[A-List] France: secret smallpox stocks?

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

France accused of holding secret supplies of smallpox
By Steve Connor Science Editor
The Independent, 06 November 2002

France is among four nations suspected by US intelligence of possessing
secret stocks of the smallpox virus.

The CIA believes Iraq, North Korea and Russia also have illicit stocks,
while the al-Qa'ida terrorist group has tried unsuccessfully to obtain it,
according to The Washington Post, which quoted two officials who have
received classified briefings. Only Russia and the United States have
acknowledged supplies of the virus, held in laboratories at Novosibirsk and
Atlanta.

The biggest surprise is the presence of France on the list. Its programme is
reportedly "defensive" in nature, and possibly based at the Jean Merieux
laboratory in Lyons. US officials were said to be
concerned that the suspicions against France had become public while
Washington tries to strike a deal with Paris on a new UN resolution on Iraq.
The French defence ministry refused to comment on the claim.

The suspicions about Moscow stem primarily from the claims of a defector,
Ken Alibek, who worked on "black biology" at the former Soviet facility
Biopreparat. He said he supervised production of the virus in liquid form,
for delivery by intercontinental ballistic missile.

The evidence against Iraq ­ which if confirmed will add weight to arguments
in America calling for a strike against Saddam Hussein ­ is said to derive
from inspections by the Unscom weapons inspectors before they left the
country in December 1998.

When confronted with documentary evidence that Baghdad was experimenting
with smallpox, Iraq's leading bio-weapons specialist, Hazem Ali, allegedly
told the inspectors that he had examined developing camelpox ­ a far less
dangerous disease ­ on the basis that Iraqis spent enough time around camels
to be immune. That claim was described by one former inspector as
"laughable", according to the newspaper.

The evidence against North Korea was said to be of only "medium quality,"
the officials said. But both Russian and American intelligence have picked
up information that the regime in Pyongyang, which is known to pursue germ
warfare programmes, is working on the smallpox virus.

France, Britain and other countries with a history of research into
biological weapons agreed more than 30 years ago either to destroy or to
deposit their smallpox virus stocks with one of two official repositories
sanctioned by the World Health Organisation.

Under a binding international treaty, the countries acknowledged the danger
was so great that only these two secure laboratories ­ the US Centres for
Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Russian Vector Institute for
Virology in Novosibirsk, Siberia ­ should continue to hold the virus.

The latest claims have fuelled demands in the US for a new mass vaccination
pro-gamme against smallpox, which is deadly and highly contagious. After a
global vaccination campaign the disease was officially declared eradicated
in 1980. The last natural outbreak occurred in Somalia in 1977.

One expert said the timing of yesterday's leak might be related to
negotiations in Geneva next week on strengthening the Biological and Toxin
Weapons Convention.