Soviet bio-weapons programme, said: "If I were a terrorist I would certainly not use a strain known to be from my country." The Soviets did not mass-produce Ames and Iraq favoured the Vollum strain, isolated in 1930. Mr Alibek said the South African collection had hundreds of different strains. He dismissed claims that milling the powder this fine was too hard for mere terrorists, saying it could be done using readily available equipment. Project Bacchus, in which the US Department of Defence covertly produced a kilogram of bacteria similar to anthrax, discovered last year that bacteria particles could be milled to a few micrometres using machines available openly in America.<< portal.telegraph.co.uk