Bioweapons: US out of step with 'civilised' society again

26 July 2001

Kia ora,

Below are two press releases re the US government's decision to leave the talks to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention: the first is from the GE Free NZ Coalition (reminder - the report of the Royal Commission on GE is due to be released tomorrow at 12 noon); the second from Matt Robson as Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control.
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26 July 2001

GE Free NZ Press release

US out of step with 'civilised' society again.

US refusal to agree on draft accord on biological weapons of mass destruction exposes its own commercial interests in patented pathogenic organisms.

The only country to reject the draft accord, the US, apparently did so for commercial reasons. US negotiator Donald A. Mahley said it put "national security and confidential business information at risk.''

This supports the trials the US is already carrying out with genetically modified organisms around the world, many of which can be described as bio-weapons.

A scientific report, commissioned by the US Army, was released in June, outlining a large range of military "opportunities" in biotech possibilities, including brain implants, real- time monitoring of gene expression and performance-enhancing drugs.Some items on the list raise ethical problems.

Michael Ladisch, a director and biotech research at Purdue University, wants the military to think seriously about biotech, hoping to equip the Pentagon with the expertise to determine which research projects are important.

Companies like Monsanto who produced chemical weapons such as Agent Orange, are now producing GE crops, which include terminator technology which may threaten world security. Other new technologies being developed will require certain chemical applications to initiate growth. These types of living patented products have spread uncontrollably over the past few years. The main U.S. concern, the draft accord did not protect commercially sensitive information.

Field trials of GM crops, plants with human genes inserted, and others engineered with an interleukin genes have been carried out.(1) Interleukin genes may spread by pollen to crop plants and weeds consumed by human beings, livestock as well as wild mammals. Insects feeding on plants producing GM pharmaceuticals are eaten by birds and mammals.

Interleukins may promote viral disease spread or viruses may pick up the interleukin gene from the GM crops, to become more lethal. In secret sites around the world they may first become apparent as new virulent diseases emerge.

``It does close the chapter on 6 years of negotiation,'' Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood said. ``Whether it closes the book or not we don't know.'' A retired UK government biological weapons expert feared the United States was making a big mistake.

Genetically modified fungi purported to control the supply of drugs have been trialled in Tashkent and new strains of pathogenic viruses and bacteria are regularly produced in the laboratory.

(1)ISIS Report - July 19, 2001.GM AIDS Virus More Deadly. The Institute of Science in Society
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26 July 2001

Media Statement

US biological weapons stand a serious setback

Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Matt Robson today described the United States' decision to walk away from talks to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention as troubling and a serious setback to the control and eradication of biological weapons.

"The ban on biological weapons needs strengthening. We need systems in place that give the international community more confidence that countries are not hiding biological weapons programmes, says Matt Robson.

"But to strengthen the ban globally requires collective action, and this latest move by the US to walk away from collective action over a significant disarmament issue is troubling.

"After over six years of talks, negotiation had focused on a single text presented by the chairman, Tibor Toth of Hungary, which provided a strong basis for a Protocol to establish a workable verification regime.

"We are dismayed at the US decision to step away from the negotiation, citing national security and commercial confidentiality as reasons for rejecting the verification regime.

"The US decision is undoubtedly a major set-back to the control and eradication of biological weapons.

"New Zealand will be talking with like-minded nations to see if a way forward can be found and to urge the US to remain engaged in the process."

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