Biological Warfare

That the United States is discussing the use of fungi to eradicate marijuana, coca and opium poppy plants in Colombia (Aug. 30) looks like offensive biological warfare to me. The 1925 Geneva Protocol forbids biological methods of warfare, and in 1969 Richard Nixon issued a presidential declaration on ending the U.S. biological weapons program. National stocks of such weapons were supposedly destroyed by 1972. The U.S. and United Nations have severely criticized Iraq and Saddam Hussein for preparing biological weapons, including wheat smut rust, which makes grain unsuited for consumption.

Zimbabwe on Saturday accused the West of waging biological warfare and starting a cholera epidemic that has killed hundreds of people and sickened thousands. The state-run Herald newspaper quoted the information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, as blaming the cholera outbreak on "serious biological chemical war . . . a genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British."

Saddam Hussein's biological game-playing should fool no one. Following Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraqi leader agreed to let U.N. inspectors supervise the elimination of his country's germ and chemical weapons. Six years later, the inspectors are convinced that Iraq still is hiding germ-war leftovers, and maybe some new stocks. But while trying to find and destroy these arsenals, U.N. inspectors have been denied entry to Hussein's palaces.

washington -- The ability to detect a biological attack quickly or even a naturally occurring outbreak of influenza is years behind schedule because of a lack of leadership by the Homeland Security Department, according to a new audit. Although President Bush ordered the national surveillance program in 2004 to detect biological threats and ensure a rapid response, the program "is falling short of its objectives," wrote Homeland Security Inspector General Richard L. Skinner.

Havana revived biological warfare charges against the United States, alleging a U.S. government crop-dusting plane crossed Cuba in October and dumped insects that have caused crop disease on the island. The ruling Communist Party daily Granma devoted two of its eight pages to the allegations. It did not say why Cuba chose this moment to renew charges it initially made in early May, but Havana could be planning to raise the issue at next week's U.N.

Russia on Monday admitted violating an international germ warfare ban until last March but said it has now agreed to open its laboratories to U.S. inspectors on a reciprocal basis to reassure Washington that all violations have ceased.

A variation of germ warfare? The crime log of the San Clemente Sun Post News said that during a neighborhood dispute, one resident aimed a loudspeaker in the direction of another resident and started coughing into it. * Don't even think about calling room service for this: Hotel California's owners are working on a $200,000 deal to provide bull semen to 10 buyers over the next three years, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Killing Winds: The Menace of Biological Warfare by Jeanne McDermott (Arbor House: $18.95; 285 pages) America the Vulnerable: The Threat of Chemical and Biological Warfare by Joseph D. Douglass Jr. and Neil C. Livingstone (DC Heath: $19.95; 173 pages) Loss of innocence is the dilemma of 20th-Century science, and until now, physicists have known best that knowledge is a two-edged sword.

Western suspicions that Russia has continued to pursue a biological warfare program despite a 20-year-old promise to stop have now been confirmed by President Boris N. Yeltsin's government. Only last month the Defense Ministry in Moscow branded as "absolute lies" concerns expressed in Washington and London that secret germ weapons work was still under way, asserting that none had been carried out since 1975.

For the "boots," it is the single most dreaded event in 11 long weeks of mind-numbing, body-grinding dreaded events. "I can see the letters now: Dear Mommy, They tried to kill me today," chortled a drill instructor as his young troops, coughing and drooling, spilled out of the small, white cinder-block building called the "Gas Chamber." They've been hearing about it for weeks--the Marine Corps' attempt to prepare you for biological warfare.

Notice to Westsiders: Disregard the thwack-thwack-thwack of Black Hawk helicopter blades you might be hearing. The West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus is not, repeat not, under attack. The California National Guard is slated to launch a three-day training exercise today titled Operation Vector. Plans call for a Hollywood-style convergence of a simulated natural disaster and faux bio-terror attack designed to test how well Guard teams work with local emergency responders.

Mention that you're a biologist at a party, and half the people in the room will begin to yawn. The other half will be intrigued, and someone will say that they always wanted to be Jacques Cousteau. Go on to tell them that you study seabirds on tropical isles, and visions of paradise will dance in their heads. The mystique, if not the money, holds a strong allure. What I don't tell them about is the dark side of biology--the way things really work in the natural world.

Re "Battles change, wars don't," Opinion, Oct. 20 Victor Davis Hanson argues that the fundamental character of war has remained constant from the time of the ancient Greeks to the present "because the nature of humans who fight it is constant over the centuries." He acknowledges that technology has changed from flint arrows to guided missiles but then states that "the essence of war remains the same." He presents multiple examples of torture, executions, biological warfare, the slaughter of civilians and personal and political affronts to support his argument that, since human nature is constant, wars don't change.

Insurgent networks across Iraq are increasingly trying to acquire and use toxic nerve gases, blister agents and germ weapons against U.S. and coalition forces, according to a CIA report. Investigators said one group recruited scientists and sought to prepare poisons over seven months before it was dismantled in June. U.S.

A variation of germ warfare? The crime log of the San Clemente Sun Post News said that during a neighborhood dispute, one resident aimed a loudspeaker in the direction of another resident and started coughing into it. * Don't even think about calling room service for this: Hotel California's owners are working on a $200,000 deal to provide bull semen to 10 buyers over the next three years, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Researchers who have been investigating Japan's germ warfare experiments on Chinese civilians during World War II visited Los Angeles on Monday to urge the U.S. to release documents that they say would shed light on that chapter in history. Survivors of those experiments have endured six decades of suffering that continues today, said Ignatius Ding, a spokesman for the Alliance to Preserve the History of WWII. "It's real, it's ongoing," he said. Ding's group is hosting a tour of six U.S.

Allergan Inc. agreed to pay $824,000 to settle Commerce Department allegations that it improperly exported medicine made from a lethal toxin that can be used in biological warfare, the federal agency said Monday. The penalty is the largest since international controls on biological exports became law six years ago, the agency said.

An unusual anthrax epidemic that killed 68 people in the former Soviet Union began when the deadly spores escaped from a covert military microbiology facility, Russian and American researchers have concluded.

The nation's top spy agencies, under increasing criticism for their intelligence on Iraq, produced new details Wednesday intended to show that two suspicious tractor-trailers discovered in northern Iraq last month were almost certainly mobile weapons laboratories.

A top Iraqi scientist believed to have worked on that nation's biological weapons programs was detained in central Iraq on Monday, senior defense officials said. Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash was in U.S. custody, officials said, but they cited conflicting accounts as to whether she had surrendered or was captured. Ammash was No. 53 on the list of 55 most-wanted officials from Saddam Hussein's deposed government. Ammash was Iraq's leading microbial genetic engineer, according to U.S. officials.