FW: [biodefense] FW: Bush's Biowarfare

December 19, 2006

Francis A. Boyle

Law Building

504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.

Champaign, IL 61820 USA

217-333-7954 (Voice)

217-244-1478 (Fax)

(personal comments only)

fyi

Importance: High

fab has sent you an article from the Middle East Times.

fab's comments:

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BUSH DEVELOPING ILLEGAL BIOTERROR WEAPONS FOR OFFENSIVE USE, BOOK SAYS

By Sherwood Ross

Middle East Times

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{bold} In violation of the US Code and international law, the Bush

administration is illegally developing offensive germ warfare

capabilities on an unprecedented scale. In fact, it is spending more on

such weapons (in inflation-adjusted dollars) than the $2 billion spent

on the " Manhattan Project " that made the atomic bomb in World War II.

{/bold}

So says Francis Boyle, the professor of international law who

drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 enacted by

Congress. He states the Pentagon " is now gearing up to fight and 'win'

biological warfare " pursuant to two Bush national strategy directives

adopted without " public knowledge and review " in 2002.

The Pentagon's Chemical and Biological Defense Program was revised

in 2003 to implement those directives, endorsing " first-use " strike of

chemical and biological weapons (CBW) in war, says Boyle, who teaches at

the University of Illinois, Champaign.

Terming the action " the proverbial smoking gun, " Boyle said the

mission of the controversial CBW program " has been altered to permit

development of offensive capability in chemical and biological weapons! "

The same directives, Boyle writes in his book {italic} Biowarfare

and Terrorism, {/italic} " unconstitutionally usurp and nullify the right

and the power of the United States Congress to declare war in gross and

blatant violation of Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United

States Constitution. "

For fiscal years 2001-04, the Federal government funded $14.5

billion " for ostensibly 'civilian' biowarfare-related work alone, " a

" truly staggering " sum, Boyle wrote. Another $5.6 billion was voted for

" the deceptively-named 'Project BioShield,' " under which Homeland

Security is stockpiling vaccines and drugs to fight anthrax, smallpox,

and other bioterror agents, Boyle wrote. Protection of the civilian

population is, he said, " one of the fundamental requirements for

effectively waging biowarfare. "

The {italic} Washington Post {/italic} reported December 12 both

houses of Congress this month passed legislation " considered by many to

be an effort to salvage the two-year-old Project BioShield, which has

been marked by delays and operational problems. " When President Bush

signs it, the law will allocate $1 billion more over three years for new

research " to pump more money into the private sector sooner. "

" The enormous amounts of money " purportedly dedicated to " civilian

defense " that is now " dramatically and increasingly " being spent, Boyle

writes, " betrays this administration's effort to be able to embark on

offensive campaigns using biowarfare. "

Boyle said Federal spending has co-opted and diverted the US biotech

industry to biowarfare, pouring huge sums into university and private

sector laboratories. According to Rutgers University molecular biologist

Ebright, over 300 scientific institutions and 12,000 individuals

today have access to pathogens suitable for biowarfare and terrorism. At

the same time, Ebright found, the number of grants by the National

Institute of Health to research infectious diseases with biowarfare

potential has shot up from 33 in the 1995 to 2000 period to 497.

Academic biowarfare participation involving the abuse of DNA genetic

engineering since the late 1980s has become " patently obvious, " Boyle

said. " American universities have a long history of willingly permitting

their research agendas, researchers, institutes, and laboratories to be

co-opted, corrupted, and perverted by the Pentagon and the CIA. "

He continued, " These despicable death-scientists were arming the

Pentagon with the component units necessary to produce a massive array

of DNA genetically engineered biological weapons. "

In a forward to Boyle's book, King, a professor of

molecular biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote " the

growing bioterror programs represent a significant emerging danger to

our own population " and " threatens international relations among

nations. " King said that while such programs " are always called

defensive, " in fact, " with biological weapons, defensive, and offensive

programs overlap almost completely. "

The US is " in breach " of the Biological Weapons Convention, the

Chemical Weapons Convention, and US domestic criminal law, Boyle writes.

In February 2003, for example, the US granted itself a patent on an

illegal long-range biological weapons grenade.

Boyle said other countries grasp the military implications of US

germ warfare actions and will respond in kind. " The world will soon

witness a de facto biological arms race among the major biotech states

under the guise of 'defense,' and despite the requirements of the

Biological Warfare Convention. "

" The massive proliferation of biowarfare technology, facilities, as

well as trained scientists and technicians all over the United States

courtesy of the neocon Bush Jr. administration will render a

catastrophic biowarfare or bioterrorist incident or accident a

statistical certainty, " Boyle warned.

{bold} {italic} Sherwood Ross is a Virginia-based freelance writer

on political and military issues {/italic} {/bold}

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This article was mailed from the Middle East Times

(http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?20061219-105215-2671r)

For more great articles, visit us at http://www.metimes.com

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January 3, 2007

So, some of the hoopla about bioterroirsm may be our own desire to make

bioloigcal weapons?

see on similar (?) lines the book " LAb 257:the Disturbing Story of the

Government's Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory "

by C. Carroll and abialable through Amazon.com

regards,

craig

" Boyle, Francis " <fboyle@...> wrote: