Threat of biological weapons

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=4&id=181348&usrsess=1

Threat of biological weapons

SD SINGH JAMWAL

Since 11 September, 2001, Al-Qaida has risen as the chief terrorist organisation in the international arena. Never before in history has the world seen a terrorist group displaying the same level of universal reach, cadre motivation, training, financial power, insensitivity towards human life and contempt towards democracy and freedom of the world. Though investigations have shown the involvement of Al- Qaida in terrorist activities all over the world - attack on the US military housing complex in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 American soldiers on 25 June, 1996, attack on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on 7 August 1998, resulting in the death of 220 people and attack on US warship USS Cole in Yemen on 12 October, 2000 which killed 17 American sailors - the attacks of 9/11 in the United States can be termed as the epitome of awe and terror in living human history. Given the fact that the geopolitical situation in various parts of the world, mostly in the Persian gulf and West Asia, is still tense and the “war on terror” is still going on without much hope of ending in the foreseeable future, the threat of Al- Qaida resorting to another round of attacks cannot be ruled out. Given the history of Al-Qaida, this time the attacks might even include use of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Though strategic and terrorism experts think Al-Qaida might use an “improvised nuclear device” or a dirty bomb on some strategically important target or even target civilian areas, the chances of Al-Qaida using a biological weapon for its sinister designs is far more because of various reasons. Firstly, making, concealing and using a biological weapon is far easier than a nuclear device. Technology required for a bio-weapon programme is closely related to that required for the production of various antibiotics, vaccines, foods, and beverages, etc. The delivery systems such as spray devices from an aeroplane, boat or car are commonly available. The natural lead-time provided by the organism’s incubation period would allow for the terrorists to escape before any investigation starts. In addition, the use of an endemic infectious agent may cause confusion because of the inability to differentiate a biological warfare attack from a natural epidemic. And on the top of it, revelations that Al-Qaida was pursuing a well-defined bio-weapon programme should come as an eye-opener for the international community, including our own country. Way back in 1998, Osama bin Laden spoke of acquiring weapons of mass destruction a “religious duty”. During operations in Afghanistan, coalition forces came across at least six sites where suspected Al-Qaida activities in chemical and biological weapons were in progress. Traces of ricin and anthrax were found in these sites. In 2001, CNN obtained a cache of 64 Al-Qaida videotapes containing gruesome evidence of experiments using an apparent nerve gas against dogs. In a document, “Encyclopedia of Jihad” circulated by Al- Qaida among its cadres, which deals with training terrorists in various aspects of military training and tactics, the eleventh volume is entirely devoted to chemical and biological weapons. In December 2001, 11 books and 21 professional journals were found at an Al-Qaida site near Kandhar which contained information that could be used to produce biological weapons. More importantly, documentary evidence showed that Al-Qaida BW initiative included recruitment of individuals with PhD level expertise on the subject which showed the seriousness with which this programme was planned to be carried out. Most of the literature recovered was about deadly microorganisms like bacillus anthracis, clostridium botulinum, yersinia pestis and Hepatitis A and C. There were handwritten letters on the subject and letterhead of one of the letter read, “Society for applied Microbiology”, which is the UK’s oldest microbiological society. This document showed that the author had access to this institute. There were also letters accompanying hand written notes suggesting the layout of a laboratory and the equipment required in it, and “programme requirements”, including the time needed to train the manpower working for the programme. The author was later identified as a Pakistani microbiologist, who was writing to Dr Al-Zawahari, an Egyptian and Osama bin Laden’s deputy. The individual was being supplied funds by Al-Qaida to procure biological material, equipment, personnel protection kits and vaccines, etc. There was evidence of his visiting a bio-safety level 3 (BL-3) facility in the UK and attending various European conferences dealing with pathogens, including one on anthrax. However, all identifications about the author and his activities have been kept classified by the US authorities. The report of the September 11, 2001 Commission includes the name of another Al-Qaida operative. The well-organised and expanded Al-Qaida network of highly educated and trained cadres is yet again evident from Yazid Sufaat, a Malaysian and member of Jemiyah Islamiah, a terrorist group active in Malaysia. Interrogation of Sufaat, who was arrested in Malaysia in December 2001, yielded important information about the bio-weapons programme of Al-Qaida, which was further, corroborated by the interrogation of two more Al-Qaida terrorists. The first one was Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani national who was arrested on 1 March, 2003 in Rawalpindi from the house of a fugitive Pakistani bacteriologist, Dr Abdul Quddis Khan. Search of his house yielded handwritten and computer hard drives which showed Al-Qaida had completed plans and obtained materials required to manufacture two biological toxins - botulinum and salmonella. Mohammed also told his interrogators that Sufaat had taken lead in developing biological weapons for Al-Qaida until he was arrested by the Malaysian authorities. Sufaat had obtained a bachelors degree in biological sciences, with a “clinical laboratory concentration” from California State University in Sacramento in 1987. He then served as a laboratory technician in the Malaysian military before starting a company to test blood and urine of foreign workers and state employees for drug use. His company and another one owned by his wife was also suspected in money laundering operations as also purchase of ammonium nitrate for producing explosives on behalf of terrorist groups affiliated to Al-Qaida, which are active in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. More information about the activities of Yazid Sufaat came from the interrogation of Hambali (Raduan Isamuddin), the Indonesian operative of the Al-Qaida affiliated organisation, Jemiyah Islamiah, who was responsible for the Bali bombing attack in August 2003. After his capture, Hambali revealed that he along with Sufaat was working on opening an Al- Qaida bio-weapons branch plant and that Sufaat was “working on the Al-Qaida anthrax programme” in Kandhar, Afghanistan. After the US attack on Afghanistan, the duo had planned to move the programme to Indonesia. Most of the equipment for the programme was purchased by the “Wafa Humanitarian Organisation”, whose US assets were frozen after it was banned due to its support to terrorism. The equipment was purchased from companies in United Arab Emirates and sent to Afghanistan. Investigations in United States also revealed a serious security lapse on the part of authorities when they found that the US Department of Defence had been selling surplus equipment that could be used to produce BW pathogens and some of the equipment purchased by the middlemen in United States was resold to unknown buyers in other countries like the Philippines, Malayasia, Egypt, Dubai and United Arab Emirates. There is every possibility that a part of this equipment might have found its way to the Al-Qaida BW programme. Evidence also showed Al-Qaida acquiring some equipment from countries of eastern Europe and the Ukraine. On 19 April, 1999, Ahmad Salamah Mabrouk, a top terrorist from Islamic Jehad, a radical group of Egypt with close links with Al-Qaida, admitted before his sentence hearing in an Egyptian court that Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri had access to chemical and biological weapons. Interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, operations chief of Al-Qaida, in March 2003 and subsequent evidences seized showed surprising technical sophistication, with production timetables and manufacturing specifications for bio-chemical agents, especially weaponised anthrax. Meanwhile, attempts by Al-Qaeda to seek familiarity with biological weapon agents and their attempted use have come from many parts of the world. In 2002, police in Italy foiled a plot by nine Moroccans to poison the water supply of the US Embassy in Rome. The men involved had ties with Al-Qaida. In January 2003, a reported plot by six Algerians to use ricin against civilians was uncovered in a London apartment. One of the six arrested had attended Al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and the others had received training in Chechenya and the Pankisi Gorge region of Georgia. Though there is no evidence of the presence of Al-Qaida in India, there are confirmed reports of linkages between Al- Qaida and certain terrorist groups operating in this country, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir. The Lashkar-e-Taiyaba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) are two such main terrorist groups. Apart from various terrorist acts against security forces and civilians, especially minorities in Jammu and Kashmir, LeT is suspected to be involved in the attack on the Indian Institute of Science campus in Bangalore on 28 December, 2005 in which one top scientist was killed, serial explosions in New Delhi on 29 October, 2005 which resulted in the killing of at least 62 persons, the Varanasi attack on 7 March, 2006 in which 21 civilians died, the attempted attack on the RSS headquarters at Nagpur; and the 7/11 serial bombings in Mumbai in which at least 200 people were killed. JeM has been responsible for various terrorist activities, mostly fidayeen attacks on security forces and the minority Hindu population in Jammu and Kashmir. Its most sensational activity outside Jammu and Kashmir was the attack on Parliament on 13 December, 2001. Though it would be too alarming to say that India is under threat of a biological weapons attack from Al-Qaida or the terrorist groups with which it is linked, keeping in view the history of operations of these outfits, its possibility cannot be totally ruled out either. The best way to deal with the situation is to keep our intelligence, security and medical agencies alert so that appropriate action can be taken well in time. (The author is a J&K cadre IPS officer and is pursuing his PhD in Bio-terrorism. He can be reached at sdjamwal@yahoo.com)