Respected scientists on both sides of the Atlantic warned on Monday that the US is developing a new generation of weapons that undermine and possibly violate international treaties on biological and chemical warfare.
The scientists, specialists in bio-warfare and chemical weapons, say the Pentagon, with the help of the British military, is also working on "non-lethal" weapons similar to the narcotic gas used by Russian forces to end last week's siege in Moscow.
They also point to the paradox of the US developing such weapons at a time when it is proposing military action against Iraq on the grounds that President Saddam Hussein is breaking international treaties.
Malcolm Dando, professor of international security at the University of Bradford, and Mark Wheelis, a lecturer in microbiology at the University of California, say that the US is encouraging a breakdown in arms control by its research into biological cluster bombs, anthrax and non-lethal weapons for use against hostile crowds, and by the secrecy under which these programs are being conducted.
"There can be disagreement over whether what the United States is doing represents violations of treaties," Wheelis said. "But what is happening is at least so close to the borderline as to be destabilizing."
In a paper to be published soon in the scientific journal Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the two academics focus on recent US actions that have served to undermine the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). In a move that stunned the international community last July, the US blocked an attempt to give the convention some teeth with inspections, so that member countries could check if others were keeping the agreement.
Dando believes Washington's motive for torpedoing the deal, which had the support of its allies, was to maintain secrecy over US research work on biological weapons. He said that work includes: CIA efforts to copy a Soviet cluster bomb designed to disperse biological weapons; a project by the Pentagon to build a bio-weapons plant from commercially available materials to prove that terrorists could do the same thing; research by the Defense Intelligence Agency into the possibility of genetically engineering a new strain of antibiotic-resistant anthrax and a program to produce dried and weaponized anthrax spores -- officially for testing US bio-defenses, but far more spores were allegedly produced than necessary for such purposes and it is unclear whether they have been destroyed or simply stored.
In each case, the US argued the research work was being done for defensive purposes, but their legality under the BWC is questionable, the scientists argue.
For example, a clause in the biological weapons treaty forbids signatories from producing or developing "weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict."
Furthermore, signatories agreed to make annual declarations about their biodefense programs, but the US never mentioned any of those programs in its reports.
Instead, they emerged from leaks and press reporting.
The focus on Washington's biological and chemical weapons program comes at an awkward time for the Bush administration, which is locked in negotiations at the UN for a tough resolution on arms inspections of Iraq.
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