BIOTERRORISM: THE NOBLE WARNING

By Michael Kraft

By Michael B. Kraft

The warning by Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble that the world is ill prepared for a biological terrorist attack reflects the growing effort to sound the alarm in the third world as well as developed countries. Mr. Noble, a former U.S. Treasury Under Secretary, made his remarks in a BBC interview given as part of the run-up to the first Interpol Conference on Preventing Bio-Terrorism, to be held in Lyon, France on March 1 and 2. Nearly 400 delegates are expected to attend, including police commissioners from a number of major cities.

The conference follows a series of earlier meetings of scientists, government officials and academic experts held in Geneva and Budapest and other cities during the past several years following September 11. Concerns have been heightened by reports that al-Qaida operatives have explored developing chemical and biological weapons and the discovery that suspected terrorists in Britain were trying to brew ricin and the still unsolved mailings of anthrax to the U.S. Capitol building and elsewhere in the U.S. after 9/11. Mr. Noble has been increasingly interested in the issue and has met with U.S. officials and members of Congress to urge them to pay more attention.

A theme of these meetings, as described in the Interpol Press release on the March 1 session is:

Bio-terrorism knows no geographic, national, economic or political boundaries. An incident in any one country is likely to cause immediate and profound worldwide impact.

The United States, with all its resources, still has long way to go to meet the threat, but a common attitude overseas is �It is not a problem for us.�

Former colleagues who discussed the issue at Organization of American States meetings have said some of their Latin American counterparts felt that since they did not have major pharmaceutical industries in their countries, they did not perceive a threat. I found a similar attitude when conducting a seminar on counterterrorism issues last October August for East African officials at the International Law Institute in Kampala. After a discussion of the possibility that their countries might be used as transit points or staging areas for major attacks, such as the truck bombings of the American embassies in Dar Es Salaam and Nairobi in 1998, some officials acknowledged the usefulness of strengthening laws and regulations governing the possession and transit of potential biological and chemical agents.

United Nations Security Council resolution 1540, passed in April, 2004, requires �all nations to �establish domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of such weapons (of mass destruction) and means of delivery, in particular for terrorist purposes, including by establishing appropriate controls over related materials, and adopt legislative measures in that respect.�

The member nations are reporting to the UN on their compliance but as with UNSCR 1373 to counterterrorism funding there is a long way to go. Until recently, the main focus has been on an education campaign to sensitize government officials to the issue.

However, a second phase is emerging: hands on assistance to other countries.

Some State Department Officials, led by the Office of the Science Advisor, have
prodded the U.S. Government to take a more proactive role in helping other nations strengthen their laws and capabilities to counter biological threats. Initially the issue fell between several stools. The Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism declined to take the lead. So, the Arms Control Bureau took up the effort and launched a program to help nearly a dozen countries strengthen their laws. So far, about a dozen countries. mainly former Soviet Republics but also several in Southeast Asia, have received or are about to receive drafting assistance. State Department and Justice Department lawyers, working with other agencies, drafted model legislation in this highly technical area, drawing from the existing U.S. laws, which were developed in consultation with the scientific experts.

There is a long way and many countries to go, however. Strengthening laws and regulations is only a first step. Many countries have a weak capability to detect WMD and enforce laws in this area, or indeed other law enforcement and counterterrorism matters. For this, much more long-range and institution building assistance will be needed.

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